Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/25/24

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk Roberto Luongo's Florida Panthers winning the Stanley Cup in seven games over the Edmonton Oilers, we get a Jake Guentzel update from Elliotte Friedman, plus the boys look ahead to a busy week for the Canucks with radio PxP man 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. The Panthers have won the Stanley Cup for the first time in franchise history. Yeah! Yeah, sucks. Sucks. It's a damn shame. A damn shame. Oh, that's a shame. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a shame. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. And we are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios, the beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Hey, dawg. Good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help you with anything you're looking for,

be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

See him wearing my Canucks hat? He's back, baby. Yeah, because all the standings are tied now. Everyone is at zero. Everyone's back to square one. Florida Panthers had their day yesterday. Yep, that's it. Draft is Friday.

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We got a big show ahead today on a Tuesday. Our guest list begins at 6.30. Greg Wyshynski, ESPN NHL Insider. I'm assuming that both our 6.3030. Greg Wyshynski, ESPN NHL Insider. I'm assuming that both our 6.30 guests, Greg Wyshynski, and our 7.30 guests, Luke Fox, will still be live on location in Florida. Big scenes last night.

The Florida Panthers are your 2024 Stanley Cup champions. We'll talk to Greg at 6.30 about that. Luke Fox from Sportsnet at 7.30 about that. Brendan Batchelor is going to join us at 8 o'clock. It's a big hockey show. Obviously, we're going to talk a lot about what might have been the best Stanley Cup final series in NHL history. There's a lot to get into.

There's a lot to unpack. So I'm not even going to run through the guest list again. I'll just tell you. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. They avoided

the collapse. They won Game 7. They hoisted the big silver trophy. And perhaps most importantly, they forever avoided the sad club. The Florida Panthers won their first Stanley Cup on Monday night, defeating the Edmonton Oilers 2-1 in Game 7. And again

is what I said, what might have been the best Stanley Cup final in NHL history. And a terrific game to end, said amazing Stanley Cup final. I know it didn't have a dramatic ending or anything. In fact, it ended with like a 10-second scrum in the corner. Yep. And it only had three goals, but that was a great game. Awesome game. You do not see games like that in the regular season, only in the playoffs, because you could

feel the intensity on the ice. You could feel that everyone knew that one mistake could change this thing. There's a reason the cliche of fighting for every inch of the ice exists, and it was games like that. In the end, the it was games like that in the end the panthers outgrinded the oilers yep they took a one goal lead into the third and did what they always do in that situation they suffocated their opponents they barred the door shut and they won

the game um and uh it took a lot of mental fortitude and physical fortitude to do it for the Florida Panthers after losing three straight to the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers hung in there. I thought they played well. I thought both teams played well. Yep.

There were chances for the Edmonton Oilers to tie that game. Connor McDavid had chances. Leon Dreisaitl. There were chances. Bouchard hit the post real hard at one point in the game. It was a very close game and ultimately the Florida Panthers won it.

And as a – well, I call myself a neutral, but I was cheering pretty hard for Florida. You know, as a guy who didn't have his team in it, there were times – I kid you not, there were times when I was like, oh, wait a minute, I just went a minute without breathing. That was the most glued I could be to a minute. I just went a minute without breathing. That was the most glued I could be to a game that doesn't involve the Vancouver Canucks. Honestly, that's about as close as it is. Unless it's international hockey.

Yeah, it's not the same, but it's close because that series delivered. Very rarely do finals deliver. I mean, look at the NBA finals this year. If you want to hold them up against one of the most recent example of another league that had a best of seven, it wasn't even close. The drama at the end, the storylines throughout,

the comeback that Edmonton, I'll give them credit, they deserve a ton, a ton of applause for pushing that thing to seven. For sure. Of course they do, yeah. But someone just texted in, congrats on winning the Schadenfreude Cup. applause for pushing that thing to set for sure a ton of course they do yeah but from uh is just someone just texted in congrats on winning the schadenfreude cup yeah like that was always the destiny i came in this morning and adog sat down and i was like well well well adog what do you gotta say for yourself now you doubted me just like you wrote i always doubt you doubted me i

know well people should doubt you you said i was flying too close to the sun you're doubtable it's true nothing ever comes the master of hot takes wonders why he's doubtable. So overall in these playoffs, just to throw this out there and we'll get back to last night's game. Sure. Overall in these playoffs, pretty good, right? Certainly better than the NBA's. The NBA's was a disaster.

And we had a Canucks playoff series win, which is huge for us considering the past few years. We had them going to game six, going to game seven against the Edmonton Oilers. Unfortunately, it didn't go their way in that game, but you had a very exciting Stanley Cup final. You had some terrific schadenfreude with the Oilers losing in game seven. And doesn't it seem like 100 years ago that the Leafs lost in seven to Boston? I couldn't even remember it. I was like, how did they lose?

