Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/4/24

Episode Date: June 4, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss a couple of notable sports media controversies, they hear from Canucks radio PxP man Brendan Batchelor on the latest around the team, plus the boys discuss how the Canucks need to try and win in this window as well as manage Demko's games and health.  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. And a drive to left field. Back goes Varshow, and all he can do is turn and watch it go. Canucks Twitter, you're an absolute joke. Your team's a joke. You're a bunch of losers. Get over yourselves.

They're athletes. They're athletes. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Alfred and his bruv. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Basketball, Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Alfred and bruv in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's

premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of this 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. And as always, we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for.

Guest list today begins at 6.30. Greg Wyshynski, our NHL insider from ESPN, is going to join us on the program. We will look ahead, way, way ahead, because the Stanley Cup Final does not begin until Saturday. We'll look ahead to Oilers, Panthers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final with Wish at 6.30. 7.30,

Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks, is going to join us. 8 o'clock, Dwayne Veneau is going to join the program. He is the president of your BC Lions. The BC Lions are now going to join us. 8 o'clock, Dwayne Veneau is going to join the program. He is the president of your BC Lions. The BC Lions are now just 11 days away from their kickoff and their concert kickoff at BC Place. 50,000 people are going to be in attendance for the Lions game and for 50 Cent coming up in a couple weeks' time.

So we'll talk to Dwayne Veneau about all that. And the other big news from yesterday, Jonas Brothers gonna be playing at the gray cup which of course is going to be in vancouver bc place this november i can't wait you're so yesterday basketball ben had a take a spicy take where he lined up he compared all of the Jonas brothers, all three of them, with a question that you asked to the Hughes brothers. And he got a lot of feedback afterwards. He nailed it, right? He said, I don't know. I don't know if he nailed it or not.

The text box approved? The text box said he nailed it. Did it? Okay, I didn't check. And then my personal phone said I nailed it. Right. The text that came to Ben said you did well. We're also giving away ticks to see Snoop. And it's not just Snoop, by the way. DJ Quick's going to be there. Warren G's going to Ben said you did well. We're also giving away ticks to see Snoop. And it's not just Snoop, by the way. DJ Quick's going to be there.

Warren G is going to be there as well. All of your 50-plus rappers are going to be there. Warren G? Regulator? Regulator is going to be there. Oh, man. I'm excited. Yeah, he will regulate.

Nate Dogg will not. He is no longer with us. But Warren G will regulate on June 25th at Rogers Arena. The best what we learned will win a pair of tickets to go see Snoop. If you want to get in on the action, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Hashtag it WWL. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports.

And let me tell you, there wasn't much to learn. Also put a ticket emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the contest to win tickets to see Snoop on June 25th at Rogers Arena. 8 o'clock, it's Dwayne Vinoa. 7.30, it's Brendan Batchelor. 6.30, it's Greg Wyshynski. That's the guest list.

Without further ado, Ben, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. So yesterday, Bruff and I went through the exercise of laying out what an unreal sports month june is going to be there are so many things from so many different platforms so many different sports so many different big events and

big newsworthy moments we should have added that this week is not included in that rundown no wait a minute it's the nhl scouting combine that is true It's the NHL Scouting Combine. That is true. Outside of the NHL Scouting Combine, this week should not be included in the conversation. This might be one of the worst weeks on the sporting calendar. Did you enjoy how the Jays were crowing about winning five

of six or whatever they did against the Sox and the Pirates, and then last night they came up against an actual good team and lost 7-2 to the Baltimore Orioles. Friend, we almost had to lead with that. And in a way, we kind of are leading with that. There is not much going on in the world of sports. There's no hockey until Saturday.

There's no basketball until Thursday. Heck, even the domestic leagues in soccer are coming in, winding down to a close as the international break is on. Is there pickleball? There is no professional pickleball, at least that I am aware of. However, good old sports media, the sports media industry, gave us some content yesterday because it decided to eat itself on a couple of different fronts.

We are going to begin. Yes, some people have asked, and we are going to begin with what's going on in the WNBA and Kaitlyn Clark. For those that have missed it, I'll give a brief synopsis of what's happened to this point. Kaitlyn Clark, star rookie coming in after a very ballyhooed career at the University of Iowa, is now a member of the Indiana Fever. The Indiana Fever, for those that don't follow the WNBA, are awful. There's a reason they got the first overall pick in the draft.

