Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/30/26

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they discuss the Nils Hoglander trade, which lead into the Brendan Gallagher acquisition, with Canucks 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. I'm coming to Vancouver with the expectations that, you know, I have a job to do, and I plan on doing that. I think Hoggy's a heck of a person, heck of a player, and he's going to get a great opportunity there in Nashville. I'm singing about your whole game. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday.

Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halpert. It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in Beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah, good morning to you. Good morning. Ladi. Good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halperd. Havrid and Brubb of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Their clients often say, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of me. If dead is weighing you down, click sands dash trustee.com. For more. We are an hour one of program. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Banker's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle.

You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studios. Step Strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. If you want to text into the show today, the Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber. or online today. Let's begin with the Duick Morning Drive. It is our Duick guest list brought to by the Duick Auto Group.

It begins at 630 this morning. Greg Wischinski's going to join the program from ESPN. Happy Free Agency Eve, everybody. It's been a busy, busy lead up to July 1. We will run through all the big stories across the league with Wish at 630. 7 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor, Play-by-Play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. We'll join busy day yesterday for the Canucks, as you heard in the intro. Nils Hoaglander gone on his way to Nashville.

Brendan Gallagher in from Montreal. Lots of other Canucks stuff to go over as well with Batch at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Jason. Amar Domen's going to join the program, owner of the BC Lions. Yeah. O and three start. Just fired their special teams coordinator. Yeah, the special teams coordinator was the sacrificial lamb, it looks like.

Surely to shake up the crew. Lions are in a tough spot to start their season, right in the middle of touchdown, Colonna. So we'll get into that and a whole bunch more with BC Lions owner, Amar Domain. at 7.30. 8 o'clock Eric Engels, Habs reporter from Sportsnet. We'll look back on Brandon Gallagher's 14-year career in Montreal with a guy who is there to cover the majority of it. That's also been a relatively quiet offseason for the HABs thus far, but we can get into.

I'm actually curious to see what Habs fans are thinking right now about a team that made a pretty good run in the playoffs, but needs more on that team. What's the level of patience there with Kent Hughes? So we can ask Eric Engels about all that at 8 o'clock. So we got a lot to get into. We got a lot to get into. got a big show ahead without further ado. Laddie, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No, what happened?

I missed all the action because I'm... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by? ATS traffic. Start with a career path and traffic safety.

Receive competitive wages and training at one of Canada's best managed companies. Visit them online at ATSTRAffic.com. Let's begin with the Vancouver Canucks pair of trades yesterday. As I understand it, one of them happened right as we were going off air yesterday. And then another consummated shortly after we ended the show. Yeah. Hoglender was traded near the end of the show. And then the Gallagher acquisition was announced right after we'd wrapped up.

It is obviously not a coincidence that the deals were done in that order. A forward and his salary out. A forward and his salary in. before we talk about Brenda Gallagher, because I do want to talk about him, this budget-conscious approach by the Canucks might take some getting used to. For years, the Canucks operated right up against the salary cap

because they were trying to make the playoffs. And also a lot of teams were up against the cap during the flat cap era, but the Canucks predated that. That's no longer the case. and with playoff revenue almost guaranteed to be absent over the next few seasons, the team is very clearly going to be operating on a budget. And I know there was a lot of discussion about this on social media yesterday. But I think the Canucks are more likely to grapple with the salary floor

than the ceiling over the next couple of seasons. Now, some people will say that's fine and only natural in a rebuild. Others will argue that it will only make the rebuild harder. Those people can argue all they want and I'm sure they will, probably on Drenz's show. But that is not going to change the reality that the Canucks are going to be on a budget. the Canucks are not going to be free spending, sometimes to their own detriment, sure, like they used to do.

If anyone has any thoughts on that, text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Do you fall in the camp of, well, it's only a natural, it's a rebuild, or do you fall into the camp of, this is a problem, this is going to make the rebuild even harder if you're not going to go out there and try and like, essentially buy futures, by, you know, I mean, the easiest way to do is like,

you give a guy, a contract in free agency with basically the expectation that you're going to sell them at the deadline. Yeah, right? Yeah, yeah. Or whatever, you take on a bad contract, not that so many teams are up against the cap, but they still don't want to have bad contracts. You take that contract on for a sweetener, right?

Like those are those opportunities are still going to be there. And I also think, I also think that it's only going to take like a year or two for some of these teams to be right up against the cap again. Sure. Like we're just like, oh yeah, we spent all the space. Any thoughts on that? You've seen these deals that have been going down. Eventually someone's going to go over the top and they're going to have a deal that's going to make it way too onerous and they're going to be up against the cap. A really funny text came through when you were explaining that from Leaf with a really simple question.

Are we poor now? So no. relatively speaking. Okay. Let's put this in real life context here. Are we poor? Not poor but frugal. We have the money. We just won't spend the money.