Oh, yeah. Pasternak scored in overtime. I'm kind of like, yeah. I guess. My kid asked me a couple days ago. He's like, what happened to the Maple Leafs in the playoffs this year? And I was like, I don't remember. I think they lost to Columbus or something. I think they lost to Tampa. Did they don't think I think they lost to play in game play Tampa Bay again I was like no they lost it was a yeah one of the better game sevens in recent memory because of the way that

it ended and it's funny because this is the 30th anniversary of a very famous and iconic Sports Illustrated cover it was after the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup Final. I don't know how many of you youths out there know about this, but the olds will remember it. They put out a cover of Sports Illustrated that said, Why the NHL is hot and the NBA is not. Are they going to do that again now? I don't know. That's illustrative, isn't it?

Yeah. Do they even print magazines anymore? Kids, do you get magazines anymore? Maybe someone will do a TikTok. My point being, this was a banner year for the National Hockey League. There's a lot of metrics that I don't really need to go into about how television ratings went up by like 30% to 40% because they had a big footprint with ESPN and TNT this year. The gate revenue, like attendance was at like 97% or something like that. I think the important thing is that they had momentum from a playoff.

And I'm not trying to position the NHL against the NBA. But the reality is the seasons mirror each other. The playoffs mirror each other in terms of timing. And the NBA Finals always run up against. They had a great, great season. That was a tremendous playoff. It couldn't have ended any better. Because then, for locally, we had the Shattenford aspect.

The Edmonton Oilers got as agonizingly close as you could possibly get. Outside of that game going to overtime yesterday, that was as close as you can get to tasting the championship and winning the cup. Did you think they were going to tie it? Yes. You did? Yes.

Yes. Because the ice was so tilted in the third period. Although, when McDavid missed, it wasn't missed because Forsling had the good stick check on him, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Dreisaitl actually had that opportunity. When those didn't go, and I realized that Florida was so committed to blocking shots. McDavid had that fly-by tip.

Because I'm going to be honest. That I thought was going in for sure. I'm going to be honest with you here. Bobrovsky didn't actually make that many unreal saves last night like there were scrambles in and around the net where you're like oh what a save but then you'd see it on replay and it was either the puck got shot wide or like kulikov bent like a pretzel to get the puck don't you think it was just a it's just overall a well-played game um you know the the teams were working hard to score they were working even harder to uh block shots and you know someone someone made made fun

of me paul text in they suffocated the game it was a great game slash hashtag hype you what i mean by that is that you could tell how hard everyone was working out there and that's actually the type of game that i like because you can tell you can feel it through the tv how hard everyone was working out there and that's actually the type of game that i like because you can tell you can feel it through the tv how hard everyone was working and how desperate they were that play in front of the net where you had forsling going over to mcdavid and um what's the guy's name who blocked the shot or dry sidle shot he's got the long finish name. Luster Einan? Luster Einan, yeah. He made a terrific play on that, and you could see the desperation in the Florida

Panthers to bar the door shut, and you could see the desperation in the Edmonton Oilers to try and get one through. For me, that is one million times more compelling than a high-scoring regular season game where people aren't all that interested in

playing defense. Well, there's a point to be taken here is that both teams needed and had the energy to put forth that kind of effort in Game 7. Freed and Merrick were talking about this. They did a 32 thoughts overnight. I listened to it on the way in. And Freed said, look, there's a lot of people that were rightly complaining

about the way that this series was scheduled. It is June 25th. Yeah. Right? This is a long time to drag it out. But you probably don't get that kind of effort and intensity and energy without the extra day of rest in between Game 6 and Game 7. It was a good thing in the end that it went to June 25th

because they allowed the product on the ice to be better. I mean, I will, after we got off the air yesterday, we were talking about 2011 and the schedule between the Bruins and the Canucks, which also had a similar length of travel between the two cities.

And you could make the argument that that series suffered because there were too many, just one day breaks in between games. So we went into last night's game, and we were talking about it yesterday. We were asking, okay, who are you thinking about ahead of this series? Either this guy must be really excited or this guy must be really worried. And one of the guys we talked about, one of the first guys we talked about, was the head coach of the Florida Panthers in Paul Maurice.

And Paul Maurice has been a head coach in the NHL and spent a lot of time in the NHL. Over two decades, he's been to a couple Stanley Cup finals, and he had lost them both before his third trip with the Florida Panthers. And we were thinking, nobody wants to be the head coach of a team that blows a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup final. I don't know if Paul Maurice would have been back as head coach of the Florida Panthers. I mean, there's even talk right now that he might retire.

I don't know. I don't know if there's anything to that. It might just be people saying, wow, what a way that would be to go out. But here is a Paul Maurice interview, and Phoenix texts in, I thought Paul Maurice's post-game interview was incredible. So did I.

Here's Paul Maurice after winning the Stanley Cup. Okay, alongside Paul Maurice. Paul, you said you needed to win one, and you've got one now. So what's it feel like? It's just brilliant, right? I've never hugged so many sweaty men in my entire life. I'm not sure I'm going to do it again, but I'm going to do it tonight.

