Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/4/26

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they get a 'Nucks update from Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance, who joins the boys live from Buffalo at the NHL Draft Combine. 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. Underneath, puts it up, puts it in. Jalen Brunson does it again. It's a six-point lead with 37 seconds left. Six and four, six-four, six-and-four. We've been done in a series before, never in the finals, obviously, but I'm not kicking myself about anything, really.

I mean, I'm not worried this later. All right. Hello. What? Didn't you hear what he said? Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Thursday. Good poll.

Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford and his Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Good morning to you.

Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brow for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can off to reduce your debt by up to 80% with the upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Pall Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. If you want to text into the show today, the Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations, find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. Okay, we got a big show ahead. We will begin with our morning guest list.

It's the Duick Morning Drive brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 7 o'clock this morning. That's right. First hour, all uninterrupted Halbro. First guest goes at 7. It's Adnan Verk from MLB Network. So after winning 8 of 10, Laddie, the Js have now lost four in a row. We got some audio. Things are getting a little spicy in Toronto.

Meanwhile. They're getting healthier. They're getting healthier. They sure are. But they're not winning the baseball game. It's still good. Meanwhile, meanwhile, the Mariners had their eight game win streak snapped last night with loss to the Mets. So we got a lot to get into all that and more with Adnan at 7 o'clock this morning.

7.30 James Myrtle's going to join us. Senior writer from the athletic. He's going to join us live from Carolina. The site of this year Stanley Cup final. Game two goes tonight. Golden Knights hold a one game's ten on series lead. We're also going to talk to James about his recent piece profiling Cain's owner, Tom Dundon. Very interesting piece, not just because of, you know, the fact that Dundon's very much in the news right now with his ownership of the Portland Trailblazers.

But he's not doing a lot of media, if any media at all right now. As a matter of fact, James classified it as a rare recent instance of him granting an interview request. I think it's hard to get a hold of Dundon because of all the scrutiny he's under right now. Yeah. So James got that access, wrote a very very very important. very cool article for the athletic. We're going to talk to him about it at 7.30. 8 o'clock Thomas Drance is going to join the program from Kinnock's Talk and the Athletic. Today at 11 a.m. So five hours from now, many Malhotra will meet with the media where he will be formally, officially introduced as the 23rd head coach in franchise history.

Drans wrote about the Malhotra hire and a whole lot more at his latest Kudak's notebook, which dropped last night on the athletic. So big Kinnock's talk with Drans coming up at 8 o'clock this morning and then a reminder three hours later, Manny meets with the media at 11 o'clock. Dran's in Buffalo right now, right? That's right. He is in Buffalo. Now, did Drans get a dinner date with the Canucks? That's going to be something that we talk about and what happened. I'd highly doubt it, but we'll wait and see. Okay, so there's the guest list.

We got a lot to get into in the program. So without further ado, Laddie, 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 could be. What happened? missed it?

You missed that? Why don't we begin with the Vancouver Canucks and the NHL scouting combine in Buffalo? All the stars are there. Thomas Dranx, others. The Canucks have apparently lined up a handful of dinner dates. Ooh, dinner dates in Buffalo. You know what I wonder about with all these dinners? What's that?

Where are they going? So Jason and I have been to Buffalo a few times. Arby's. Possibly. I've been many times. You've been to Buffalo or Arby's? Both. We went to one nice restaurant.

I mean, Nice is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, but it was okay. Right? Do you remember that one? Do you remember that one? Do you remember the Buffalo? The Italian restaurant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's what it was called, the Italian restaurant.

It's the one in town. Just said Italian restaurant on it. It was called Buffalo's Italian restaurant. Yeah. And on the menu, it just had the words Italian food. You just pointed to it and then they brought you stuff. They're like, don't worry, we still have wings. You know what?

Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to not dive any deeper into the story because there's no way I can tell this story without coming off as a conceited jerk about like, oh, what a snob. He's got his nose in the air. But we did drive a long way to go to what was quite honestly, just like the most average neighborhood Italian restaurant. That's what it was. It was also had five Michelin stars for Buffalo. So, anyway, the reason we're talking about dinners in Buffalo is because the Vancouver. But the stars were actually given out by Michelin Tires. And here's your tire, sir.

Have we come off with like jerks yet? Now we have. The correlation was the toughness of the stakes. No, okay. So, Czech TV's very own Rick Dollywall confirming a number of things, despite the fact he's not boots on the ground in Buffalo. The Canucks have taken the following prospects out for a night on the town in Buffalo. Stenberg, Malhotra, Caleb, not Manny,

Gavin McKenna, and that's interesting because according to Shang-Peng from San Jose hockey now, McKenna is only going out to meet in this capacity with one of the top three teams as it pertains to the NHL draft board. He's not doing it with Toronto, he's not doing it with San Jose, but he is doing it with Vancouver. Oh, wait, Michel and Tires start gave out the stars?