You know how sometimes in your life. We're not going out for dinner much. I tell you that much. You know how sometimes in your life you've tightened the belt a little bit and you're making decisions where you're not going to spend a couple extra dollars? You know, things are a little tight right now. We're trying to save up for that vacation. I don't really know how that would hurt the rebuild, except for maybe the sweetener thing.

but I don't know. I don't really see it as a bad thing so much, at least not at this point. If there was an opportunity where spending money and being overzealous with your cash would allow you to do something and you don't do it because you've got a certain budget that you're working with him, that would be the only time, I would say.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's great. Yeah. I don't think it's great. Conceptually speaking, I don't think you want anything to inhibit the rebuild, right? Like you would basically say, you've got a blank slate, and if you want to use the building analogy, like I'm starting from the ground up,

Yeah. You give your contractor an unlimited budget to work with, right? Yeah, you can tear everything down. But when you're building it up, whatever it costs to do the process you want to do, go ahead and do it. I just think about all these terrible contracts that give players on July 1 historically. So, I mean, if they don't do that anymore, that helps the rebuild. So maybe that's the upside of it.

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. They spent their way into problems a lot. Okay, let's talk about Brendan Gallagher. Because we've got years and years to discuss the spending. ways and the rebuild of the Vancouver Canucks. Years, everybody. You know, off the ice spending is going to be worth monitoring as well.

This Brendan Gallagher acquisition has seemed like a possibility ever since Brendan Gallagher got healthy scratched in Montreal. And I think as soon as that happened, you and I were like the Canucks should get him. And we weren't alone. I mean, we're going to talk to Eric. Gengles and he's been thinking about it for a while too. In Gallagher, the Canucks get a great role model for all the young players that will make up the roster next season.

Now, Galley only has a year left on his deal, so I don't know how long he's going to be a member of the Vancouver Canucks. He could even get traded at the deadline. I love how your answer kicked off the RJ's. Did you watch the scrum? I know exactly what you're talking about. He kicked off RJ's scrum with a question that was kind of budget related. And then also his second question to RJ was like, can you trade him at the deadline?

And you can see RJ's face who's like, we just got him. Yeah. We just got this guy. He's going to connect for 12 minutes. Who let this guy ask questions first? Why don't we get one of the easier reporters who's just like, tell us what you got with Brendan Gallagher. Anyway, here is, love you, Drenner. Here is RJ on Brendan Gallagher.

Very great. You hear me talk a lot about professionalism and quality of teammate. I mean, is there anybody that checks the box more than this guy? So my discussion with him this morning, he is ecstatic. We are over the moon to have him. He's talking about just doing anything he can to help where we are at and help us grow. and I think the common word he kept on using was built. And that's what we're doing here,

is trying to build something, an environment that is strong and that is sustainable. And he's going to be a massive piece of that. Okay. I'm really excited to have Brendan Gallagher on the team just to hear about his experiences. And, you know, I always felt it was unfortunate that the Kinnock's never drafted Brendan Gallagher.

Mm-hmm. No, it's not like they're like, it's between this first rounder and Brendan Gallagher. Like, he went pretty late in the draft. And he was right in the, in the Canucks backyard. He had to work on his game a lot when he got to Montreal. There was a lot of people that obviously saw his size and said, man, he's not big enough. But he had to improve his skating a lot in Montreal. And, you know, I think, I think the way this trade went down from a Montreal,

perspective showed how much respect they have for Brendan Gallagher and they really did want to do right by him because, you know, if you were, you know, truly, you know, like a heartless franchise, you've been like, all right, we're going to bury you in the HL. Sure. I mean, they made him an honorary citizen of Montreal last week. He's beloved there. I think that's very well established, although we will get into that with Eric Engels later in the show. I really hope that this works out. I know, it's kind of a low stakes move for everybody involved because the Canucks don't have any aspirations of being good.

Gallagher's coming in with the knowledge that he's there to mentor and provide leadership and not really do a ton on the ice. But with these early days of the rebuild and I hate, I don't want to be, I don't want to sound negative. But the reality of it is there's going to be some super tough times, especially

this year, I think. Like it seems going to be categorically bad. And it's not like Gallagher can, or is he supposed to lift them out of it. He's there basically to just make sure the ship doesn't take on too much water and sink and kind of keep a lot of the young guys' heads above water.

He's there to come to the rink with a positive attitude. Sure. Every day. And that is going to be something worth monitoring. That's a good point. Because the Canucks are going to be unless there's a miracle, they're going to be bad. They're going to lose

a lot of games. And I think one of the things that bothered me over the last few years is, and this is partly human nature, but let me talk about it. When the team was going well, the rare occasions, when the team was going well, these guys were great guys.