So, you know, it's not what I thought it would be. It's so much better. But it's the hugs, man. I saw Sam Bennett smile today. First time in two years. It's brilliant. You know, it's for my mom and dad in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. My brothers Mike and Shane

in Sault Ste. Marie and Waterloo. The whole Angloise clan in LaSalle, Ontario. All of the people that suffered through 30 years of me losing, making excuses. Mom and dad especially. Hey dad,

your name's going up with your heroes. Belival, Richard, Hal, Lindsay, Maurice. Last one for you. After your time in Winnipeg, you were prepared for a career in fishing, but I wonder if there is a better catch than Lord Stanley. Well, I was just lucky. You know what? It was...

So if I could have one thing more, it'd be for the Winnipeg Jets over the next day or later. Paul, congratulations. Thanks, Scott. So last night, Paul Maurice did a shout-out to Winnipeg. Yeah.

Matthew Kachuk had a shout-out for Calgary, andachuk had a shout out for Calgary, and he said, all my fans in Calgary, you didn't think I'd let the Edmonton Oilers win. Something along those lines. And then Roberto Luongo, a lot of people in Vancouver were excited to see hoist the Stanley Cup, had a shout out for all the people in Vancouver

that were offering him support. Truly Canada's team. Yeah. The Florida Panthers. Yeah, right. They did it for all of them. Truly, truly Canada's team. They did it for all of Canada.

Except for Edmondson. Adog, how did you feel watching Lou hoist the cup? Oh, it was awesome. It was like, first of all, I was kind of memeing on him a little bit at the start of the game because he was so... You were what? You were what? I was memeing on him.

What? What? I was... Okay. I'm him a little bit at the start of the game because he was so... You were what? You were what? Memeing on him. What? What? I was... Okay. I'm with it. I was kind of poking fun at the fact of how intense he looked when he was banging that drum at the start. I was like, man, Luongo is dialed in.

He is banging that drum to destroy it. He looks absolutely furious. He can't believe they're here. They should have won in four. This is insane. I can't believe they're here. They should have won in four. This is insane. I can't believe we're doing this again. He had so many mixed emotions, just beating the crap out of that drum. But it worked.

It worked. That level of intensity the team showed, and to see him lift it at the end was pretty special. I thought it was bad vibes that he was doing it. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. I was like, oh, is this going to be really bad? I don't know if you saw it, but he was jacked. He was jacked. Fired up.

He was fired up. And I'm like, there's a guy. Why did you think it was bad vibes? They love him there. No, no, no. I just thought that the energy was along the lines of like Zito throwing the water bottle and Maurice freaking out. Oh.

Yeah. Like a bit of a, we need to keep our composure. A little bit too much. No, but he rallied the man. That intensity brought them together. I've never seen anyone do the celebratory ceremonial pregame hype with the intensity that Roberto Luongo did it. It was awesome.

Alex Edler did not crank the horn with the same level of intensity. I thought Edler brought it, though, for Edler. For Edler. That's what I'm saying. Connor McDavid won the Consmite Trophy, and it's hard to argue, given his overall playoff stats and... Didn't come out for it, though. ...how he helped the Oilers back into the series.

I wouldn't have come out for it, either. I feel like you have. No, you don't. Jez Jager in 03. There's pictures. He looks devastated holding it. But he went out there and accepted the award. Also, McDavid's parents were like, did you see them?

They were filming the entire time. His dad was pumped when he heard the Conn Spike trophy. I think he was like, Conn's going to come out. Yeah. Conn's going to come out? Conn should come out. Conn's going to come out. We've seen that picture of Jaguar that's gone around forever.

McDavid maybe didn't want that picture of him. That's not his choice. I don't know if anyone saw his post-game stand-up. I thought he was going to cry. He was really, really close to crying, I thought. He was devastated. I think he was just spent. That too.

I don't have the third period ice time in front of me. He had to have played 19 of the 20 minutes he was out there the entire third period um is it worth noting no points in game seven came close a few times but ultimately got skunk no points in game six either right so that we got no one no one did talk about that after game six though because everyone was talking about the oilers winning and them getting support from up and down the lineup and he was incredible in games four and five eight points combined in games four and five but none in game seven and if you're looking for yeah you know we need to talk about here's the thing if last night you'd be like okay why did the panthers win and you might say like well skinner might have been able to stop that reinhardt shot right but i think i think that's

grasping at it too much and it's been a lot on skinner and it's putting well you know you watch that and you're like well it could have come up with that save but it was a nice shot by reinhardt could have given more than one goal of offense. But I think ultimately, you look at it, why did the Panthers win? They held Connor McDavid off the board. Well, and Leon Dreisaitl, too, right? Dreisaitl finishes the Stanley Cup Finals, the seven-game series, with no goals and three assists. It's seven games.

And when the Oilers scored 18 goals in games four five and six I mean that that's the story here's here's what we got to understand the cons my trophy goes to the most valuable player of the playoffs in their entirety it's not a finals MVP like what the NBA does but the finals is more weighted sure so in the finals in the finals, if you look at it, McDavid had an unbelievable series. The points were ridiculous, but it was done in mostly 3-4 and 5. The games 3-4 and 5.