People are texting those in. That's where it's from. I mean, the tire... Now I feel like an idiot. Well, the tires don't actually give them out. Well, why does Michelin tires give out the restaurant? It's a very diverse business. That's bizarre. Now I feel like a complete idiot.

Well, a complete moron, and you let me do that. You really led yourself to those waters. Look. Why is the tire company doing that? It seems like an odd connection. Like, I'm going to open a tire company and also be a foodie. Was it like you can travel to these restaurants? on our tires.

Possibly. Okay. All right. Are we good? We're getting distracted. A dog, why don't you research that? Have a little story for us while we go through this. Don't look at me like, oh, you're making me do work.

I'm actually doing work right now. No, you're not. Come on. Find out. Okay. Go. So Rick Dollywall reported that those were the four. The one that I didn't mention, of course, Chase Reed.

Of all the four, Reed probably becomes the most interesting, the 18-year-old defenseman who is rocketed up a number of draft boards, and some may consider him the top defensive prospect available. Of course, he applied his trade with Prince George this year. Now, we shouldn't read too much into who the Canucks are meeting with. Let's just make that abundantly clear off the hop, having covered a number of draft combines and the draft processes and draft years in the past.

But why is McKenna only meeting with the Connox? Well, that's interesting. I don't know why, as a matter of fact. You have work to do. Yeah. Once you figure out, once you get to the bottom of, Jason's Michelin. You go to work, tired boy. Yeah, you can then figure out why McKenna's only meeting with the Canucks. Look, the Canucks have a profoundly important draft in front of them.

Also, they have four picks in the first 41 at this draft. So of all the teams that are there, there are none that may want to or need to do more due diligence than the Vancouver Canucks when they're spending this week in Buffalo. Like the stakes are high for a lot of teams at this draft. Let's not get it twisted. Toronto has a pretty pivotal pick being first overall. San Jose can really add to a young, exciting group with the second overall pick. But given where the Canucks finished, what their offseason has entailed a complete overhaul,

almost top to bottom in terms of executive management, general manager, now coach, this draft and this first round is extremely important. And, you know, when you talk about having your draft list and the guys that you like, and I've had so many people come up to me. I was playing basketball last night and had a couple people come up to me and they're all asking about Caleb Alhotra, right? And I say the same thing every time.

I don't think that the Canucks have talked to themselves into the potential of taking him third overall. I think they firmly believe, along with a lot of other draft pundits, that his rise up the draft rankings to where he could be a very viable third overall pick has to do with the fact there's a lot of people that genuinely believe

he's a high-end talent. The player himself said this yesterday in an interview with Mike Morial from NHL.com, which we relayed where he talked about the potential of playing with his dad in Vancouver. At the very end, he talked about where his floor and ceiling was as a prospect, and Caleb said

he models his game in terms of the high end of it to being like an Alexander Barkoff. I mean, that's an amazing comp. Granted, it's coming from the player himself, but good on him for having the confidence, but there are some scouts of the thing that he's got real high-end talent here. Anyway, back to the list is, it's drawn up.

So again, it's Denver, Melhotra, Reed, and McKenna as the four guys at the Kinnock's have taken, let's call it special interest in in Buffalo. I was told they didn't take Mel Hotra out for dinner. Okay. So, I mean, it doesn't really matter, but I'm pretty sure they know them. They do. And they've also met with them and had a one-on-one interview already. That was one of the first ones that they did in Buffalo. Like, I think, I think people need to understand that the teams have talked to these guys before. Someone texted in a few days ago and said, you know, like, are they allowed to,

are they allowed to talk to these guys before the combine? Yeah, they can. And in that McKenna documentary, they were asking him about who he's spoken to. And he said, well, most of the bottom teams right now. Right? Like, that's, that's who I was talking to. So these dinners really, I don't want to say they're not a big deal because I think there is potential for the dinners to go badly.

But the only, like, that's the only thing, that's the only thing, right? Like, there's a potential downside if the dinner doesn't go well. And maybe you're left after that dinner going like, did he not like the food or, Did he not like us? We were going to draft Caleb, but he said his thing on fire. What's it called? Keep going. I'm glad you interrupted for that.

Why? His menu. His thing? Ah, that's the word. Oh, by the way, I have the Michelin Star thing if you wanted. That would have been better to start with. In 1900, French tire makers André and Edward Michelin published a guidebook to encourage road trips.