There's a reason they might get the first overall pick next year. They stink. They're really bad. She's gone as a rookie to a bad team and has struggled. She hasn't had the kind of success she had at the University of Iowa. Her team loses far more often than it wins. And in some cases, it gets blown out in those losses. However, there is a much larger situation at play,

and that is that it appears on a nightly basis, whenever her Indiana team is playing games, she is being targeted by other players in the WNBA in a very physical, dare I say, bullying nature. She's getting pushed around. She's getting shoved around. She's getting flagrant and fouled i don't know if either of those are words but i'm going to roll with it and this

has come to the forefront of a lot of big media outlets in the united states and by that i mean not just your espns it's kind of transcended that to the point where they were talking about it on the view yesterday yeah it's the u.S. sports media industrial complex completely melting down over Caitlin Clark. We had Pat McAfee deciding to call her a white bee, but you know what I mean? But in a complimentary way. Rhymes with rich. Yeah, according to Pat McAfee.

Then we had Stephen A. Smith fighting with Monica McNutt on first take. You even had the Chicago Tribune's editorial board calling out Whoopi Goldberg for her take on Caitlin Clark which is something I never thought I'd hear.

Guinan? But, what? Guinan. She's on Star Trek. Star Trek? That was his Whoopi Goldberg reference. Whoopi Goldberg, Guinan, Star Trek? Okay.

Come on. Okay. I can't believe you didn't know that. Thank you for contributing, A-Dog. Thanks, A-Dog. And because I had to listen to a bit of The View yesterday, now you have to listen to a bit of The View. In WNBA action this weekend,

Kaitlyn Clark was shoved to the ground by Kennedy Carter when Indiana Fever faced off against the Chicago Sky. Kaitlyn talked about it after the game, but Kennedy had less to say about it. Take a look. It is what it is. You know, I feel like I'm just at the point where you accept it and don't retaliate. Like, you know, just let them hit you.

Be what it is. Don't want to get inside your head and know what's coming. I think at this point, like, I know I'm going to take a couple hard shots a game, and that's what it is. Just stay in the game and stay in what's important. I ain't answering no Kaylin Clark questions. Did she say anything to you? I don't know what she said.

What'd you say to her? I didn't say anything. That's enough. Okay, let's be realistic, okay? This is basketball, okay? This happens in basketball all the time. Angel Reese got a clothesline the other day. I mean, this is, you know, these are not like,

here's the ball. This is get out the way or I'm going to move you. That's what the game is. So a lot of people, however, are reading this as confrontation. But this is not, they're not playing on the court.

They're there to win. You know, and just because they're women, on the court. They're there to win. And just because they're women, get over yourselves. They're athletes. They're athletes. You go, whoopee. We need a live studio audience. I don't know.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to get on that. That was the best part. That was the best part. Oh. Oh, my. Ben Brough said something. Now you hear a couple guys in the background.

Yeah. Yeah. This is basketball. It is utterly predictable that hear a couple guys in the background. Yeah, yeah. This is basketball. It is utterly predictable that this has happened, by the way. When you combine two hot button issues like race relations, and there is a lot of black versus white in this, and white versus black, and gender relations. Well, I don't know.

If somehow guns were to be involved, we've got ourselves the American trifecta. Give it time. They can get involved. Can you imagine? She's just like, yes, yes, Jason, I could. Are they allowed to have those on the court? Is that the rule? Caitlin Clark is like, yeah, I've been a big gun collector my whole life.

Since we're on the subject. I love guns. Producers down there are like, oh! I think everyone should have guns. No, but imagine you are Caitlin Clark right now and you're seeing all this happening. You're a 22-year-old woman from Iowa. I wonder what you're feeling.

It must be overwhelming and maybe a bit scary, but also she's making a lot of money and women's sports is being talked about. So we will dip into the Dunbar Lumber text line if you have any questions or comments on this story. But speaking of overwhelming, I think Luke Gazdik got overwhelmed by Canucks Twitter. He finally snapped yesterday on an Oilers podcast.

We played a bit of Luke's commentary in the intro, but i want to play it i'm sure most of you heard it and i want to play it now because listen luke luke has been on our show a bunch of times um we we've we've liked luke just use the past tense there but um you know i i definitely disagree and think he made a mistake yesterday. But we'll talk about that more. But in case you haven't heard it, here's Luke Gazdek. What was the Oilers podcast called? It was Tyler Uramchuk's podcast.

I don't have the name of it at the ready, but Tyler Uramchuk is also a guy that we've had on the show as well. So this is two individuals that we have talked with at length at times about the National Hockey League and the Edmonton Oilers. Luke does a regular hit on this podcast. He's mentioned it on our show in the past. So why don't we just let the audio play and speak for itself? We'll come back on the other side.

Here is longtime Halford & Brough guest Luke Gazdik talking about Canucks fans and Canucks Twitter and the Vancouver Canucks. I don't know if Canucks fans listen to this. When they were trolling, when the oil absolutely dusted them, they were. My account still

will not stop with Canucks trolls. My tweet last night on Twitter just saying congrats oil country. I'm going through Instagram message requests here now. The amount of hate and absolute, it's the most garbage, jitterish, gibberish trash I've ever seen.