They're always in a good mood, you know? But when they went through, like, the first sign of adversity or things aren't going well, they just became miserable and mopey, and they didn't have a good attitude. Now, is it difficult to do that?

To have a good attitude when you're losing and to come in and be positive and try and lift guys up? Yeah, it is. I wouldn't be good at it. I'd be terrible at it. I'd be like, this team sucks. I want to get out of here, right? Please leave me alone. But, you know, this is why you get guys with good attitudes with Brendan Gallagher.

And this is why they are focusing on drafting character guys that want to be in Vancouver. that know the challenge and are saying, okay, I want to be part of this challenge. I think I can help. And that's what Brennan Gallagher essentially said, you know, and to Ryan Johnson, who passed it along, he said, anything I can do to help build this thing, I can do it. And RJ was like, all right, well, here's a hammer and some nails. We need a practice facility, so get out there. Galley, 89 games from 1,000 in his career.

He needs a second year to do it, but do you foresee him getting there? It's a little early. Dran's traded him yesterday as far as I understand it. That might be tough. Not with Vancouver. Yeah. Well, think how bad the culture's been over the last few years. Like, we need more guys like this.

Just more positive stories. A lot of good culture guys. But it's easy to say this in, like, it's June 30th. Exactly. There are going to. Exactly. I just, again, I know I'm being a downer, but there are going to be some really tough times where it's hard for anyone.

to go to the rink, especially when you've had the level of success that Gallagher has. And he's just fresh up. I know he didn't play it. Imagine he comes in and becomes a problem. Yeah. Didn't see that coming. Wow. Losers here. Oh, by the way, can we play the audio of Gallagher talking about what he learned during a rebuild? Because he went through all of this many moons ago in the early days of his Montreal career, saw it through it. And then, of course, now seeing the end of it now. Here's Brendan Gallagher on what he learned during a rebuild. Yeah, I think you need, you just need people that are good people and want to be around.

and are willing to go through tough battles together. And that's just a situation where, you know, you got to build that culture from day one. And that starts early on. You have to have the right people around. You have to be willing to really struggle and embrace the struggle. And then when you come through it on the other side, you're so much stronger for it.

Yeah, obviously we went through that and here in Montreal. It didn't take as long as people thought because I thought we, you know, guys bought in, guys all bought into what the message was going to be. and we were able to expedited a little bit. You know, it helps me have a lot of talent, but I think the work ethic and the buy-in was from day one was the most important thing. Do we spare a thought for the Nils-Hoglinder part of this?

Are we moving along now? Yeah, for sure. No, no, no, for sure. I think at the end of the day, Nils Houglander never really cemented a role in Vancouver. And he never found a coach that really believed in him. hopefully he can find all that in Nashville. But how many times when we talked about Nils Hoglender, we'd be like, what is he exactly?

36 times. So many times. And it really never helped him that he didn't kill penalties and he wasn't on the power play. And RJ was talking about this. Actually, we can play the audio of RJ on trading Hoaglander. but, you know, they are trying to define roles on this team. And one of the things that, if I had actually cared to look into the Canucks season, as opposed to just being like, this team is bad, when is this season over?

Last season was. Maybe the Halford approach. The insanity of some of the guys that were out there killing penalties. Like, why is Brock Besser killing penalties? Why is he like the first guy over the boards? it was such a badly built and badly constructed teams. Yeah, they had injuries. But like, there's a reason Johnson is coming in here and going like,

yeah, we got to have some roles for guys. You can't just be like, hey, who wants to penalty kill? I notice none of you are putting your hands up. So Brock, you get out there and kill some penalties. That was one of the wildest things about last season was Brock Besser and all the penalties he was killing. Here's RJ on trading Hoaglander. Yeah, obviously I'm looking at everything.

I've been very diligent in making sure I want to get role definition into this hockey team. I had a really good discussion with Hagey about a different opportunity based on what maybe I felt would have been missing for him here in a role and a true idea. that is only fair for him to have. So in these moves, I think out of the gates, we've got more of an identity to our group. And I think Hagi's a heck of a person, a heck of a player, and he's going to get a great opportunity there in Nashville.

But I felt this just gave us a little bit more definition and role identity that I'm seeking to have here and something that will continue to work on in the next few days. and what I'm able to, able to or not able to do. We will see, but it's something that's been important to me looking at our group. I mean, he's going to have to address that more over the next few days. Yeah. He said whether I'm able to do it, I don't know.