More driving meant more tire wear and replacement. The guide included restaurant listings to give motorists a destination, which evolved over the decades into the highly prestigious Michelin Star ranking system we know today. That was much better. The amount of text that are pouring in right now. I learned something. I didn't know that either. Yeah. Okay. Keep going. Today at 11 a.m. Many Malhotra is going to

meet with the media. This is going to be the first time that he will be in front of the assembled reporters and whatnot after being named the 23rd head coach in franchise history. There's a handful of things that he's going to be asked today. I've kind of parsed through what we can expect to hear from the head coach, even though my initial impression and prediction is that he's going to be very much in lockstep with Daniel and Hendrick Siddine and Ryan Johnson in the messaging that they put forth. That being said, there are some things that are going to be extremely

exclusive to Manny now that he is the head coach. These are in no particular order, but I think one of the first questions that's going to be asked is, what's the rest of your coaching staff going to look like? And I bring this up because yesterday, and we got word of this just as we are going off the air. On the 32 Thoughts podcast featuring Elliot Friedman, Elliot shared that he's heard one name that Canucks are interested in adding to their staff. And that's former Seattle Cracken assistant coach, Jessica Campbell. There's obviously going to be a lot of jobs available in Abbotsford. There's also going to be coaching jobs available in Vancouver. So it remained unclear based on Friege's clip and what he said on the podcast where any potential

candidates might land. But there's one name that's already out there as a Jessica Campbell could be gathering interest from the Vancouver Canucks. In terms of adding other things to his staff, I would very much, and I've mentioned this a couple times on the show already, but I would very much like to see a former NHL head coach, someone that's been in that position before, maybe that someone Manning's worked with over the course of his coaching career, to come in and have that veteran presence, that type of presence on the bench in Manney's first year on the job, Do any names come to mind? I was joking around that they should take a look at Guy Boucher,

because I believe they coached together for one year in Toronto. They were assistant coaches. Why not Alex Burroughs? Alex Burroughs would be great, but he doesn't have the head coaching experience. And he's an assistant coach. Yes, very good. He's also moved into a player development role, almost kind of working in what the Cedines were doing in Abbotsford in Montreal.

Now, there have been talks about getting more the bandmates back together. Burroughs, Alex Edler's name has popped up a couple times. There was a Swedish news report from a couple days ago. But I do wonder if those hires might be to replace what the Siddines were doing within the organization in terms of player development.

I also think that as the days go along here, if the triumvirate of Johnson and the Siddines are going to hold true to what they say about, we're going to give everybody the resources they need to succeed, those kinds of hires, maybe the Burroughs type and the Edler type,

are going to be brought in as facilitators, development, guys that are going to work just around the players because there's going to be so many young players and so many guys honing their craft, and they're going to be more interested in learning and teaching and growing that you maybe want more hands on deck for that. I know I said that these coaching staffs are going to be different than the usual ones, whereas typically you'll hire, you know,

who's a good power play guy, who can run a PK? And then you've got this guy's in charge of the defense and this guy's in charge of the forwards. But they still do need to play these games, right? You know, they need teachers. But I agree with you that they need some semblance of experience on the bench because the rookie presidents, the rookie general manager, the rookie head coach. Remember our conversation maybe a month ago? and it was probably maybe two months ago actually and there were lots of reports that

ownership or certain elements of ownership wanted an experienced general manager for this position and we brought up a couple names and people were like no not him right and we had this big conversation about um you know well our guys on a second job actually actually a really good idea because maybe they've learned some things in the first job.

Yeah, it was like the Bergevans. Bourgevent. Borgiavan. Right? And everybody else, yeah. I still think there's something to be said for bringing in someone who's had experience

in a Canadian market either in the coaching staff or in management or, frankly, both. Because these guys all know what it's like to be in the Vancouver market. The Seneens know what it's like to be in the Vancouver market. And Manny Mahaltura has been in the Vancouver market. But I still think there's something to be said for, hey, I went through this here.

Could this happen here? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Look, I think that having some... I just don't think you want all rookies. I think having someone that's been through the battles and understands, some of the challenges that you're inevitably going to face as a head coach, having someone to lean on like that is vitally important.

But ultimately, it's going to come down first and foremost to who Mani's most comfortable with. And he's worked with a ton of coaches before. You can go back through his hockey DB page or lead prospects and look at the staffs that he's served on throughout his time, both in the American and national hockey leagues, and there's no shortage of candidates that they can bring in. The other question that I was very curious about Mani, that he's going to have to have to answer today. Inevitably, how do you feel about potentially coaching your kid? Because right now, we've heard from everybody else, every other sort of person of significance

in this dynamic we've heard from. The Siddines have addressed it. Ryan Johnson has addressed it. Caleb Melhotra has addressed it. And now all that's left is for Manny to share his thoughts on it. And quite honestly and frankly, his thoughts may be the most important of the lot. it may be more important than everybody else put together because he's going to be put in that very unique role of having to balance two different roles when it comes to Caleb. You're his father and you're also his coach, right? The player just goes out in place, right? And you might be put in some difficult situations, but at the end of the day, you're focused

on one thing and that's being a player. I'll be very curious if Manny, and I highly doubt this will happen, but if Manny goes at all a skew of what's been put forth because everybody right now, the Siddins, Johnson, and his son seem in lockstep that it'll be no problem, that there's no issues that they've addressed that. You know, Johnson had the quote from the other day that kind of made the round saying, I want to make sure that Manny had time to talk with his wife and his family, understanding that drafting Caleb would be a possible scenario.