Canucks Twitter, you're an absolute joke. Your team's a joke. You're a bunch of losers. So the Oilers are going to the Stanley Cup finals. Look, I get it. Canucks Twitter can be tough. We are like the big bad Bruins or the Broad Street bullies of hockey Twitter. I like Luke, but I don't think you made a very good decision with what he said yesterday.

It's okay to call out the trolls on Twitter. But when you start calling the team a joke, you've crossed the line into lashing out. And you're not going to get much sympathy from people who might have otherwise given you a break because there's a lot of people even in Vancouver that think Canucks Twitter can be a little much sometimes. Elliot Friedman always quotes that line from The Godfather, This is the business we've chosen. It's mostly a great business to be in, but there are some downsides to it.

Some of the things that people say on social media are completely over the top, especially considering the main topic is hockey. It's just a game. It's just hockey. It's just opinions on hockey. Even if those opinions are biased, it's just hockey. It's a game of hockey.

But here's the thing, and here's the thing that everyone in media needs to understand, and the players need to understand too. You cannot control what people say. In media, you give your opinion, you try to be as honest as possible. You try to see things from as many angles as possible, and you will still have people calling you an idiot. That, another thing Elliot Friedman likes to say, that is life in the big city. It is a jungle out there. Now, granted, it is easier said than done to stay above it all. I've had things said to me online.

Halford has had things said to him online, whether it's Twitter or in the text inbox. Even A-Dog has things said about, A-Dog, look, A-Dog, he's lovely. He's lovely. I know, I'm shocked as much as you are. He's adorable. Dogs catching strays.

And some people, you know, like they don't like him, you know, and these things cross the line. I've had things said to me, like things about my personal life, which is part of being a public figure too. They cross the line so badly that you'd sit there and you'd like fantasize about confronting the guy and maybe, I don't know, setting him on fire, for example.

That's a reasonable take. Went to setting him ablaze pretty quickly. Yes, but you obviously can't do that. I mean, because they're hard to sometimes find. That's true. And, you know, gas is so expensive. I was going to say, is it hard to put them on fire? Is that what you were going to say?

Yeah. I think there'd be other hurdles in the way. Well, no, there are. Two big ones. And then ultimately you get there and they'll run away from you. But listen, you can't let them get to you. You can't let them ruin your day. You can let them ruin maybe an hour of your day, but not the entire day. It's impossible not to feel the hurt a bit. I think here's the thing,

here's the thing, and here's what Luke Gazdik needs to learn, and maybe some players in this market have to learn. Since the dawn of the internet and social media, we have all learned that there are a lot of idiots in this world. Like way more than we thought there were. Remember when they started reviewing offside challenges and we were like, I bet the linesman get it right all the time. And then we started reviewing them and they were like, wow, they're missing a lot of offsides. That's the one major downside of social media, right? The idiots have always been there. It's just now, obviously, they have a platform and you hear them every day.

We drastically underestimated, though, I think, the number of people who have no idea how to communicate in a constructive manner. Because, let's be honest, it used to be a bit of a hassle to send a message to someone. You had to write a letter. Then mail that letter. What's the address? What's the postal code? How do you spell moron? Where are the stamps?

And then you had to walk all the way to the post office box. It was a huge barrier to entry for idiots. So most of them just sat there eating chips. Couldn't even lick the envelope. And breathing through their mouths. Now it's a lot easier. Sure, you know, they're going to get sour cream and onion dust all over their phones, but they can send messages to almost any important figure in the world.

And everyone can see these messages. But you still have to just accept that it's going to happen. If you want to be in the media world, if you want to be a public figure, you can say it's wrong. And once in a while you can say, you know, certainly you can say that, you know, it's wrong, but you can't let it affect you. You can't lash out like Luke did yesterday.

And he made a big mistake. He's a national broadcaster, and he called the Canucks a joke. Well, that's the major thing, right, is the national broadcaster part. I mean, this isn't just an Oilers media member. It's the guy you see on the national panel for every game. And they're supposed to be, ideally, unbiased, right? Yeah. For sure.

And he goes on in that clip saying, like, have fun watching them in the cup. Have fun watching me on the panel. And I'm like, ah, man. He barked back at everyone that had been barking at him for weeks and weeks and weeks. Right? I mean, I get it. Don't get me wrong. I get it.

