Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 6/6/25

Episode Date: June 6, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus the boys are joined by new Canucks head coach Adam Foote. 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.

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Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Woo! Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford at his brough at his Sportsnet 650, and we are coming to you live from the Kintec studios

and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford at Brough of the Morning is brought to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halferd and Bramford of the Morning

is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for net help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star metal recycling. They recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. I got a big show ahead on a Friday yet again. First hour of the show, all Halbro one hour of uninterrupted Halbro. The guest list today begins at seven o'clock Haley Salvin from the athletic she covers women's hockey and the NHL maybe we can focus on both but our primary focus is gonna be a deeper dive into the free agent signed by Vancouver's PWHL

expansion franchise earlier this week how we can look ahead to the upcoming expansion and PWHL entry draft apparently it's a loaded 2026 draft for the PWHL. Haley will join us at seven o'clock to talk about all that. 730, it's the Moge. Yes, it's the Moge. Bob the Moge Marjanovic is gonna join us ahead of the BC Lions season opener. CFL started last night, Jason.

Did you catch the stamps and the riders? It was Ottawa and the riders, I think, wasn't it? Wasn't it the red blacks? You're right. It was Drew Brown at quarterback. My apologies. Red blacks. It was the red blacks.

It was Drew Brown throwing for over 400 yards. I saw a lot of empty seats in Regina, I got to tell you. Well, it's early still. It is early. Yeah. The announced attendance was 25,000, but there must have been some sort of hoedown that everyone was going through. Something or other.

You don't expect us to go to this game, do you? So we're right on it. You know what's happening. We're very much on point with our CFL coverage to start the show today. I got the opponent wrong and Jason said there was a hoedown. Lions opener tomorrow, Snoop concert tomorrow. Also, and when we talked to Moge at 730 was unaware of this Moj is pretty friendly with new Canucks assistant coach Brett McLean, so we'll talk to him about some insights that he has on the newly minted Canucks assistant coach

We'll get into that and what happened as well. That's all coming up at 730 8 o'clock It's Rick Dollywall noted Dollywall handler Jason Bru We'll explain what we're gonna talk to you with Rick. Yeah, I think we'll talk a little bit more about the new coaching staff, but also here's just how Rick puts it to me in the text message. Trade talks, and I will mention how Lekker Mackey is hurting the Canucks in trades.

Ooh. And he's not, he's not, he's not really producing, is he? Not so much during the older cut playoff runs So, okay, we got some topics to cover with Dolly Wall at eight o'clock today now at 830 on a Friday Normally, it's what we learns and ask us anything's for all of our great prizing including the $100 gift card to AJ's pizza Ony's Broadway, but today today at 830 New head coach of the Vancouver Canucks Adam Adam Foote is gonna join the program.

I understand he was on the station yesterday, live from a Blue Jays game. What's it called, Laddie? He was working from dome. Yeah. Now that's not Laddie's fault. That's a marketing slogan from Toronto. He didn't dad joke that one.

That's something where you play hooky during the day and instead of working from home, you. Work from dome. It was his first game in 20 years. He said he hadn't been in a long time. It's great I don't during a zoom conference. So I don't know where in the world Adam foot on all still out there Yes, what's going on? I don't know where Adam foot's gonna join us from today, but he will be joining us at 830 He did the zoom conference at the Jays game as I understand like on his phone like we're watching the game I read that I like them already. Yeah, I kind of guy. I'm not a ball game guys. I'm not gonna lie You're gonna have to repeat all those Like just homers in here a hot dog so yesterday the Canucks announced of course that

Kevin Dean Brett McClain and Scott Young have all been added to the assistant coaching staff So we'll talk to Adam foot about that at 830 and a whole lot of other things as well. So here's the plan Get your what we learns and ask us anything's in right now because we're still giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza On his Broadway We'll just sprinkle in the ask us anything's throughout the program and then we'll announce the winner later in the show hashtag it Aua Dunbar lumberx line is 650 650. You can quite literally ask us anything. The best one will win a $100 gift card

to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Okay, so that's the guest list working in reverse. 830 it's Adam Foote, eight o'clock it's Rick Dollywall, 730 it's The Moj and then seven o'clock it's Haley Salvian. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We will begin with your Vancouver Canucks. They finalized their coaching staff yesterday. Newly minted head coach Adam Foote has a bunch of newly minted assistants. Former Chicago Blackhawks assistant coach Kevin Dean, who we knew about, he is officially on board. American hockey league coach with the Iowa Wild Brett McLean joins the fold and former teammate of Adam Foote, both in Colorado and Quebec, Scott Young also joins the coaching staff as well. He was in a player personnel role with the Canucks prior to this.