So they've already had the conversation with Manny and he seems to be on board with it. Johnson went on to say, I wanted to make sure there was. no hesitation on him moving forward and taking this position. I felt that I owed him that to have that conversation about possibly drafting Caleb. Can you imagine if they pass on Caleb after all this conversation? Let's say it goes McKenna Stenberg. So Adog doesn't get to pipe up. But they can pass on him.

And then they're like, ah, Chase Reed. Well, here's the thing. Oh, Reed's really good. So, I mean, does the draft get most interesting at three if that's what happens? if one and two go according to the board. Well, yeah, but the draft gets interesting at one. Yeah, but let's say for argument's sake here, the Leafs do the sensible thing and take McKenna.

And I'll call it the sensible thing, and the sharks like just take Stenberg. Right. The Canucks are now faced with this choice. I think they'll take Malhotra then. But I'd be surprised. Because the storylines if they pass. We haven't heard,

we haven't heard very much talk at all about the Canucks potentially taking a defenseman. Nope. I haven't talked at all. Chase Reed, that was, I think, the first time I've mentioned them on our show. And I think that's where people might be like, well, the Canucks clearly are prioritizing a position then. Or if there's not even a conversation about what would,

here's a question, what would have to happen for the Canucks to take a defenseman? Is it even possible considering that McKenna, Stenberg, and Malhotra, all forwards are all in this draft? and like the connects would have to like get bounced back to fourth or fifth somehow. Well, struck by lightning and all of a sudden their draft position changes. Okay, let's continue this conversation.

Go back to my original thought. If they go, if it goes McKenna, Stenberg, as we're expecting it to go. Then I think they're taking a Malhotra. But that's what I'm saying. From what we've heard, from what we've heard, but we could be misinformed. I had heard at one point that Evan Gold was going to be their general manager.

So who knows with this media, they don't even understand Michelin stars because they have no culture in their lives. If they pass, if they pass, the storylines become, I mean, from a personal perspective, 10 times more intriguing. If they pass on Malhotra. Because the big question then is why. If you had them this highly rated. What happened?

Yeah. Or were you as comfortable as you said publicly, right? And I mean, they might end up saying, well, you know, on our draft boards, we had player X, be it Chase Reed or somebody else higher. But that is not going to take away from the narrative. A follow question. Why are you such a liar? Yeah. Because right now.

Why does this organization continue to lie? I thought things were going to be different. Right now, they have made it pretty abundantly clear that they've discussed the possibility of taking him at three and that everyone, and we'll hear from Manny today to confirm this, but everyone's on board and comfortable with the dynamic. Finally, third question that I want to hear Manny answer today. Have you talked to PDA yet?

If you haven't, when are you going to and what is that conversation going to be like? Because that to me is the one where the messaging could go the most astray. because they have left it pretty wide open. Here's the thing. When the Siddines have talked about Petey, I would say that there was an air of critique in the reply, right? Talking about it's up to Petey and he needs to come in and be prepared. When Ryan Johnson talked about him earlier this week,

it was more of a, let's throw an arm around the kid and tell him, you be whoever you want to be. We're going to be here to support you. I had a great encouraging conversation. Drans framed it as maybe the most encouraging public remarks that any Kinnucks management has had. in the last five years when it comes to PD. And you could throw talk it in there as a coach slash management, right?

Others have been critical. Johnson was pretty positive. But they also left the option open to, you know, we'll see what happens in the fall. I like that Johnson, I know he was talking a bit in the conversation, but I think the way he went about it was just like, what do you think, Elias?

Because what I got from that was that, Pederson or Johnson felt that Pedersen had just been told what to be as opposed to asking his opinion. Now, I have also heard that sometimes when they asked Pedersen for his opinion in the past, he's kind of shrugged his shoulders. It hasn't really been, you know, for example, on the style of play. Yeah. You know, and he's been like, well, I don't know. Well, that could go to your, do you want to play hockey? I could go to your earlier theory yesterday about like shutting down.

Yeah. Just like you're kind of beaten down at work and you don't particularly enjoy being there. And then when someone asks you, you're like, yeah, sure, whatever. Like I could see that kind of falling in lockstep with how things have gone for them, right? And, you know, the new regime, breath of fresh air, new ideas. And, you know, again, according to Ryan Johnson. I just hope Ryan Johnson got him to speak. You know, just talk about what's really on your mind.

Like, be completely honest. because you know what he'd say to us and, you know, I don't want to say I don't blame him, but I get it. He was like, I don't want to create a headline. Yeah. Which to me means that you've got something to say. And you just don't want to say it. So say it.

Yeah. I also think the conversation about Petey will inevitably demandy talking about the leadership group, which was also something that Ryan Johnson spoke about the other day. I can't imagine that the Canucks will have a captain this year after hearing what Ryan Johnson said earlier this week. I'll be curious to what Manny has to say about who's going to wear letters. this year the way that they're handed out.