I mean, as Prof said, social media can be a brutal place. So I understand the defense mechanism, but at the same time, you've got to rise above it, right? That's the thing. Yeah, but that's a lot easier said than done. Oh, totally. Oh, totally. It's also a very damning thing. There's an element of extremely, extremely aggressive behavior that's been normalized now. And I don't know if that's a healthy approach.

But what are you going to do? What are you going to do? your media or a player or any sort of public figure, you can bemoan the normalization of that behavior, but there is nothing you can do about it. There isn't. The only thing you can do is control what you can control, and that is to ignore it. I would call to light the comments that you'd get as opposed to firing back at it.

I would be like, here is a sample of some of the some of the things that i am dealing with and i'm not talking about luke in particular i'm talking about anyone that has to my biggest concern with all of this is again i said it it's the normalization of like not just playful friendly chirps or even like aggressive chirps. It's stuff that goes way beyond. And just the idea is to get to the bottom as quickly as possible and to try and hit someone below the belt as quickly as possible. But when you bring to light those comments, you just keep it going. You just keep it going not only in the public sphere.

You keep it going in your mind. Yeah. Right. And the alternative is that you almost become like a virtual pin cushion for people to be able to. But you only turn yourself into a pin cushion if you allow it. Again, there are people that have the ability and the experience to deal with things in the way that you're suggesting.

And there's some that don't, that are learning along the way and luke is learning so i mean i again if you if you people you people have been subjected some of the stuff that's been said to you and i through various channels sometimes i look back and i'm like i can't believe that another person would fire that off i can't believe that another person was half the stuff i can't repeat because another person would fire that off. I can't believe that another person would say that. Half the stuff I can't repeat because it just goes so beyond like what would be considered a taunt or a chirp. I don't think people even understand what those two phrases mean anymore. I think people, for a multitude of reasons, command the mediums that are presented to them. Like people say, you know say like twitter is a cesspool

and it's like twitter is the vehicle it's the human element that's turned it into a cesspool it's the it's the format percentage of people are actually those trolls that are being horrible i don't know one percent one percent they're always the loudest right yeah it makes them seem like they're more than there are but like you know yeah they all they they're always the loudest, right? Yeah. It makes them seem like they're more than they are. But like, you know, yeah, they're always the loudest because you read their text and you're like, damn. Yeah. And you know probably like one out of 100 people might act that way, but those are the ones you'll remember and those are the ones that will stand out. Yeah. The bad ones always stand out. in, okay, do you remember when England lost in the penalty kicks to Italy in the Euros

and the three guys that lost were black? Or sorry, missed their kicks. They still are. Okay. There was racism on Twitter, which was not the least bit surprising, but it's almost reported like it's the shocking thing. Do you know what I mean? And I'm okay with like saying that's bad, but 99% of people weren't doing that.

Like this is something that I've just come to terms with. And maybe that's sad that I've come to terms with. It's like, there are idiots in there, in this world. Like complete, like people that, and here's the thing, do not know how to communicate. That's a big part of it. You know, like they don't know how to write a sentence. They don't know how to get their thoughts out.

And I imagine this happens to them in their everyday lives. They're not just like normal people going about their business and then they get onto Twitter and they are a complete nightmare. Like I am sure that they have trouble communicating with their family and friends if they have any, I'm sure it's a problem at work for them. So what are you going to do about it? Like there's nothing you can do about it. Absolutely nothing you can do about it absolutely nothing you can do about it it's like uh you know

there's air pollution um big picture maybe you can do something about that but like but no but seriously you like you're gonna go outside and you're gonna not breathe because if there's a few there's a bit of pollution in the air right do. Do you know what I mean? Like there's, it's just, you have to accept it. I've said this about young players on the Canucks who might be affected by social media. Turn off your phones. If it's bothering you that much, just turn them off because this is our world.

There are idiots in the world. Most people aren't, but there are some, some texting into the Dunbar Lumber text line right now. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. It's his friend and bachelor, bachelor, bachelor. Live from Rogers Arena, calling Canucks games.

It's his friend and bachelor, bachelor, bachelor. 7.31 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Ruff, Sports Night 650. Halford Ruff in the morning is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Accurate Dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today by visiting your nearest Dilawri Acura dealer today. We are in hour two of the program. Brendan Batchelor is

going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this show is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some, get some, at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made.

I love the liquor store. I do too. I just like to go browse. Real Candyland. Browse? Oh, you're one of those guys, eh? Yeah. Browse.

Do you want to grab anything? I'm just looking. Sometimes sample them. Yep. You can't look for that in stores. I do love the sample station. No, no, no. Not a sample station.

He means just he'll steal stuff. Just a sip here and a sip there You can't do that? I thought you could do that Put a cap back on Somebody should have told me To the phone lines we go Brandon Batchelor joins us now on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650 Good morning Batch how are you?