Yeah. What do you think about these hires? They're certainly not the first names that came to mind for me and Scott Young having been in a player development role or player personnel role or whatever, not on the bench for quite a while. I don't know. It suggests to me that I think there was a lot of pressure to find guys. I don't mean it that way. Obviously there was pressure to find guys because they had to hire them, but I don't

know how easy it was to find candidates. The first thought that I have- I'm not criticizing these ads, but I'm like, Brett McClint, you're getting the guy out of the Iowa Wild to run this power play? Like, what? So the first thought that I had was, with a first time NHL head coach behind the bench,

logic would dictate that maybe you would add a very veteran, very experienced coaching staff where guys had previous head coaching gigs, or at the very least had been head coaches at different stages of either the national, American, junior, whatever. They're light on former head coaching experience, which I thought was kind of interesting.

But I don't put a lot of stock or thought into that. Coaches are coaches, right? You can poke holes in any hire, right? If you hire a bunch of guys with veteran head coaching experience, the critics are gonna say, ah, they're just, they're hiring a replacement for foot

as soon as it goes south. And if you hire ones with no head coaching experience, you're gonna say, they cheaped out and they didn't hire the higher priced, more veteran guys. So you look, you can poke holes in any coaching hire that you want. I think that I'm very intrigued specifically by Kevin Dean because his name appeared on the radar I think about seven to ten days prior to his hire as a guy that was

lauded for doing good work with defensemen. Now I know everyone's going to say don't worry about the defense it's the forward group and the power play that's going to need the most work this season. Yeah but just it's almost like when you talk about getting good players on the team, regardless of position, I think getting good coaches in the door, regardless of who they're going to work with is a good thing, but yes, I will allow, and I'll set the table for you.

There are going to be some questions about this forward group and then who's leading this forward group and who's in charge of doing things like the power play. Well, I just wanted new ideas coming to the organization from outside the organization. Scott Young, you know, I don't know, maybe they didn't go to him for any advice last season, but he was, he was in the organization. So the only, offensively speaking here, right?

The only guy who's new to the organization is Brett McClain, correct? That's correct. Offensively speaking. So Brett, The only guy who's new to the organization is Brett McLean. Correct? That's correct. Offensively speaking. So Brett, you better have some ideas. Yep. Now I am mostly on the side of, you know, it's the players, stupid.

Like, I mean, I always kind of laugh a little bit when, um, when you've got talented players out there and, you know, as Drance was saying yesterday, everyone runs a one three one power play and the players aren't getting it done. So everyone's going to like the power play coach is like, the players have been playing hockey for a long time. Um, there are the ones that have to execute out there and a lot of these guys have been playing hockey for a long time. They're the ones that have to execute out there.

And a lot of these guys have been playing on the power play for a long time in the NHL. And I don't know if there's anything too, too much like that you're going to teach them to be like, I have never heard of that before. You know, like that's crazy. But you know, that being said, I think, you know, a while ago, the Canucks did have a good combination when Newell Brown was the power play coach,

but they also had the good players. So I, I don't know. I think for a lot of us, it's, it's hard to really judge these things because we've never been in a power play meeting before, or we've never been in a meeting where a coach play meeting before. Sure. Or we've never been in a meeting where a coach is teaching offense. You know, one of the questions we should ask Adam Foote, write this down, is how much can a coach influence offense?

Yep, that's fair. It, yeah, it... Defense for sure, we all know about structure. And this has been the thing for forever. You know, you can coach defense, but you got to leave it up to the players for offense. Now some people disagree with that. And I know that there are philosophies and attitudes that you can put into

players that will influence the offense. You can say we're a conservative team or a risk taking team or, or whatever, but like, you know, once you get into the zone, I think a lot of the times it's on players to make plays. So on the subject of the offensive side of the puck, the Canucks in the same release yesterday announcing the new hires, also officially confirmed that assistant coach, Joge Svejkowski,

and defensive development coach, Sergey Gonchar, along with video coach, Dylan Crawford, will not return next season. So yesterday was a pretty significant shakeup with regards to coaching staffs both behind the bench and up in the press box. Uh, let's play some audio now. We've got Adam foot from yesterday's zoom call from the dome. Uh, I do want to start with a foot on defensive coach, Kevin Dean, how this entire hire went down and how he's able to lure them.