You know, I think Johnson made it pretty clear that he doesn't like the flippant nature of, you know, someone's got to wear it. So we're going to give it to somebody. Man, he's going to have a major say in that. So I'll be curious to see what he has to say today. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. We go now to Buffalo, home of numerous Michelin-Star restaurants,

which we now know the origin story of, by the way. Download our one of the podcasts for that fun and game. I'm still feeling the shame. You shouldn't. Well, I should, you know, and you know why? Why? Because I'm the snob of the show. Yeah, out of everyone that should know what a Michelin Star is, it should be you.

You just right in there. Yeah. Like, I'm the snob. I'm always like, remember, I think it was just yesterday. I was like your Burnaby is showing. Yeah. Right? And every day.

If you missed it earlier in the show. Like it'd be okay if you didn't know the origin story of the Michelin Star because you are lowbrow trash you are trash right like in a nice way I was gonna say I resent the implication what did you think it was another similarly named Michelin unrelated company

from Jason I don't like conversing with the commoners bruff exactly right like I should know now I just feel like one of them yeah it's true you can see it on his face your gen pop is showing to the phone I kid I kid

kind of no not really to the able He's really heard by this. No, he's talking about. Never going to recover. He's talking about being associated with the commenters. To the able auctions hotline, we go. Thomas Drance joins us now on the Halford & Breff Show on Sports 965. What up, Drans?

Well, gentlemen, speaking of Michelin Stars and Fine Buffalo Dining Establishments, you all know I love a funny named restaurant, right? Like whenever I go down to Seattle and eat at Dix, I love to come back and tell you guys that I ate a bag of Dix. Yep. And so I'm dining last night with the head of, HR for the athletic who is also a Buffalo native. Okay.

And I'm asking him like, where's the best place for me to go eat wings and watch the Stanley Cup final game tomorrow, right? Because that's a natural thing that I'd want to do on a Thursday night in Buffalo. And he's like, well, there's this great place called Adolfs. And I'm sitting there and I'm trying so hard not to make a joke, right? like I'm just like, oh no. Like, this is ahead of HR. Like, I can't do it.

And I was like, any other options? And he was like, yeah, there's another great place called 9-11. Are you serious? What? Are there any non-controversial restaurants in Buffalo? Michelin won't go to your other of these. By the way, I know Adolfs, by the way. I remember from when we were there.

We didn't go. It's called Adolf's Old Ward Tavern. Yeah, you're like, oh, I shouldn't have worn this brown shirt. Yeah, this is my good. So you got a choice between Adolfs and 9-11 is what you're saying? Those are your restaurant choices? I was just like, I was sitting there and I was just like, what am I supposed to do with this?

HR is already on line one. They're at the table with you. Okay. I'm assuming that in their tour of Buffalo and taking out a bunch of different prospects, the Canucks did not go to Adolfs or 9-11. But what do you make of all of these dinners that the Canucks are taking their prospects out there? Or they're, sorry, their potential prospects. They're not Connucks property yet.

It's now I'm hearing McKenna, Stenberg, a handful of others as well. I don't have the names off the top of my head. I think Chase Reed was in there as well. Oh, and of course, Caleb Malhotra. Your boots on the ground there. What do you know, Dranser?

Well, presumably, Canucks employees have had lots of meals with Caleb Malhotra over the years. The, yeah, I mean, that's just due diligence, right? You get a chance to see the white of players' eyes. I mean, this is a multi-million dollar decision that the franchise will face at the top of the draft

and make sense. You know, spend that time, get those quality touch points with as many prospects as you can get. You know, Ryan Johnson obviously had to leave yesterday evening. So only the earlier dinners would be attended by the Canucks GM, but nonetheless, for the organization itself, excuse me, there's a very loud truck going over the overpass there.

Yeah, I mean, you know, normal stuff. Like this is normal stuff. You do the dinner dates with the guys in your range. You know, I think the Kinex are obviously going to be interviewing a ton of other people. They have a much larger contingent here this year than they have in previous years, which underscores the importance of this draft class. And, you know, the dinner dates

reported on breathlessly as like dinner dates, right? It's quite funny. But it's, you know, it's a standard part of the process and looks like the Kinex are touching all the bases. Okay, I have a two-part question. The first part is it Vigo or Vigo or Vigo? That is a good question. The second part is when are you going to write your story about Vio, Vigo, or whatever it is, Bjork? Oh, I wrote it on Friday.

Okay. I wrote my case for Vigo Bjork on Friday. Check it out at The athletic. If you go to my Twitter feed, you'll find a gift article that you can access outside the paywall. And I'm chatting with him this afternoon. I've got my own series of interviews lined up. You can chat with the rucks with Stenberg with a few others shortly. Top prospects that are made available tomorrow.

And then every combine invitee participating in any part of the athletic testing is available on Saturday. So it's going to be a lot of conversations for myself with a bunch of these prospects. And I'm looking forward to getting a chance to get to know them. And I'll ask if you go specifically how to pronounce his first name. I'm pretty confident it's Vigo. I'm pretty confident that wouldn't be a soft G, but who knows, I'm prepared to be wrong. Are you going to take a tape measure to this interview and just be like, can you stand up against this wall? Or has he already, has his height already been measured?