I'm well how are you guys? We're good you know we were talking extensively throughout the show about the abuse and the accusations and the taunts hurled at people on social media, sometimes unfairly. And then I remembered, oh, yeah, Batch got a bunch of that last week when you dared, dared mention the possibility of trading Brock Besser. Would you like to hash this out now? we've got an entire half hour here it's your segment i know that you kind of got it both radioed and ratioed about why do you want to trade brock

besser he's a good guy let's start there well okay so i think we need to set like yes the clip made its rounds on twitter but we were having a conversation i was on with jamie and bick last week and we were talking about philip haronic and about like the merits of keeping him or trading him and and you know we we got into all the art garfunkel stuff with drance from last week like so it was it was a whole thing um but then i think jamie very rightly brought up the point he said you know we're talking about who's the core of this team and who you consider a core player. And, you know, Philip Peronic is a guy that's outside of that core group, I think, in my mind. Like to me, the core group of this team is Patterson, Miller, Demko and Hughes. And so then Jamie says, OK, well, let's look at Brock Besser, too, because he is a player with one year of team control left who could be due a big payday.

Just like Philip Heronic is a player with one year of team control left at this point that is going to be due a big payday this summer. If you don't consider Besser part of the core, what do you see his future being as someone that, you know, if he has another big year could be due a big payday. And so in all of that context, I said there is a good argument to be made for trading Brock Besser right now because his value is high. Does that mean I'm trying to ship him out of town? No, of course not. But at the same time, and this is the point I made in that full answer,

is when you're a good team and you have good players, you have to make hard decisions on some of these guys look at the chicago blackhawks and how they continue to be relevant and push their contention window by moving on from guys like dustin bufflin and andrew ladd and the list goes on and you know they extended their window longer by you know not overspending on some of these players that were great players for them and big parts of their team. But, you know, had they, you know, tied up all their money in some of those players, then it might have prevented their ability to win. And, you know,

extending that conversation on from just Besser and looking at all of the potential UFAs going into this summer, that's a tough needle to thread for the Canucks because they had a good year and a lot of these guys gave them good minutes and that would be great to have as many of them back as possible. But at the same time, what do you do in terms of limiting your ability to get better as a group if you tie up too much money in guys that you don't necessarily consider core players on your roster. And also we have to adjust our thinking a little bit too, to these guys with one year left before they're free agents, because the Canucks will now, and Canucks fans will now expect the

team to make the playoffs. And it used to be a lot easier to go into a season with a guy with one year left before his UFA. You're like, well, just trade him at the deadline if you can't sign him, right? That's not really applicable. Hopefully, it's not applicable next season. Hopefully, the Canucks are into a playoff position when the trade deadline hits. But let's say they are, and Brock Besser is still a pending UFA then you get into this position that well the Calgary Flames went through it with Johnny Goudreau and then he just he left um now

I'm not saying that Brock Besser would choose to leave Vancouver like Johnny Goudreau would I think that's a different situation but there might be a question of whether or not the Canucks can afford to give Brock Besser the money that he deserves. Right? Yeah, that's like the entire point I'm making, essentially. And, you know, we can talk like Philip Hronick's situation is different because he's a restricted free agent this year. But the conversation around Philip Hronick coming off a career year for him is, can the Canucks afford to give him the money that he wants or deserves? And that's the exact conversation we're having about Brock Besser. He's coming off a career year.

Yes, he's still got a year left on the deal, so it's not as pressing as the Hironik situation, but can the Canucks afford to give him the money he deserves, especially if he goes out and is on another 40 goal pace kind of season prior to the trade deadline which based on the way he played with JT Miller this past year is certainly possible you know the other point I've made as well is that this was basically the first year that Besser has been healthy throughout the season with the exception of the blood clotting issue that held him out of game seven so you could look at that two ways you could say okay that's great he's been healthy he can continue to train to the right direction or you can say

this is a guy that's been injury prone is that going to happen again is his value going to be any higher than it is right now like you know they're the this is not just a cut and dry brock besser had 40 goals he's a great player They have to bring him back situation, especially when you juxtapose that with the fact that they've already committed $11.6 million per season to Elias Pettersson. And I know that's a touchy conversation right now because of how well Besser played in the playoffs and how poorly Pettersson played in the playoffs. And people will be saying, well, why did you commit that money to Pettersson when it might be better allocated to Besser? But we know in terms of upside, Pedersen is the better player. He's proven that in his career. Now, he obviously didn't play well down the stretch. And if that continues into next season, then there could be