Both the clips are a little bit longer. Very verbose, Adam Foote, looking forward towards our 830 segment today. Here is Foote on the defensive coach, Kevin Dean, and how the whole thing went down. The deep coach is a great question. The defense coach is really what I wanted to deal with first. You know, I'm going to just tell you guys how it went down. So there's no speculation. But obviously, Luke Richardson,

who I played with in Columbus and a friend of mine was a guy that was still going for head coach position. And Dean was under him in Chicago, but also Dean had, um, you know, history in Boston, you know, and as a penalty court and defense coach, I always liked how Chicago, um, field penalties. And, you know, I was wondering what that connectioniller and defense coach. I always liked how Chicago filled penalties. And I was wondering what that connection was. And when I got this position, I looked into it and deeper. And got a great relationship with Joe Sacco.

And obviously, Shorams played in Boston. And I know Seth Jones from Colorado area. And everything that I learned about Dean, I liked it more and more and more. Colorado area and everything that I learned about Dean, I liked it more and more and more. And we actually opened up the relationship real early. And we spoke almost every day throughout the world championship.

And he did a great job with Garley on that PK. Garley was hopping over the boards as the first PK unit guy over there. I think he gained a lot of confidence. This was his first year, Garley, with us. Rick trusted him. And I asked Rick if he could kill one. Rick puts some trust in Garley and myself. You know, I thought Garley did a great job

filling ponds this year, and he's just going to grow from being with Dean and a little championship, having success and winning that championship. So I loved that with Dean, I felt like the, you know, with our defensive anchor along with our goal timing and, you know, when things aren't right or we're in a hostile environment or I always believe the be at the anchor and stay stable until we get control of a hockey game.

And I believe this personality and the way he carries himself with that combinator is what I was looking for. I felt like he's going to be himself, but I liked how I was like myself as far as the combinator and being strong back there and the things that shake you. And he's got a ton of experience and the way he spoke about the game felt like I'd known him a very long time. And you know, I knew within the second or third phone call that this was the guy for us. And we just had to communicate and open up this relationship where he would feel comfortable.

And I'm very excited about him being down that side of the bench and let him do his thing. And I think he'll do a great job with our D-Cloaks. So the new coaching staff is together. Um, there's no carryover from last season, except Adam Foote, but he's in a much different role. Yeah. Um, Foote has already acknowledged that his role will have to change a little bit since

he's the head coach now. He can't be the,'t be the glue guy anymore. That's Scott Young now. He's the glue guy. Yeah. He's the glue guy. So Foot can't be the good cop who's like, I heard Doc yelled at you.

You're still a good person. Don't worry. Let's go get a beer. Yeah, yeah. He'll be the one having the tough conversations with players. And he mentioned that before. My relationship, he said, with Quinn Hughes, for example, is going to change because I won't just

be dealing with the defense. And I won't be, again, I won't be like the good cop that you go to when you need like, not a hug, but maybe a hug if you want a hug. Sure. He loves hugs. Now here's a little news for you. Mike and I both heard that Adam Foote had a good meeting with Ilias Pettersson recently.

It's true, I did hear it. Apparently Foote was pretty impressed with what he heard from Petey. He said that he sensed a bit of added maturity, which is a good sign. Obviously it doesn't mean anything if Peterson doesn't put in the work and doesn't come back a much more prepared player, assuming he is back with the Canucks, but we

all wanted this to get off to a good start. And from what we've heard, the relationship between Elias Pedersen and Adam Foote is off to a good start. Which was probably priority number one, I would say for Adam Foote coming into this job was there's a lot of repairing that needs to go on there, both physically for Elias Pettersson probably mentally and then

relationship with the coaching staff period and part of this is yeah Rick Tauke it's gone and I think it was fair to say that they maybe didn't see eye to eye all the time Rick Tauke it and Elias Pettersson so the next coach probably was going to have to mend fences there, even though it doesn't make sense. Like it wasn't his relationship to fix, but there's still that residual hangover effect of whatever happened with the previous coach. I just hope everyone involved sees this as a fresh

start and that includes Elias with the coaching staff and that includes Elias with his teammates. Nobody is going to forget about last season. Elias with his teammates. Nobody is going to forget about last season. But another thing we heard is that Pedersen just didn't think Taken really liked him, which might've been true. I don't think it's breaking news that Taken

was more of a JT Miller guy. I kind of got that sense. And by being a JT Miller guy, Pedersen might've felt, well, that's my enemy over there. Sure. So maybe my coach isn't a Pedersen guy if he's such a JT Miller guy, but Foot knows he's going to have to get Pedersen on board with him.