But, you know, the way teams are built is you do want to have everyone on the roster having a specific role and being proud of that role. are you a power play one guy all right well you got to score then are you a penalty killer then get together with the other penalty killers and figure out a way to make your unit good right are you a fourth line energy line okay well what are you trying to accomplish what what are your goals for the season hits not getting scored on um being able to go out there and and wear down some of the other defensemen what what are you going to you're going to be goals. Everyone's got to have a role. And you know the other thing that kind of bugged me about the Canucks just taking flyers on like, this guy was a failed first round draft pick. Maybe he can find a spot in Vancouver. It'd be like, you'd come in here and you'd be like, well, what do you do? Nothing in particular. What are you going to? Largely in the National Hockey League. I've really figured out exactly what my thing is yet. I don't have a niche and I don't have a role. And Mani

Mahotra and Ryan Johnson, come to think of it, are great examples of guys that found their roles in the NHL. Oh, yeah. Mani Mahotra especially, he was a top 10 pick. And then, you know, it didn't really have the offensive game to be a top six player. So what did he do? Well, he became absolute face-off whiz. Do you remember when the Canucks P.K. had him out there.

It was almost guaranteed that he'd win the face-off and it would go down the ice. He won 100% of his draw. defensive zone. That's honestly, that's honestly how I remember it. And, you know, they're not going to resign Blugher, and he was a good penalty killer. So I'm looking at the four, the, maybe that's, if I'm Atu, Ratu and Ratu's still going to be with Tima, like, that's my thing. Yeah. And I'm going to learn how to kill penalties, you know? Yeah.

I'm not going to be like, take the penalty, take the face off and run off the ice for someone else to come on there. Does it galley kill penalties? Yeah. I think, I think you bring up a good point, too, though, is that you've, you've, got a general manager and a head coach who forged roles for themselves in the NHL after getting there. And I do think that part of, especially this year, if we're going to really boil it down to, in particular, the penalty kill, this is a learning opportunity year. And if you want to look at a glass half full, you can tell guys, this is your opportunity to find and forge that

role for yourself in the National Hockey League. We have. Or you'll be gone like Hoglender. Yeah. I think, I think Johnson was probably just looking at Houglander, like the rest of it. of us, what do you do here? Where can you help and where can you be reliable? Sorry, I cut you off. No, it's fine. Welcome back. Yeah, we should probably get into the other big story non-hockey division from yesterday.

And that, of course, was that Canada did find out who they will play in the round of 16 on Saturday when they, and again, I still can't believe I'm saying these words out loud, playing their second knockout match at a World Cup in Houston. Morocco beat the Netherlands in a penalty shootout after the match went one-one yesterday to advance to the round of 16. it's a rematch of the 2022 group stage in Qatar where Canada lost to Morocco in the final group stage match. Honestly, it's the match of the last World Cup that the Canadians probably remember the least because they had been eliminated at that time. It came after that very disappointing loss to Croatia and they actually were able to score their second goal ever in World Cup history in that match. Unfortunately, it was credited as an own goal. Although the white cap Sam out of Kube had a lot to do with getting that ball in the back of the net. I mean, this is, it was hilarious watching the match yesterday because in the round of 32,

this was the matchup of the two highest ranked teams combined of any of the round of 32 matches, six and seven in the world. So for Canada, six, seven. Yeah. No matter who you got in this game, you knew it was going to be a super tall order. You couldn't really cheer for anyone in that match. Were you surprised how good Morocco was? No.

Were you surprised how not so good? the Dutch were. I was surprised how conservative the Dutch were. It almost felt at times like the Dutch were aiming to contain Morocco. And there was two teams that, for the most part, were on equal footing. And I thought that, and I don't think, I think everyone kind of agreed, in terms of attacking flair and individual talent, the Dutch had more. Yeah. The Moroccans have

unbelievable defensive players, unbelievable defending. And it's going to be incredibly difficult for Canada to break them down. Now, this is to take nothing away from, you know, guys like Saibari and Brian Diaz and everyone. else that can really generate a lot of chances and big chances for the Moroccans, but they are very stout and very resolute defensively. And we've seen that. Some of the high-powered attacks they've gone up against, they drew with Brazil. They took the Dutch to 120 minutes and only allowed the one goal and really limited the chances. If you were to ask the question of someone

and that someone knew what they were talking about and you were to say, who is the new power in world soccer on the men's side. Morocco would be right at the top of that conversation. Because 15, 20, even like 10 years ago, Morocco was not a top 10 team in the world. Everyone was largely waiting and waiting, some optimistically, some not. There was going to be one African country

that was going to emerge as a power and not like continentally. They were going to be in the top 10, top 5 end of major tournaments and Morocco in Qatar jumped to the forefront of that conversation. I was reading up a little bit on it and they had some very low moments

not too long ago and they essentially said like all right we got to change something and they invested in an academy and they wanted to and they made them they did a bunch of stuff and now they're finally seeing the fruits of those labors they found players everywhere. They went through a,

They went through a rebuild. Yep, they did. Tore it down to the studs. They tore it down to the studs. They said, listen, culture's got a change here in Morocco. And they acquired the Brendan Gallagher version in Morocco.