some big questions of him and his play and all that $11.6 million payday that the Canucks gave him. But, you know, it's recency bias here to say that they should be giving Besser that kind of money instead I would say do you think the Filiperonics situation will be figured out one way or another before July 1st you would hope so um but uh I have like I don't have a feel for how how the negotiations are going right like i would imagine that conducts management is sitting down with all of the guys they want to bring back and trying to hash out as much as they can prior to july 1st because the more certainty you have on who is coming back with your ufas and your rfas then the better prepared you are to go into free agency and

understand what cap space you have and what you can spend and what you can't and who you are to go into pre-agency and understand what cap space you have and what you can spend and what you can't and who you need to target. Because in a world where they don't have Philip Hironik locked up by then or they don't have certainty within one way or another, you need to figure out what your blue line is going to look like and you need to try and round that out. So, I mean, I think the canucks would love to have certainty on that but that's going to depend on on you know how how the two sides dig their heels in in the negotiations and everything we've heard right now is that veronic is asking for a lot more money than

the canucks are asking for now with this organization in particular i think we've seen that there will be sort of no news on a negotiation and people will think that it's far apart. And then, you know, within hours they could announce that they've, they've signed an extension so they can get these things done quickly when they need to. But, um, you know, would I be surprised if they signed him before July 1st? No, I wouldn't. Would I be surprised if they don't sign him before July 1st and he's one of the guys on the, uh, the arbitration list and we're talking about him going into a hearing later in the summer. I wouldn't be surprised at

that either based on some of the things we've heard about how far apart they are on a number right now. Do you think the Canucks would like, ideally like, to see Hronik on his own pair? Yes, because I think it was Alvin who specifically said that at the end of season press conference. And, you know, it's hard because he and Hughes played so well together. And I think Hughes likes playing with him a lot. And you can understand why.

You know, he had an offensively tremendous season, like a career year. Did Hughes, he's probably going to win the Norris trophy and Philip Hironik does deserve credit for that right like he he did elevate Quinn Hughes on that pairing but to me you know the the second pair and having another guy that can move the puck and create offense and drive play on another pairing is important because I think as much as Hronik really helped Quinn Hughes, I think it limits his upward potential being the guy that just has to get the puck to Quinn Hughes rather than being a guy that can drive play himself and create offense himself and be the guy that his partner is trying to get the puck to

so he can make plays. Now, the problem with all of that is that we didn't see it this year. So, you know, the Canucks can think that he's a guy that can drive his own pair, can want him to be a guy that can drive his own pair, but they don't know that he's a guy that can drive his own pair. And that's what makes this whole conversation even that much more complex is because if you're going to sign him and give him term and give him you know relatively big dollar shall we say you're doing it on the hope and belief that that he could be a guy that can have

that level of impact without having actually seen it this past year now i'm confident that if they want to bring heronic back if they think that you that he's the best fit for them, if they like the fact that they could try to use him on his own pairing, then I think Hronik can be a guy that can be a good second pairing defenseman and lead a pair and help generate offense, especially if he's healthy. We saw what he did in the first half of the season as opposed to the second half of the season from an offensive production standpoint. But you are sort of betting on something that you don't know for sure about,

and that's what will make this whole conversation really interesting, and that's what makes the dollar amount interesting. And then, you know, on top of all of that, if you don't think the dollar amount makes sense or you don't think he's going to be able to drive his own pair and you want to move on from him, it's not just like, OK, well, we won't resign him and open up that cap space. Like he's a restricted free agent. You've got to find a trade partner for him. You've got to get what you feel about him, that might not be possible either. So, you know, this is this is an interesting situation to see how it's going to play out one way or another,

because even if the Canucks don't want to pay him a certain amount and feel that it's not fair to keep him, if they can't find a trade partner for him, they may have to or go to arbitration. And at that point, it's a coin flip in terms of what sort of dollar amount he's going to get on an award in uh in a hearing how do you think they're going to add more speed that's something that patrick alveen said he wants to add and everyone says well marty nachos is fast but there's gonna be a lot of teams uh interested in marty nachos um i mean he is available and i'm sure carolina has been fielding a lot of calls on him. Let's say the Canucks don't get him. Are there any names I'm putting on the spot here? I know you're not a pro scout, but are there any names that that that come to mind? Yeah, let me dig into my Rolodex here and figure out exactly who not really off the top of my head.