For the consummate winner to go pointless in 6-7, I understand why there was some pushback on social media last night. I don't disagree with that. Conn Smythe winner to go pointless in six and seven. I understand why there was some pushback on social media last night. I don't disagree with that. I think if you were to ask me, who was the most valuable playoffs when it started way back? God, I remember now. April?

When did the playoffs start? Last year. Yeah, right? From the very beginning to the very end, McDavid was the best player in them. I think that's fair to say. Barkov probably had a shout. Bobrovsky probably had a shout but roski probably had a shout but mcdavid was the best that said it is hard to ignore that those two guys went pointless

in six and seven yeah like that's that's crazy to me right they needed that not so much in six but in seven how much do you think that's going to stick with him? Yeah, it's going to weigh on that team. And in the sense of coulda, shoulda, woulda, what would have happened, what if, if they had just gotten... And it wasn't like they were invisible out there. No, it just wouldn't go in. It just wouldn't go in, yeah.

Last night, it wouldn't go in. I mean, the Panthers did a remarkable job, remarkable job, of blocking shots and tying guys up in front of the net yeah right it was it was a clinic in that and it's something that they got back to after really losing their way as the series went 303 13233 you know i was again to steal from completely steal from frege and merrick they were they said the the biggest thing night is that felt more like a Panthers game than any of the previous three. Well, they got off to a good start. That helped.

That was the key. And I'm not talking about scoring early. I'm just talking about the overall first period. They got back to Panthers hockey. You know where I thought the real definitive moment was? Was when Kachuk got that weird tripping penalty. And my take on... That was a weird tripping penalty.

He's like, I fell. My take on that is he's done too many accidentally on purpose moves. Well, I think you can call it a penalty anyway. Sure. He tripped him. But he jumped up and he's like, I fell, I fell. Yeah, he did. And he legitimately did fall.

He caught an edge or something. I know. But I think the refs were looking at it. They're also like also like yeah but you made zero effort to get out of the way you're like oh i will use this to my event anyway that doesn't matter point is uh when they went to that kill and i think it was forsling that broke his stick and then stendland had to give him his stick oh my, my God. And it was the wrong hand, right? I think it was a lefty stick to a righty shooter. So at that point, you're five on, what, three and a half? Was it? I don't even know if it was.

No, it was. Yeah, I went back and looked and checked it all out. So Stenland's playing without a stick. Forsling's playing with a wrong-handed stick. So the Oilers have a five on, I would call it a three and a half players at that point in the second period. I'm always yelling at that player to just go get a new stick. Well, that's what I thought.

Yeah, yeah. But I guess he didn't have the opportunity because they didn't exit the zone. No, no, no, but just do it. Yeah, but when they killed that penalty, I was like, I think that this might be their night. Not for any other reason than, you're talking about the Edmonton power play has been so prolific, they've got them in a

super compromised position, and they couldn't put the puck in the net and I'm like that's a bad that was so exciting though yeah that power play yeah it was great one guy I'm like oh my god he's broken his stick I actually wonder what the coaches say about that I guess they say stay on the ice because you can at least block a shot push guys and they're not going to give you another penalty at that point so you can just grab a guy and rip him down to the ice. You can tackle him rugby style. You know, you can do whatever you want at that point. It was.

It was Stanlin righty stick to a left-hand shot. Who else are you happy for? There's Roberto Luongo, Paul Maurice. I've got to say, seeing the reaction of the Kachuk family to Matthew lifting the cup, like Brady just losing it for him, like fellow NHL player. Does he know he plays in the NHL? Yeah, he just felt like a kid again. He's on a rival team.

It was awesome to see, though. It was a really cool reaction. But that was the first cup for the Kachuk family. Yeah. Oh, it meant so much. You could tell. It was awesome. Yeah, that was genuine from Brady.

He was watching it like, I can't believe this is happening. Yeah, he's like, I can't wait to do this somewhere other than Ottawa. He's like, that's it. I'm asking out. He's crying tears of joy from escaping the Canadian capital. OEL, when he lifted the trophy or the cup, I was kind of like, yeah, good for him. I'm happy for him.

The Canucks, do they get a little half of a ring? They get nothing. Speaking of you, speaking of. They get an increasingly bigger cap charge in the next few years. I forgot that Jonah Gajewicz was on the team. Because he was out there. You got to twirl with the cup. Oh, really?

Yeah. I was like, oh, there's Gajewicz. I was like writing somebody a text. And then I guess he had, like he just had newborn. I can't remember if he had twins or a singular baby. But he had, it was like just had a baby. So he had the baby out on the ice afterwards and everything. I was happy for Akpozo.

Yep. He spent a long time in the league. The third guy to get the cup. Many years with the Sad Club, Buffalo Sabres, and the New York Islanders as well. He goes out there. He gets into the game. He got inserted into the game, taking out Cousins.