It was great for them. No, like, but their goalie was born in Montreal, by the way. He moved when he was three. So that was the interesting, like, subplot to the whole thing. How dare he? I know. Anyway, this has been like such a great tournament for Africa.

Nine of the 10 teams that qualified from, Africa made the round of 32. And now you're seeing this Moroccan team in a very short window already getting like really, really great performances of results against traditional powers like the Dutch and the Brazilians. It's going to be incredibly difficult for Canada. I think if there's ever a match where Marsh has to rethink his strategies and his tactics and how to go after a match, this would be the one.

Because I'm just not sure that you're going to be able to make life on for the Moroccans with your style of attack because I just think that they're more than equipped to deal with it. Right. Like, Hakimi's probably the best right back in the world. And if not, he's in the top five for that. And they've got quality like that across the back. It'll be very interesting to see what Marsh does here.

Because there's also the house money element of all this too, right? Like, I know I saw, you know, we chatted and texted back and forth after the win over South Africa. And you're like, I am content now. I am at peace. Canada has won a knockout match at the World Cup. Well, Jesse Marsh kind of suggests it. He said, we've got a free hit.

Exactly. You're not alone in that thing. Like, there's a lot of content in that camp right now that they've mission accomplished. That can either be a really good thing, but can also be a really bad thing. Because you are going up against a quality opponent. And let's be honest,

a team that is of higher quality than Switzerland. And Canada had problems dealing with Switzerland. And Morocco is like, they seem content. Let's score eight goals on them. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. And Brough. You know, I was telling young Josh yesterday.

Yes. That when I went to watch Canada at the fan fest, I had to tell myself before the game, don't yell. Don't scream. It was very responsible of you. It was responsible. Yeah. I am an irresponsible individual.

I told him I was like, I was miming like crazy out there. Look at me. I'm in a box. And I did see me on screen, but I'm doing the mime in a box thing. And I did yell right before Astacchio's goal. I did yell. hit it. And he did. And he hit it.

If you hadn't to yell that, he might not have hit it. Yeah, he might have pulled up and just been like, all right, let's play it back. Real quick, before we get to batch, we need to do the one to watch, brought to you by Limitless A.V. So tonight, what is a great slate of games today, by the way? Tonight is Mexico, Ecuador. Oh, that is going to be so good. So much pressure on Mexico against a very good opponent. Did you see what the Mexican supporters were doing last night? driving by the Ecuadorian players hotel, honking horns and yelling as loud as humanly possible

to ensure that the Ecuadorians will get as little sleep as possible. Who ordered the mariachi band? Eight of them, a little overboard. But anyway, that's your one to watch night. It is the finale. It's a 6 o'clock kickoff, Mexico, Ecuador. It should be an absolutely fantastic match. It is your one to watch.

Brat to you by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces, book your personalized tour of their experience center today. Visit them online at LimitlessAV.Ca to the ABLE Auctions hotline. We go. Our next guest is the PlayWi Play Voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on SportsNet 650. Brendan Bachelor joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show. What up, Batch.

And not too much. Good morning, guys. I can relate to having to mime at sporting events. Most recently, I remember being at the White Cap game against L.A.F. And the playoffs. and the Canucks, I think, had a day game the next day. So I really had to restrain myself in that game because it was so exciting and so many crazy things happen that I can relate for sure.

Can I just jump in here? I just want to, for those listening, the reason my voice, I was coaching all weekend. Okay. This wasn't like I was on a bender and I was like screaming. You weren't in L.A. Yeah, I wasn't screaming incoherently. I was coaching all weekend. Just yelling at your TV for Canada.

Yeah, like I was yelling at young people. Right. I'm insane, but not that insane. and I was yelling at people, not the television. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Batch, Brendan Gallagher, your thoughts? There's no downside to it.

I think it's tremendous. As a guy that, you know, has Vancouver connections, but has a history of being a tremendously hard worker that had to work to earn everything that he's accomplished in his career. And, you know, obviously he's on the back nine now. He's not the player he once was. but he's coming to a team that, you know, is trying to build culture that maybe isn't as concerned about results from game to game as, you know,

you might think at this point in the rebuild, the early portion of the rebuild, to have that guy come in, to help set the culture, to help set a culture of accountability, you know, he's one of those guys. And I know, you know, not everybody cares about this, but on the media side for us, he's one of those guys that will always stand up and talk to the media and be. accountable. He'll be the hardest worker in practice every day. He's the exact kind of character that you want in that dressing room at this time, on top of the fact that, you know, he's a Vancouver