And is that? No, Saturday morning. Okay. Saturday morning, his height will be measured, but I just want to go on record and say, I don't care at all. I don't care at all. He's going to measure just under 5'10, and it doesn't matter. this guy is not small. He's not small because he doesn't play small.

He wins battles against larger players. He wins battles against NHL players. There's also been questions about his speed, but I was watching him turn what should have been a three on two into a three on three when Nico Heeshire was the puck carrier. And he did it by catching up to Nico Heeshire while backtracking and getting his puck on the stick or getting his stick on the puck tarried by a perennial Selke nominee and a plus skating NHL center.

He's not slow. Like there's no, none of that stuff matters if you play the game the way he plays the game. He's not small. He's not slow. And I don't care if he measures in it five, nine and a half or five, ten. Like that's, that's a matter for Lavalife. That's not a matter for me. I don't care at all. He's a dog and he's not small.

He doesn't play small. Like if you're looking at just his listed height, you're going to make a mistake. Where was Bjork six months ago? where were Bjork and Malhotra on the consensus draft list? Yeah, I mean, both at the fringes of the top 10, right? Both at the fringes of the top 10. You know, in January, for example, there was sort of this movement to try and figure out who should go one.

And Verhoff had had a really stunning start to the season at North Dakota, Nodak for Mike Martinego, and had then crushed the U-A-team. or the Halinka, excuse me, the U18s, as an underageer. So there was some steam for him to be considered first overall. You also had the Tynan Lawrence steam as he was preparing to go to BC and hit the college hockey ranks before he sort of struggled to produce at that level, especially at the outset.

And then you had Stenberg, who was on this crazy historic scoring pace in the SHL and had just won the gold medal at the world, at the world, you had a lot of conversation like oh is mckenna losing you know um so that was sort of this moment and in that mix was you know both bork and malhotra neither of them really being considered at the top of the draft or in that sort of top five mix or as guys who could potentially unseat mckenna for for first overall or consensus first overall but they were you know in that next tier down sort of for inches of the top 10 and then Malhotra

went and had that crazy playoffs which sort of solidified his draft stock and in Bjork's case you know Bjork I think has like been at the top of this draft class for years like for two three years he's a real pedigree kid his rise late is not

as much a like shooting star as Malhotra's is it's not really built off of like six months of production that was inconsistent with what we'd seen before or, you know, represented potentially a new level that he'd hit late in this process. He sort of entered this draft classes, you know, for inches of the top five, fringes of the top ten, this draft year. He's been on radars for several years as a guy who was constantly playing like U-17 at 15, U-18 at 16, you know, U-20, obviously, and then. and actually men's competition at 17, which we saw this year. So, you know, for him, he's not really a late riser.

What I think is unique for Bjork is because he got the opportunity to play against NHL players, you had this moment that a lot of these smaller players don't get, right? A lot of these smaller players, especially if they're also non-elite skaters, you're Alex DeBrinquet tier guys. fall in the draft because lazily, NHL teams and amateur talent evaluators bring up questions about whether their games will translate.

Like, will it translate, though? It's not an elite skater, right? Zach Benson's another example. He's not an elite skater, and he's not big. He's going to get pushed around in the playoffs, and he doesn't have the speed to compensate, right? Like, that's the classic storyline that sort of gets pushed. And in Bjork's case,

he got this really unique opportunity to play against NHL players and win draws against Ryan O'Reilly and, you know, match up and do very well against Nico Hesher and on and on, where all of that usual rigamarole and excuses sort of were shown patently to be silly on tape in exactly the venue that, you know, most of these arguments get made in. So that's sort of the thing where it's like any concerns you had about Bjork kind of got addressed really quickly. Like you've now seen him

and if you go read my piece in the athletic, like I quote an NHL scout, like an amateur scout who says, you know, you saw it. Like he's not small and he's not slow.

Like he's not. He's just not, that's just not how it plays for him on a sheet with NHL players. In fact, on a big ice sheet against NHL players,

he's still an effective forechecker. Right? You can't tell me he's slow if that's true. So I think that's where Bjork's story is a little bit unique relative to what we usually see with guys of this size where they sort of go into the draft class and there's question marks that remain about how they'll fare against

NHL players and in in Bjork's case those questions have already been answered. Dranzer, I am going to put you on the spot here a little bit here, but I imagine you've talked to people about Caleb's hot streak in the second half of the season in including the playoffs. What do you know about that streak? Like was it a crazy shooting percentage run? was he getting lucky? I'm very, very hesitant to bring up this comparison.

In fact, I hope you're able to shoot it down. But in 2013-14, Jake Furtanen went on a run with the Calgary hitman. And he ended up scoring 45 goals in 71 games. And some of the people at the time were saying, yeah, that's not, if you want to say, translate to the NHL. That's not going to translate to the NHL. A lot of his shots were from Disney. they were beating goals, you know, they were, they were shots that weren't going to beat NHL goalies, et cetera, et cetera.