And I thought, yeah, I thought he looked good at times, and I was happy to see him lift the cup. You know whose story is really good and who I really like as a player? Evan Rodriguez. Yeah. He's a good player. Yeah, solid. He just, like, does the –

Laddie pointed out he's the first Evan to win the Stanley Cup. They tweeted that out. He's just like does, he does the. Laddie pointed out the NHL, he's the first Evan to win the Stanley Cup. They tweeted that out. The first Evan? First Evan. Yeah. But he was, so he was undrafted and a total late bloomer.

He ends up going to BU and he was teammates with Jack Eichel. And I guess he put up a lot of points playing with Jack Eichel. And then when he put up a lot of points playing with Jack Eichel. And then when I think the Sabres signed him. Yeah. To hang out with Eichel. Right.

The Sabres signed him. But there were a lot of people. It's funny. I was looking back on some things. Like a lot of people are like, ah, he's giving me a nothing. Right. He was a product of Jack Eichel. And I saw some comparisons made to, do you remember Dean Fox?

Yeah, yeah. Playing with Connor McDavid. Oh, he's just him. He's like, and I saw some comparisons made to him. Do you remember Dean Fox? Yeah, yeah. Playing with Connor McDavid. Oh, he's just him. He's like, and then watching him play, this guy is a really, really smart two-way player. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. No, I know. For a little while.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, there was talk. There was talk that the Canucks might go after Evan Rodriguez, but he went to the Panthers instead. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. We've got an update on Jake Gensel, courtesy the most recent 32 Thoughts podcast,

which was published after the Florida Panthers defeated the Oilers last night. So here are Elliot Friedman and Jeff Merrick discussing Jake Gensel. I had someone tell me there's a lot bubbling under the surface there. Okay. And that there are some really good teams that you wouldn't think could do it that are wondering, how can we do it? I'm trying to think of where I want to go so hang on a second

that's what i that's what i was doing too like like i wondered about kings you know they cleared up a little bit of cap room yep with camper um but you know carolina's still around there. I really don't know that Vancouver's going to pull this off. But what this guy said to me is, there are some teams out there that want to know if they can get Gensel because they want them. They're good teams, but it might mean they have to perform some surgery. Let me throw a name out at you okay who's always in and around it you're gonna say vegas bingo where we're heading i don't know

you know i i honestly i don't know the one thing someone said to me about vegas is you're right they're always around it but you have to figure an eichel extension because he's two years away so everything you do you have to do with the lens of that but you know i'm not saying no i'm not saying yes i'm starting to work on this a little bit but that's what someone said to me. There are good teams floating around him that are like, if we want to know, like they said, don't be surprised if a team you're not expecting tries to trade for his

rights to see what it's going to take. Oh, I can see that. Yes. And what surgery they have to do. This is what I keep coming back to. What's the timing on this going to be? Because there are so many hungry teams out there for the free agents.

And Jake Gensel is one of the top players out there. Might be the top player out there, considering we all, most of us expect Sam Reinhardt to re-sign with the Florida Panthers. So assuming he does that. Now, if he doesn't, then all bets are off. out there considering we all, most of us expect Sam Reinhart to resign with the Florida Panthers. So assuming he does that. Now, if he doesn't, then, you know, all bets are off. But if you're the Vancouver Canucks, the timing on this is tricky because you've got a lot of holes to fill. Meanwhile, you're probably telling a lot of your current free agents, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, just hold on, just be patient.

And those free agents are sitting there going like, my wife is asking me every day about this. I'm not feeling especially patient. This is, this is, nobody's feeling sorry for hockey players here, but these are the stresses that they endure, right? They've got families they've got to think about. If it's not Vancouver, where do you want to go? Where would you be interested in?

But right now they can't, I mean, they can ask their agents to do a little light tampering or, or, or, you know, I'm,

I'm sure there's gossip out there that they can latch onto in some way. But if the Canucks take this all the way to July 1st and then they get Gensel, well, then great, they've got Gensel and then they can fill out the roster after that. But they might have also lost some people in the meantime because those guys, as soon as July 1st hits, while the Canucks are signing Jake Gensel, they're like,

I had to take something else. Like, I had to. I wasn't going to sit around until everyone spent their cap space. And I realized that there is, you know, more stuff that goes on behind the scenes. So it's not everyone plays by the rules. So you kind of know the timing and Jim Rutherford, who is the president of hockey ops is going to be able to guide Patrick

Galvin very well. And Patrick Galvin has been around the league for a long time. He knows how this works. This isn't his first July 1st. It's not his first free agency, but I still keep wondering if this Jake Gensel thing is going to get solved before July 1st. And I would probably think it is.

Yeah. So I'm sort of out on Gensel, by the way. Yeah. Why? I think it's good. What? Why?

Yeah. Just on a personal level. Okay. I think it's going to... What? Why? Yeah. Just on a personal level. Explain. Okay. I think it's going to be stupidly expensive to get them. I think you're going to have to do a massive overpay on a guy that turns 30 in October. I also think that there's viable options out there. Like what?

Toffoli? Yeah. Marcus and Gibson. Hold on. Hold on. I'm going to read this text and then you can say, Marcus and Gibson. Hold on. I'm going to read this text and then you can say. Marcus and Gibson's text saying, I'm worried Vancouver pivots off of Gensel and goes the Toffoli route.