kid coming home. So it's a great story. I guess there is also the possibility of them flipping him at the deadline if he has a good year too. And, you know, the retained salary will make that, you know, more possible, I guess. And in fact, they could net a pretty good asset if it comes to that. but in the short term, you know, just to have him around the team and have a guy that has played in a Canadian market, a rabid Canadian market, his whole career, has played in Vancouver, albeit during his junior days. So understands this market. I think he's the perfect person to come in and help set the tone for this young team and help guide some of these young players. We were talking earlier about the roles on the Vancouver Canucks, and Ryan Johnson was talking about getting some role definition down for the team and making sure that everyone has an important role on the team

and that when you show up to work every day, you know what your role is, so you know what you need to work on at practice and what you're going to be asked of in a game. I think back to the Canucks last season on the penalty kill. And I remember thinking like, why is this guy out there killing penalties? And the classic example was Brock Besser. I'm like, I've never seen Brock Besser kill penalties before. I don't even know if he was good or bad at it, but it just seemed weird to see that.

And I mean, if you look at their, in terms of time on ice last season, when it comes to the forwards, the top ice time getters short-handed where Connor Garland, well, he's not there anymore. Kiefer Sherwood, he's not there anymore. And then you've got Drew O'Connor, who is probably going to still be there. Elias Pedersen, Brock Besser, Teddy Bluger,

who's probably not going to be there or it won't be there. Jake DeBress, who's probably going to get traded, David Camp. Like, they've got to remake at least the forward part of the penalty killing unit. And I'm just wondering, How many changes Ryan Johnson is going to make and how many he's going to be able to make? Because he's got a couple of guys on this team that he may not be able to trade away to make room for these guys that can come in and have defined roles. Yeah, and that's going to be interesting because I think, you know, we heard from him last week talking about wanting to make change and almost saying wanting to make change for the sake of change and talking about if you're trying to set the culture,

if you're trying to change things, then you have to chip away at it and it may not be, you know, trading three major players in one week. And obviously it hasn't been at least to this point, but you chip away. And so, you know, moving a guy like Neal's Hoaglander out, bringing a guy like Brendan Gallagher in, that's chipping away a little bit.

Now, you're right. In terms of what they want to do, they probably need to make a couple more moves out to make sure that they can bring in the kind of player they want. But also how they bring that kind of player in, I think specifically with penalty killing, those kind of guys are probably easier to find

on the free agent market than maybe a scoring winger that you want on your power play. So that leads me to believe to your point that Jake DeBrusk will be movable for a team that needs that kind of profile because it'll be harder to find in free agency. And then maybe you can, you know, fill in with a couple of penalty kill guys

to help bolster your forward. group on that unit. I also wonder if some of the younger players that don't have as much experience are going to be tasked with that as a role, at least to start, or, you know, I guess depending on whether they can bring other guys in because they're going to have to work with what they have. And, you know, that'll be up to Manny as to how they go about that. But, you know, I think about guys like Liam Ogrin or Atu-Ratu, like, could those guys kill penalties or is this an opportunity for them to learn how to kill penalties so they can be those guys as you go forward when, you know, you're trying to trend in the right direction. But, you know, it certainly does feel like,

you know, there need to be outgoings, as we would say in sort of soccer parlance when you talk about transfers, that they need to move some of these guys out before they can bring guys in that can fill some of those specific roles. And I think that's exactly what we saw yesterday with Houghlander being shipped out in order for Gallagher to come in. I'm really looking forward to watching some of these young players and watching them closely and really being able to judge how well they're doing or not. Because I felt like last season was just such a mess everywhere that, you know, for example, how could you really provide a good analysis of those young defensemen last year when

the team on the ice, and that includes the veterans, didn't look like they had any idea what they were doing or what they were supposed to be doing. I hope, and I expect that Manny Malhotra's structure is going to give us a better opportunity to do that because that is going to be one of the main things we're going to be doing over these next few years, watching these young players,

hopefully being excited by them, but also seeing how they're doing and then talking about it on the radio. Yeah, I mean, that really is like the thing we have to analyze during a rebuild, right? Because we're not going to be breaking down wins and losses to the same degree that we might, because they're not going to be as significant as they would be otherwise. And we hear all the time coaches, managers, people in the NHL talking about putting young players in positions to succeed. And that doesn't just mean, you know, oh, not putting them on the first line before they're ready.