What do you know about this second half hot streak that Caleb Malhotra had from an offensive perspective? Yeah, I don't have sustainability concerns about it from the perspective of it being percentage driven. The Brantford Bulldogs as a whole finished with a super efficient clip of shooting. So there's some level of that baked in, but it's not just, the second half or playoffs thing. It's something they sustained over the course of the full season.

With Malhotra in particular, you know, his shot rate exploded in the playoffs more so than the percentages did. So it doesn't look to be miragy in the same way. Yeah, no, that's legit. Yeah.

Yeah. And then when you talk to folks, I mean, you know, I don't want to be very, very clear here. Like some of the sharpest evaluators that I know in this business, you know, as high as two, some of them have them one. Like this guy is very, very highly regarded by the people that I trust a lot.

Now, you know, that's not consensus. There's a variety of scouts that I chat with who'd have Vigo Bjork higher than him. There's a variety of scouts that I trust a lot who think the idea of taking him ahead of Ivar-Stenberg would be ludicrous. I probably shade a little closer to that based purely off of the profile bets, but I haven't been in the rinks watching these guys play. In Malhotra's case, you know, there's a usage expansion to account for. The production in the playoffs doesn't seem to be as percentage-based as it does seem to be volume-based, so that's a good sign.

And, you know, he effectively entered the OHL last season. He'd never sort of been a top scorer for his teams in the GTHL level or the BCHL level. and by about January, it was clear that he was one of, if not the best player on the Brantford Bulldogs and sort of went punch for punch with Jake O'Brien. There was a top 10 pick last year is obviously older than he is. You know, and is an extremely impressive prospect in his own right and sort of played like a top line center down the stretch and into the playoffs where he was completely dominant for the Bulldogs.

So, you know, I think there's a lot of people around the business buying at the level that he hit after January. like in the new year represents sort of a rocket ship trajectory, especially when you compare it with or sort of add to that case, the tools, right? The size, the skating speed, the defensive attentiveness, the character side of it, which, you know, is through the roof. Yeah. There's a lot of people buying what Caleb Mahotra is selling. And, you know, certainly there's a lot of buzz in the industry that the Canucks are at the front of that line, chief among them. So, yeah, I mean, a lot of buzz around Caleb.

I do think that the Canucks are probably, you know, they're probably not, I don't want to say like an outlier level high on him. But I think there's a consensus that, you know, if the Canucks were to go, Caleb, for example, over Stenberg, like, you know, I'm sure the Blackhawks would be pretty excited. Right. But I don't think Malhotra would, like, fall out of the top five, you know, I think. So he's a legit top five prospect in this class for most people. And I think my only, the only thing I've been sort of pouring cold water on is when you look at his scoring stats historically, you know, this is this is a profile that doesn't usually go top five. Like across the last 20 years, guys who've scored at this rate who've gone in the top five is like Brady Martin, Jordan Stahl. and, you know, there's one other guy

whose name I just can't come up with on the spot. But, you know, for the most part, these guys, your Shifley's, your Bohor bats, your Sean Monaghan's, your Pavel Zackas, they end up going sort of between the six to eight range. And so that would be sort of just the way that I'd captioned it, is like there's guys with sparkling, clean, star-level profiles, the sorts of bats that regularly turn into star NHL players.

that are still going to be on the board at three, and you're taking a guy with a profile that usually goes a little bit later. So you better be damn sure that this is a Beckett-Seneca-like rocket ship trajectory. Like, you better have watched the games and feel extremely comfortable making the bet you're making because it does sort of fly in the face of probability. And that's just not something, you know, again, these guys know more than me. Like these teams are going to, they have better resources, they've seen them more, right? I'm not trying to be arrogant about it.

But my question would just be like, do you trust the Canucks scouting staff to make that bet, given that every time they've gone against probability across the last six years, it's kind of blown up in their face. And I think that's where I say no. The other thing that I'd want to know is I'd want to hear from Caleb himself, just say like what happened in the second half of the season. For sure. And then test his answer with what you've seen on the ice.

because there are players in a lot of sports where it's just like, yeah, something clicked for me. And I figured out I could do this. And sometimes it has to do with, you know, you're still growing. You're still getting stronger. And you're like, yeah, I just got strong enough to be able to do the things that I started doing. And, you know, or maybe you have the confidence or something. You just something clicked for you. I mean, I would, you know, it's never happened for me in anything in life, but I've heard it happens, right?

You know, so it does happen. You know, it does happen. So I'd want to hear from him. Drancer, one question that I have for you, because I know that you're good at like, you know, you're big on scoring profiles, but you also kind of check your work, too. Where can scoring profiles lead you astray? Where can they trick you up? Well, the number one would be character.