Toffoli is too similar to Brock and doesn't help team speed. That is one thing that I really want the Canucks to address in a major way. They need to become faster. Do you think you get that much faster with Jake Gensel? Well, yeah, he's fast. He's a pretty fast player. He's quick. He only would be good, though.

Here's my line of thinking. Especially with Pettersson. Here's my line of thinking. Toffoli's 32. Gensel's 29. He's going to be 30 in October. I don't see that much of a difference age-wise. Toffoli's obviously not as fast as Gensel.

And he's not as good as Gensel. How many goals has Gensel scored in the last two years? He went 36 and 30. Toffoli went 34 and 33. Yeah, their stats are close. They're not that big of a gap between the two of them. Toffoli scores goals. Yeah.

He is a more... Then you know he can play with better. He's not as good of a player. I will gladly concede that. But I also think that the gap in salary might be... It would be a very good consolation prize, and I honestly still wish they picked him up at the deadline.

I can't believe he went for so little. If you back up the Brinks truck, which I think they might have to do to get Gensel in the door, I think it's going to hamstring you on the cap. I also wonder what it says to a lot of the other guys. Like you're saying, the other free agents that are waiting and saying, wow, you guys really bent over backwards to appease Gensel,

as opposed to some of the other guys that played here or wanted to be here. I get it. I get it. Yeah. So I'm kind of out on the Gensel idea. Yeah, but you're always going to overpay on free agency. So, I mean, you got to expect that. Are you always going to overpay on free agency? I don't think you're always going to overpay on free agency. You've got to expect that. Are you always going to overpay?

I don't think you're always going to overpay on free agency. I think you can find bargains in free agency. I think you can find bargains in free agency. I think they did a great job in free agency last year. No, overpay for the big names, I mean. So don't go down that road. But here's the thing. They need more top-end talent. They do. And you're going to be overpaying

for those guys. I think something that's hard for people to wrap their head around is, and maybe it's misguided. Maybe it turns out to be misguided, but we're now treating the Vancouver Canucks like a team that could win the Stanley cup. That's not misguided. They're in their window. Now this is their window.

No. Yeah. And the time to overpay as annoying as it is because it sucks to overpay, is now. This is the current time to do that. Yeah, no, I agree because they're not, whether you think they're complete enough to be a true Stanley Cup champ, it's kind of not going to get better than this.

They've made their decision. They're kind of not going to get better than this. They've made their decision. They're kind of pot committed. They've given Miller his extension, and Miller's playing unbelievable hockey right now. They've given Petey his extension, whether that works out or not. They've got a few more years left of Quinn Hughes, and they've got a couple more years of Thatcher Demko.

The Hronik signing they they signed him long term they are committed to this core so for the next few years at least you can either do it okay well until Quinn Hughes's contract is up you are in go for it mode uh Party Marty writes in Halford has an issue with the age of Gensel, but guess who else they signed at the same age? JT Miller. I acknowledge that. But they didn't sign JT Miller in free agency. They re-signed JT Miller, having spent a

couple years in Vancouver. So you also had, I guess, proof of concept. He was here. He worked. They liked him. You've got certain guarantees. I think Gensel's a very good player. I think he would fit extremely well. I think he'd be awesome riding shotgun next to Pedersen. My concern would be,

given the bidding war that might go on, and how determined they might be to get their old buddy from Pittsburgh in the door. There's the elements of an overpayment. There's elements of a really big contract with a lot of term and a lot of money. That's my concern. I don't care what they do as long as they get faster.

Yeah, they need to, they need to get faster and they need to add a top tier guy to their top six. It's a challenge. It's a really challenging off season. But my whole point in this is I just wonder if we're going to find out about Jake Gensel one way or the other before July 1st. Because if you make that deal, you make –

Gensel becomes a piece of your core. Of course. Yeah. Of course. For me, and that's kind of where I'm at with it. For me, it's like, yeah, I get it. But your core guys are going to be... There's four of them. Core four, right?

We all know this. Pedersen, Hughes, Miller, Demko. Yeah. Everything else around that is pieces. Well, I guess Hronik is kind of the core now. Core five. Yeah. Okay.

With Gensel, core six. You can't have too much core. There's too much core. You can have six core. It's like a bad apple. There's too much core. So if you're wondering what the night of and the morning after a Stanley Cup championship looks like, you can actually follow along online.

There's a bar in Fort Lauderdale called The Elbow Room. It's quite popular locally. I think it's gotten continental recognition. I think everyone in North America has heard about it or knows about it now. It's the Roxy of Fort Lauderdale. There you go. They have not one webcam, but multiple webcams in the elbow room. There's one from the front.