means having a culture, having a system, having a structure that will allow them to thrive within it. And, you know, I think it's pretty clear from the way things went last year that a lot of those things weren't in place. And obviously, the organization has made a lot of change to try to improve that as they go through this rebuild. And to hear RJ talk about, you know, defined roles and clear understanding of what's expected of you when you show up at the rink every day, Like, I know that the Canucks are very far away from this, but that is the way that people that played on that 2011 team talk about that team in terms of, like,

no one was more important than the next guy. The fourth line guy that was killing penalties had just a big part of our success as the, you know, the offensive leaders that played on the power play like Daniel and Henrik Sidene. And if that's the kind of culture you're trying to build, and those are the kind of clear expectations you're trying to for guys when they show up to the rank every day, then that's a great place to start in terms of not only building that culture,

but allowing those young players to have opportunities to succeed with very clear communication about what's expected of them. And then, you know, if you perform to a high enough level that, you know, you're worthy of more responsibility, then maybe your expectation of what your role is going to be changes going forward. But, you know, that I think too often, of late was something that the organization really struggled with was, you know, who's doing what, right? Like Jake DeBrescott would be on the first line. One night, he'd be on the third line, another night,

he'd be on the fourth line, another night. And not to say that tweaking lines isn't going to happen, because when you're a team that struggles, you know, the coach is going to try to mess around with things and change things up. And if someone's playing well, maybe they get more opportunity. But like if you had asked me, what was Jake DeBrusk's role on this team last year, other than being the guy that scores on the power play, I couldn't have really told you. Yeah, that was his role. He nailed it.

You did that. You nailed it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah, go have good hands over there. Yeah. Yeah.

So, so if they have that sort of clear communication and clear definition of roles, and then, you know, wrap that within a system that allows the players to, to understand their responsibilities and play to the highest. level possible, then, you know, even if they're losing a lot of games, they'll be more competitive in those games and they'll have the opportunity to improve. And that's what we'll get to watch with a lot of those young players. Well, you seguewayed nicely into my question here. We're speaking of Brendan Bachelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Net 650. When talking about role and, you know, personality and

traits and all those sorts of things, now that Nils Hoaglander is gone, I was trying to kind to come up like a summation of his time in Vancouver. One of the more perplexing players that have come through town over the last five or six years just because it was such an erratic tenure. And of course it ended with him sort of being a bit player. But, you know, forget that he did have some pretty good success at the National Hockey League level. He earned the contract that he's currently on. But, I mean, it didn't necessarily end well.

Your thoughts on the now outgoing Nils Hoaglander? Yeah, obviously, you know, he never really put it together with the Kinnock. but there was flashes of the kind of player he could be, especially in that one year where he scored, what was it, 24 even strength goals, and didn't have any special teams goals beyond that, I don't believe. But he could never really build on it. And part of that was due to injury.

Like I can remember multiple seasons where Hoaglander came into camp, one of the best in-shaped guys, looked like he was ready to be shot out of a cannon, and then got hurt early in the season and never had that opportunity. And last year is a perfect example. example of that. So, you know, on one hand, some of that was out of his control in terms of the

injury stuff and how it sort of derailed his momentum a couple of different times. But I also think I'll remember a player that really struggled to put it together in his own zone or when he didn't have the puck on his stick. And that was under multiple head coaches, right? It's not like it was one head coach, didn't like him, buried him in the doghouse, and that was that. You know, we saw Bruce Boudreau demote him to the point. where they sent him down to the HAL. We saw Rick Tockeet not trust him and healthy scratch him in the playoffs.

And we saw Adam Foote last year, obviously, it was a different year because he missed the first half of it, but he never really got going or never really got a ton of responsibility after that. So he's the kind of player that I think probably needed a change of scenery, and it wouldn't surprise me if he goes to Nashville and does pretty well, you know, depending on the role they give him

and the expectations they have of him. But it's that two-way play, that hockey, that you know who you're supposed to be covering or the area you're supposed to be in in the defensive zone when you're tracking back those are the areas that you know cost neils hoagland or the trust of three different head coaches and ultimately you know a big part of the reason i would imagine why the kinnock's elected to move on from him yesterday batch i do want to ask you a world cup question and i know you're a pretty empathetic guy so i want to ask you this question do you ever feel sorry for the minnows of the football world like Germany and Netherlands

who like can't even get to the round of 16 in the World Cup. I mean, it's it's got to be difficult for them to know that they just have no chance in these tournaments when you've got teams like Morocco and Brazil and Canada advancing to the round of 16. Yeah, you know, all kidding aside, I do kind of kind of think we're seeing a changing of the guard in soccer where a lot of the traditional

minnows, if you would call them that, are strengthening their programs. And Canada is a perfect example of that where, you know, all three of us can say, you know, I don't know, a decade ago, if you'd said Canada was winning a knockout round game of the World Cup after having hosted it on home soil and come out of the group and had a chance to win the group. You know, maybe 10 years ago, that wasn't something that you would expect. And now it's something that is a reality and has happened. And you look at, you know, the story about Cape Verde and the performance they've had at this World Cup.

The gap between the minnows and the powers is as small as it's ever been. And, you know, for my money, it's made for one of the most entertaining World Cups we've seen in a long time with, I'm sure, more upsets to come in this round of 32. So I hate to admit it because I was not someone who was prepared to be a fan of the 48 team World Cup. I thought, oh, they're just expanding it for, you know, financial reasons to play more games. And we're going to see a lot of blowouts and a lot of games that don't matter.