Like, the number one thing would be just that it's, really tough to know. You know, so much of this is ultimately going to be determined by, here, I'll bring up an example for you. Like Zadano Chara was a deeply unimpressive 17-year-old U-20 player in the Czech extra league, right? Like, not even the men's check extra league. And then he went to the WHL and his 18-year-old, like in his draft plus one, had 22 points.

Yeah. Nothing in that profile says this guy's going to be a seven-foot. You know, six foot eight. And you watched a plane and you're like, this guy looks awkward. Right. But what the scoring profiles can't capture is like, this guy speaks eight languages, right? This guy is a genius, like a genius. He's got his realtors degree.

He has multiple businesses. He started some of them while he was still playing. After his playing days, he's a marathoner. And he's like an internationally ranked marathoner for his age who does the Boston marathon every year, right? Like he's an athletic freak. He's super competitive. He's mean, but he's also the best team may.

You know, like, that is never going to be captured in a scoring profile, right? Like, it's just not, right? Like, that is a special person. He's an outlier person in terms of his quality in every aspect of his life. And you can't know that from what he produced at the U20 level in Czechoslovakia at 17. That's the stuff. That's the number one thing I'd say is like, you can't know who that guy. is from their hockey TV page.

And does the same go, like in character, does the same go for a guy with a very impressive scoring profile? 100%. Yeah. Or is there any other reasons where it just like, it doesn't translate. Yeah, but think about it from the perspective of like, think about it from the perspective of like if a guy has a substance abuse issue, right?

Or if, you know, a guy like something like that. Like that's not going to necessarily show up in a scoring profile, but it might be a factor. If they're not a good teammate, if they're, you know, if their defensive play sucks so badly that they'll never be able to play top line minutes, right? And if they don't care, you know, that stuff might not show up in a scoring profile, but matters a ton. So, yeah, I mean, I do try to check my work.

One thing about this draft class that's actually pretty interesting and refreshing is there's very few conversations that you're having with anybody that's sort of spotlighting or pointing to guys on a list. and just saying like, oh yeah, you got to check on that guy. Like, yeah, check on that guy. I don't want to say it, but you got to check on that guy. I haven't had many of those conversations as I've gone through this process. It seems to be a pretty high character group of NHL prospects relative to the norm.

Oh, that's boring. Yeah. Well, that's good, I guess. It's good. I mean, it's happy for them. It's nice to see you, I suppose. Yeah, sure. Before we let you go, are you expecting anything of note or interesting

or something that you're wanting to get answered or wanting to hear from Manny Malhotra Day when he meets with the media at 11 a.m. Well, Mani's been extremely scrupulous about not discussing Caleb in his draft year. So that's number one. Like, that's a topic that he simply is not on the record about

in any venue or capacity. Every Malhotra feature written does not feature commentary for Manny. So I think that's number one for me. Like, number one is how does he answer that question. And, you know, we've heard from Ryan Johnson that he was explicit with his new head coach. Like, we're not going to let that be a factor for us. Okay, but how does Manny feel about it? Like, we haven't heard. We don't know. So that would be number one. Look, Manny's an extremely

impressive guy and I expect him to be extremely impressive in this venue. In terms of what I want to hear from him, that's number one. You know, I'll obviously be listening for clues on what thinks he needs in terms of his coaching staff and on and on. And yeah, I mean, more than anything, like that's really what, I suppose, you know, not to, not to like do the drance, like, let's put a little negative negativity pepper on this dish. Right. But as much as, yeah, too much pepper. Well, grind it on. Yeah. Um, I said I'm good. Thank you. Why are you? Say when. Say when. I said when. But, well, too bad. Uh, the, The thing about Ryan Johnson, Hendrik Daniel, and Manny Maledra is like, you know, I've always had good dealings with all four of them.

I think they're all sharp. And I think they're all in this for the right reasons. And from what they've elaborated on with the right vision, the vision that we've been waiting for in this market for a long, long time in terms of slow cooking a sustainably good hot team. Right? Like this might be the best chance that this market's had for the Canucks to actually patiently rebut. build in a long, long time. Now, whether they can stick to that, jury's still out, but at the very least, from the outset, I'm excited about where this seems to be going. But these guys need help. Yeah. Like to pull this off, these guys need help. It's the first time co-presidents, first time

general manager, first time head coach. These guys need help and they need experience. And for the most part, good help and good experience in this league is not cheap. And so I'm really excited to see where this franchise is beginning to steer. We'll see, like, the proof's going to be in the pudding in terms of whether the moves are sage and in terms of whether or not they can pull this off. And it's not going to be easy and it's going to require a lot of patience. And I think everyone's prepared to give that to them. But I'm very curious to sort of see, like, is it just Manny?

Are there other hires ready to go? And how quickly can this organization get some experienced help in the door to support these guys? make sure that they're best positions to actually succeed at pulling off, you know, what's going to be one of the most difficult to pull off beats in the NHL, like in the NHL team building across the last 25 years, to be totally honestly. So that's where I'm like beginning to get a little bit concerned. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.