Like if I if I look at the free agent list this year like there are there are some high end offensive guys that i could imagine the cadets targeting in terms of um you know wanting to improve offense at the top of their roster but they don't necessarily scream speed to me right like sam reinhardt's a ufa right now if i'm not mistaken uh Jake Gensel, Tyler Bertuzzi, Tevo Taravita, like these are all wingers who could provide more offensive upside and are the kind of players you could imagine them targeting at the top of their lineup, as they've always talked about, you know, wanting another top six forward. But I don't think of any of those guys as tremendous burners, although, you know, having Sam Reinhardt in your group would be a tremendous coup if if something like that were to happen although his payday is going to be colossal

after the the year he had but um you know really when you look at speed in particular Natchez is the guy that that jumps out and you know because that's a trade situation rather than a signing situation we'll have to wait and see um you know if that's something the Canucks could pull off, or maybe if they have other names that they would target in terms of, in terms of trades or, or guys further down the lineup that can bring more of that speed because, you know, this is all going to depend on who stays and who goes and with the forward

group, you know, in the bottom six, if Dakota Joshua is not back, who are you replacing him with um so there's lots of conversations to be had here about how they acquire that speed and that's going to be the test for them is you know if you could go and get a guy like Natchez and you can get it done say in the next week or two here before uh the draft or before free agency then that is a big feather in your cap in terms of adding speed and adding that top six forward that you've talked about wanting to bring in. But if that doesn't materialize or you can't make that happen, then what do you do?

And who are the players that you target is, is a great question. And that's where this organization has to lean on its pro scouting, which to their credit has served them very well through this point you know like even a guy like sam lafferty who i know you know was in and out of the lineup at times and uh played a depth role they got him for a fifth round pick on the eve of the season and if there's one thing that sam lafferty brought it was speed on the wing so there are lots of ways to you know target

a particular issue like speed if you want it or size and physicality if you want it and we know that the canucks value all of those things and you know if you can't get the the big name or you can't hit the big home run in terms of a free agent signing or a trade right away then that's where you have to lean on your professional scouts and lean on the guys that found you Dakota Joshua and and you know others throughout the last couple of years to try and help you you know work on these issues and find the kind of players you want that you think will fit under Rick Talkett's style as well which I think is another important part of this conversation and ultimately allow you

to try and win and continue to win next year they might have to dramatically rebuild their penalty killing unit too if you look at the the six guys that played the most shorthanded in the playoffs ian cole teddy bluger elias lindholm tyler myers nikita zadorov dakota joshua all unrestricted free agents um i guess that has to be a consideration as well and also who's going to run the penalty kill considering that mike yo departed the organization i imagine they could give that to adam foot but um until we know for sure we don't know yeah and i would imagine that they're going to bring in another full-time assistant. So that may be one of the things that they're looking for

in terms of someone they bring in. It's someone that has a coaching profile with the penalty kill or potentially the power play, because we know how much the power play struggled, and that was kind of Rick Talkett'scket's file uh throughout this season so do you want to try and take that off his plate and and have someone that can run that too so that that we know how much a bad penalty kill can hamstring you because we saw it happen to the canucks not this season but last season in terms of you know being a historically bad penalty kill

struggling there was all sorts of talk about personnel and and how they needed to improve that this year and they did it right you look at all those guys like you're talking about all those guys who are pending free agents most of those guys are also guys they brought in to help the penalty kill and they did um so now you've got to do that again especially if most of those guys aren't coming back. That's another big factor here. We talk about top six forwards. We talk about speed. You also need to have guys down your lineup that can fill a role for you on special teams,

on the penalty kill in particular, because we saw throughout this season how much they value penalty killing ability based on some of the lineup decisions that Rick Tockett made, where if you were a guy like Phil DiGiuseppe for example who you know killed penalties in certain situations he wasn't one of their you know biggest penalty killers but he would get into the lineup over other guys at times or like Nils Oman got big opportunity in the lineup because of his value to the organization as a penalty killer. So if you're going to be a bottom six forward on this team, you've got to be someone that could kill penalties and you've got to be someone that could do it well.

So in terms of rebuilding the penalty kill, you know, figuring out how the bottom six makeup's going to look, figuring out what your bottom two defensive pairings look like, and ultimately bringing in an assistant coach to work with Rick Talkett and out of foot foot like the penalty kill to me has to be right at the top of that list in terms of things they have to target in all of those facets and then you know we could talk about the power play as well which it's going to be interesting to see what changes there in terms of personnel potentially if they bring in someone like natious or a top six forward um and then in

terms of coaching if they bring in a coach that canez or a top six forward. And then in terms of coaching, if they bring in a coach that can help them improve in that regard as well. There are a lot of balls in the air for this team. Like it's a very complicated off season. But the one thing I will notice, I do notice is that, and this isn't surprising, but there is so much more trust in this front office to solve the issues. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Because they've done it, right? We saw what they did last year and the players they brought in and how well things worked out with those players. So, you know, I think this fan base gets a bad rap sometimes for being negative and always critical. But I think what we've seen with Alvin and Rutherford is how quickly they've been able to turn that narrative around with basically one year of good moves. Like if you think back to, or I guess 18 months now, but like you think back to how hostile the market was with the way Boudreaux was let go and everything like that. And then within a few weeks of that, you know, Horvat was gone and Hronik was in. And then they made the moves they made in the summer. And they came into this season with a better, more solid blue line and a better, more solid penalty kill.