There's a band cam. There's a bar cam. There's a beach cam. So if you want to check it out, apparently that where the stanley cup is right now i think i think i think we got a live update a little while ago it's making its way around the elbow room in the the surrounding beach so if you want to check that out that's where the stanley cup is because the florida panthers i love a good beach bar you know what flip-flop shorts yeah it's amazing sunburn we yeah a lot of sunburn it was it was pretty we were down there there's a bunch of like

just random beach bars. It was pretty great. I imagine that although they're probably feeling like hell right now, the euphoria of winning the Cup and being fueled by 7,000 Bud Lights is probably making them feel just fine right now. Let's go to the phone lines. Brandon Batchelor joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Batch.

How are you? Well, I'm not fueled by 7,000 Bud Lights, but I'm doing well. How are you guys? Not yet, though, because England's playing in June, so there's still time. There's still time. So, yeah, the Florida Panthers are your 2024 Stanley Cup champions.

Let's get your thoughts on the game, Batch, because this was one of the all-time Stanley Cup finals with a pretty impressive maybe all-time Game 7 as well. Yeah, I think my biggest takeaway is that I was really happy that the game was as good as it was because oftentimes we've seen in the past you have some of these great series or tremendous comebacks like what we saw the Oilers do to force Game 7

and then Game 7 can kind of be, you know, anticlimactic. And, you know, for the neutral in 2011, I'm sure that's what they thought. And for Canuck fans, obviously, it was disappointing because Vancouver didn't win. But that game did not have the feel of the game last night where, you know, the Bruins won 4-0. It was never really a doubt. There wasn't really a late third period push or anything like that whereas this game hung in the balance for the entirety right down until the final few seconds when the Panthers were able to tie the puck up in the corner and I think when you get to a Stanley Cup final game seven that's all you really want is you want it to be a good game.

You want it to be close. You want it to be compelling. You want there to be good chances late. You want one team to be pushing, one team to try and protect the lead. And, you know, overtime is always great as well. And we didn't get that last night, but I thought it was the best game,

the most entertaining game of the series and a fitting way to end what will be a very memorable Stanley Cup final. Batch, let's talk about the week that awaits for the Vancouver Canucks. They're expected to be major players at the draft in terms of, you know, drafting players because they don't have a first or second round pick. But they could be doing some business. And speaking of business, we got a right shot defenseman off the board dylan de mello has re-signed uh with the winnipeg jets he gets a four-year 19.6 million dollar extension that's a cap hit of 4.9 million dollars dylan de mello one of the names we threw out there is a potential

for the canucks when we were wondering you know would philip peronic resign and if he doesn't what are some of the backup options but dylan de mello stays with the winnipeg jets will remain on i imagine on pairing with josh morrissey um which brings us to the canucks batch what is the first order of business for the Canucks this week? Yeah, that's an interesting question because I think we're at the point now where, you know, they've got Hronik done.

But beyond that, in terms of roster players that they have wanted to resign or people have hoped they would resign, you know, you're getting to where the rubber meets the road now in terms of, like you don't get Dakota Joshua done here quickly he's going to be gone if you don't get Nikita Zdorov done here quickly he's going to be gone and that is the more likely reality at this point I think so you know I'll be interested to see if they do make any sort of bold moves or aggressive trades in and around the draft but you know my focus is more sort of shifting to free agency now and what they're going to do to replace these guys that are likely gone at this point with you know a week or under a week to go now until the market opens and

and that's going to be really what this management group is sort of judged on this offseason is how effectively can they replace what they'll be losing from some of their unrestricted free agents while also looking to upgrade in the top six. And whether that's Jake Gensel or Tyler Toffoli or whoever it ends up being, you know, it's it's it's less about this week. Me for me, for the Canucks and more about next week and about free agency and about what they're able to do there all of that said though they could you know surprise us with a big trade in five minutes and and that that's this time of the year especially when this is all so congested and condensed because of the uh the the lateness of the finish of the Stanley Cup final but next week is probably going to be the more eventful week for the Canucks as opposed to this week.

We had this conversation in the previous hour. I think I'm out on Gensel just as a personal effect. Like I'm not saying like I'm in any sort of decision-making capacity or if I was the general manager, but I just, I look at it and I am concerned about the bidding war. Uh, free Jim Merrick mentioned it on 32 thoughts that I think might ensue. Um, the fact that he's going to be 30 in October and if they do go after him as aggressively and

as expensively as it comes to be, like, he's not a peripheral, like part that you add on, he becomes a core guy. If you're going to have to sign go a seven year, you do a sign and trade for eight years with the amount of money. I look at it and I'm like, the Toffoli numbers, there's not that much of a difference between the two of them. I know Gensel's probably

a better player. He's faster. He brings more to the table, but I feel like there might be better facsimiles of Jake G genzel that will cost way less as opposed to getting the real thing yeah it'll be i mean i think the real thing is probably still the best option on the market but it's about how much that is going to cost you in a year where it's kind of going to be a spending spree, I think, right? Agreed. Think back to the Louis Erickson, Milan Lucci each year and how many bad contracts were given out that year.