And in fact, what we've seen is compelling drama and teams that you wouldn't have expected anything from finding a way to write pretty cool stories. So I hate that I love the 48 team World Cup, but I do. And it's been awesome so far. Batch, thanks for this, buddy. Really appreciate it. Sounds good, boys. Have a good one. Thank you. Brennan Batchelor, Play-by-Play, Voice of the Vancouver Connects here on the Halford

and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. So I don't think it was a massive, massive shock that Morocco beat the Dutch yesterday. Not at all. I was a little bit surprised watching at how Morocco was clearly the better team, in my opinion, out there. The expected goals numbers, by the way, were similar to South Africa and Canada. So I don't know if you're big on Dutch Twitter. I'm going to say no. Yeah, it's mostly EDM talks, though.

Like a lot of DJs. The, so the gaffer, Ronald Coleman, is under intense, intense scrutiny today. Because in his post-match media comments, he talked about how they wanted to limit the quote-unquote chaos of the match. So the Dutch played five at the back. They played a very conservative style. And he said he wanted to take out the element of the match opening up and maybe the two teams trading chances. And accordingly, now that they've lost, there's a lot of pushback from the Dutch media and the pundits that followed the team saying, you're the sixth or seventh ranked team in the world.

Why would you employ such tactics and strategy when you've got this wealth of talent at your disposal? Yeah, what are you, Gareth Southgate? Well, here's the thing. And I'll tie this back to Canada with Jesse Marsh's. One of the things going into this tournament, one of the big stories for Canada was that Marsh got the extension to take him through 2030 prior to the tournament. I remember you and I talking about it a lot saying, I don't know if this is the right move, because if this goes badly and they get knocked out in the group stage, there's no way. way you can keep him around. Yeah, and Canada

soccer doesn't exactly have millions to throw around. Look at what is happening right now in South Korea with their embattled manager, who is like now facing the kind of public scorn normally reserved for politicians. He's a football manager, but he

is just being eviscerated by everyone, including levels of government in South Korea. Look at what's happening after Germany's elimination yesterday with Julian Nagelsman. He's now under intense scrutiny to step down. And this is a guy that is relatively young and was once thought to be the next great German

manager. Ronald Coleman loses in penalties to a very good Moroccan side and immediately is scrutinized for his tactics and his decisions. It's so results oriented. Right? Because Germany and the Dutch, if they win their penalty shootouts

yesterday, none of these conversations are happening. Everyone's like, okay, we dodged a bullet. We're moving on. Right, right. Still live in the tournament. It's incredible. Incredible that, and I'm going to, Marsh has gotten an unbelievable amount of luck in the way that this tournament has turned out because he's made some...

For sure he has. It's okay to admit that too. He's made some huge decisions, some of which have worked, some of which have not. I thought you meant just with the opponents. He's also had the Alfonso Davies situation, which, again, if that went the other way

and they either didn't get out of the group or had lost to South Africa, that would have been story number one that led the way. Canada, disappoints at World Cup you know captain does not play the amount of luck that has gone into it and just one or two things that have broken their way

and I compare it to some of these other big countries who are out in the round of 32 and how much scrutiny they are facing it is honestly there is such an element of luck involved with this yeah well look at the look at the draw that the Netherlands got you're going up look at the look at the draw that

Japan got yeah Japan got out to a 1-0 lead over Brazil and they're a dangerous team they're very they're very very very, very good team. By the way, you know who's one player? I just love watching. And this isn't a hot take phrase. So if you're like a hardcore football fan,

you'd be like, yeah, no kidding. Vinnie Jr. is incredible. Incredible to watch. I love watching those soccer players that look like when they're dribbling the ball that it's like glued to their feet. Effortless.

Gliding. And just, it doesn't seem like they have any bad touches of the ball. You know what I mean? Like, he is incredible to watch. And I almost feel like Brazil has been overlooked coming into this tournament. They're, yeah, it's... They're like, oh, yeah, Brazil's here, right?

That classic old adage, right? I've said it before. Like, the thing about all these World Cups is we've expanded the field, and there's all these new countries, new continents are emerging. We're going to get great new powers. And then in the end, it's going to be Brazil and Germany. Well, they haven't won for a lot. But, but Brazil hasn't won for a while.

But to your point, everyone's kind of overlooked Brazil because of that. It's the newer intriguing stories. It's the hosts. It's the Cape Verde's. It's Canada getting to the round of 16. But then you forget that there's this giant there

with so much talented its disposal, Vinnie being one of them. And I mean, that was an impressive victory for them yesterday, going down 1-0 early to Japan and then mounting the comeback that they did. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.