And they had the season that they did. That's all it took for this fan base to be like, all right, man, we're in. You guys have the wheel. We trust where you're going to take it. Let's go. So that is a welcome change rather than sort of the hand-wringing that we're used to in this market

over the way that summers are going to be managed by the organization. And having that trust in this management group is important because you're right with the number of balls in the air, the way the organization approaches and deals with this summer and how they figure it out and who's back and who isn't and who gets big money and who doesn't like,

this was one of the points I was making in that initial conversation about Besser that, that caught so much heat online is these are hard decisions to make, and the way you manage this summer is not just going to define whether the Canucks will be a good team or a playoff team next year. It defines how long their window is. How much opportunity does this core group have to have success? Because you make some smart moves, you bring in some good complimentary players,

you figure out a way to manage your cap in a way that allows you to continue to grow and have success, then your window extends a little bit longer, in my opinion. Whereas if you, on the other side of things, commit money to players that had career years that maybe are not going to provide

that level of play for you again or maybe are starting to get a little older and and you know won't be able to be as consistent as they were this past season over the next few years then you limit your window so um you know obviously because the playoffs for this team only just ended a few weeks ago we're all in the mindset of okay how do they win next year? How do you, how do you bring as many of these guys back? So you could have success at the same time. Like this management group has to look a little bit to the medium term here

and say, okay, you know, we need to make decisions that make our team competitive now, but we can't do it while sacrificing our team's chances to remain competitive for three or four more years potentially with guys like you know Besser and Demko and their contracts coming up and needing to figure out how to have the cap space to bring those guys back too if you want to. Batch thanks for this buddy we really appreciate it enjoy the rest of the week we'll do this again next week. Sounds good thanks boys have a good one. Thank you Brendan Batchelor play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the again next week. Sounds good. Thanks, boys. Have a good one. Thank you. Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice

of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halverd and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. This isn't a doomsday thing, dear listeners. I just want everyone to know that. I'm not trying to go down

the road of, look at the cap hell that the Vancouver Canucks are going to get in. I think it's more an instructive thing that for all the good contracts that the Canucks have right now,

Demko and Quinn Hughes among them, every year is a year closer to that contract being up and having to renegotiate. And I think it speaks to something you always talk about. Planning is almost eternal. It never stops. You never stop looking ahead.

You never stop planning for the future. And you never stop looking at what happens not just a year from now but two years from now and three years from now what happens to this window how long can we extend it how long do we realistically have under it with demco i think a big part of this now is after the last two seasons number one question for me is he going to be able to stay healthy for an entire calendar year and into the playoffs? That's the goal now, right? And part of that's on the team to make sure that he's not overworked.

I mean, you want to talk about Newark. That's why Shelaw's is such a blessing. You can give him more games. I think. Demko has to play less. Shelaw's plays more. And you can do it because Shelaw's is good. Yeah, and I think that's what's maybe going to be the most interesting thing about next season is you're coming off a year in which you had great team success

and Demko played such a huge part in it. When the Canucks were rolling in the first half of the season and through January, Demko was a rock. Probably why he's up for the Vesna. And then he got hurt. Then he came back. And then he got hurt. Then he came back, and then he got hurt again. Do you think it's difficult in season

to play Demko less? I think it's easier now to say it. Like, okay, we have Selahs who would love to play 25 games, let's just say. But then you have three games in a week. Why would you not play Demko? I think in the moment, you're like, we're trying to get off to a good start. If there's three games in five or six days and you're kind of like,

well, he's got a rest day every time. Right. We're talking about how they wanted to get off to a good start. Well, you want to put us fully in there. I feel like the Canucks were guarding against a collapse all season. I think so too. Do you know what I mean? They were just like, we cannot, we got to keep this going.

We got to keep it going. And any little bit of adversity was treated with an emergency type level response. Like that Minnesota game in February where they were just like, what is happening right now? Is this the Canucks? Like what's going on? I think that's where they lost faith into Smith, though. That game.

Because he started out really well. And then that game, and he really had to. If Demko had been in there for that game, he would have been yanked. But because he was the backup, they had to keep him in there. And you're just like, you're going to take this, and you're going to you're gonna take this and you're gonna you're gonna get eight or nine goals against i think one was an empty netter somehow yeah i think it was two empty netters i think it was eight against because they scored like

five goals the connoisseur league for third right it was such a blur you're listening to the best of halford and brough