It wouldn't surprise me if we look back on this summer with similar hindsight in a few years in terms of, you know, guys signing deals that didn't work out and, you know, end up getting bought out or traded and not having a lot of value for their teams. Now, make no mistake about it, I don't think Jake Gensel is one of those guys. I think he would bring a tremendous amount of value to whoever signs him, especially in the early years of any contract that he signs. And from that perspective, the Canucks are kind of in their window right now.

It does make sense for them to push their chips in. They already did it to a certain extent to get to game seven of the second round this past year with the number of assets they moved off of to bring in you know guys like Zdorov for example in season or Hronik previously so so I you know I guess it depends where that number ends up at and how high that number ends up being for a guy like Jake Gensel. In a season like this with the salary cap going up, with teams having increased flexibility after not having had it for close to five years, I guess you could say, this might not be the summer to be the team that wins one of those bidding wars.

I think that's a good point. Another bit of news coming in. Casey Middlestat, acquired by the Colorado Avalanche in a trade by the Buffalo Sabres, has re-signed with the Avs. He was a pending RFA. Re-signed to a three-year deal with a cap hit of $5.75 million. That's a good for right shot defenseman there's a premium for centers and the abs needed to fill that second line center role behind nathan mckinnon um which brings us to the canucks centers who do you think is going to be the 3C and the 4C next year in Vancouver?

Yeah, I mean, that's a fascinating question because Elias Lindholm is not being re-signed and Teddy Blucher is not being re-signed at this point, which I think is kind of surprising based on the fact that, you know, he gave them some tremendous depth and played at different spots in the lineup and I thought would have been a shoe in to be back and and be a part of things going forward and he may still yet be right like we've still got a week um and this may be a situation where um some of the other dominoes will fall once they

you know come to definitive conclusions on on players that play further up the lineup but you know, the answer to that question is open right now. There is no answer other than the fact that you would expect JT Miller and Elias Pettersson to play down the middle. And I guess Pugh Suter can be a bottom six centerman if they need to have him in that spot. And he performed well at times last season when he was used in that spot. But beyond that, I think they have a need for another centerman, ideally like a third line type centerman that profiles in that way.

And, you know, probably not the quality of someone like Elias Lindholm just because of, you know, the cost that it will take to bring in a guy like that. But someone that could anchor a third line that you hope can drive play to the extent that that third line did so effectively for the Canucks this past season because it was one of the biggest keys to their success, I think, beyond their top players having career years and producing well. The fact that that line was able to drive play and able to produce

is a large part of the success and right now two-thirds of that line are probably not coming back so it's going to be interesting to see how the management group deals with um with replacing those guys and finding an identity for a third line that can try to help them continue to win and and grow as a group do you think the canucks might add another puck mover to the back end? If they're keeping Hughes and Hronik together, a puck mover for let's call them the bottom four, or do you think they'll just be satisfied with trying to recreate what they had last season, which was big, tough dudes that once in a while,

if you have to go glass on out, that's fine. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. I think, you know, we're talking about the salary cap and about how contracts could be inflated this year and, you know, how right shot defensemen come at a premium. I think puck moving defensemen come at a premium, too. So, you know, would they like to add another puck mover to kind of spread that out throughout

their lineup on the back end? I think they probably would. But at the same time, we saw how valuable having those big, mean defensemen that can defend so well in zone against top players by using their length and their reach and their size and their physicality, you know, how much that benefited the Canucks when they got to the postseason. So I think in an ideal world, you have a guy that can be both of those things, like a big physical defenseman that could also move the puck up the ice. How realistic that is for the Canucks to find that guy in free agency, I guess, remains to be seen.

But, you know, I guess it'll sort of depend on where things go with the market, who's available at the dollar amount that makes sense for them. I think in all likelihood, the reality of their cap situation and where they want to allocate most of those resources, which will be to, you know, helping the top six and shoring up the forward group. I would expect that it's more likely that we see the physical type of defenseman or someone that profiles kind of like an Ian Cole brought in on the back end as opposed to someone that's a Hughes or Hronik light. But we'll wait and see. That's the great part of this time of year

is this time next week, the conversations that we'll be having could be completely different than what we're talking about now based on what they're able to do in the next seven days batch thanks for doing this enjoy all the footy today i will thank you have a good one brendan bachelor play-by-play voice of the vancouver canucks here on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 okay let's parse through these deals i think the de mello one is more interesting as it pertains to the vancouver

canucks because yeah he's a pending ufa he pending UFA, a right-handed defenseman, 31 years old, UFA, getting paid. Four years, four points. So he's basically a $5 million a year defenseman. And a guy who I remember when he broke in, he was a late, I think it was a sixth round pick. He bounced to a couple different organizations, making like around sort of like the 775K, 900K.

Then he landed in Winnipeg, found a good role as being Morrissey's running mate. And now he's getting paid like pretty handsomely at 31. Between that and the Chatfield deal in Carolina, Sat just threw this out there on Twitter. That one was eye-opening. Right. The market for capable D-men in free agency is going to be expensive.

That's what Sat just threw out there on Twitter. I would echo that and amplify it as much as I can on the radio. Zdorov is going to march himself into July 1. He's going to get paid, paid. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.