Tocket and Miller aren't there anymore. And I don't think it's in anyone's interest to keep hammering away at the team's highest paid player. Now the media and the fans are gonna say what they're gonna say, but as far as the organization, I think they should probably, and I think they will,

do their best to go like, okay, this guy's been beaten down enough and it didn't work. It's time to start building them up and reminding him that he can be a great player. Everything we've heard about Pedersen is that he needs to feel the love. Uh, you can still throw in the odd dose of tough love because that's what coaches do. But when you're dealing with a personality like

Pedersen's, you can either try to change his personality, which ain't going to work. You know, like I always thought it was so ridiculous, like I want to hear more from Petey in the room. It's like, you're not going to like, cause it's personality, that's who he is. Or you can work with this personality. It is a very interesting dynamic because there are

some people that will say you need to be like this to succeed in the National Hockey League and there's a handful of guys that are the culture carriers when it comes to that. Crosby, McKinnon, McDavid, the steely resolve, the dogged determination. Obsessed with the game. Right. The flip side of that coin is that not everybody can be those guys. As a matter of fact, only a handful of guys can be those guys. You have to kind of toe the line between picking up some of their characteristics and traits, but also allowing each individual player

to find their own path and be their own person on the way to success. Like trust them that maybe your way will work. Now- Especially when you've already signed the guy to a long-term contract, you know? But it goes back and forth, right? Like if your idea of,

I'm gonna find success through chocolate bars and potato chips or like maybe you want to change your diet up, like those kind of things. And I'm not saying that pertains to anyone in this particular situation, but you guys all get what I'm saying. You do have to rein someone in at certain points. But one person's reining in can be another person's like constriction, like you're confining me too much.

Like I need to be able to do these things the way I want to do it. The X factor in all of this is that Pedersen does have sort of an ace up his sleeve because he's been highly successful at the NHL level before. So he can point to that and say, look, I know how to get to the level where I'm scoring 100 plus points in the league. Maybe part of it is, I think the problem is that he's never actually come out and like said that. Do you remember talking was like, I'd love it if he just pushed back once in a while. He kind of

just like got lectured and he'd be like, and that's another thing would change. And that has to change. But that's another part of it too, is he's not going to be that guy. Yeah. And you have to know. But that's another part of it too, is he's not going to be that guy. Yeah. And you have to know it. He's not going to be... There's probably a reason he wasn't given the captaincy and there's probably a reason he doesn't do a ton of media availability. He doesn't like it and he's not comfortable with it.

Do you try and voice that upon him and say, this is what leaders do? Or do you say, we have other guys that can handle this in the room? Yes. That's what they need to do. Yeah. They need to... And Yeah, they need they need to This and it's not acquiescing to him. No, it's not allowing him to get away with things It's more just like it's like you said like not everyone's Sidney Crosby It's it's really difficult. Well, not everyone's Rick Taukin either and not everyone's Rick talk it right? Yeah talk it had very

clear and distinct views of how the game should be played and how much you should be Invested into it right and and what did I mean? How many times to talk it allude to Crosby, right? The ultimate competitor the ultimate obsessed with hockey guy Yeah, and you would mention Nate. And it's like, you know, McKinnon is not the same personality as Petey and Petey never will be that guy. All I'm hoping for in this is a fresh start. Let's start new. Or just, and just like, I, I don't know exactly. And, you know, I've

never spoken to Pederson. I don't know how to get through to him, but whatever Tauke was doing, even though I liked Tauke as a head coach, it didn't work. So try something else. Try a different approach. And I think it starts with just building the guy up. Like he's been told enough that he needs to work harder. Sure.

All that stuff, he's been told enough. And the organization itself has done a pretty good job of running Pedersen down. And a lot of them was just honesty, right? It's just how they felt. They're like, this guy needs to prepare better. Yeah, the last 16 months haven't been good enough. Right, and agreed. You know, if you don't agree that he needs to be better, then, well, I don't know,

this must be the first time you've ever watched hockey. But that doesn't mean that this can't be a different approach going forward. Just because what you said last season was true and honest, I don't think it's necessarily a good thing. Let's say he comes to camp and it's not perfect. Okay. Let's say he comes to camp and it's like, oh, okay, well, I still wish it was a little bit better. They have to think long and hard about whether they want to hammer away at him again. Don't you think?

Yeah. I think that that approach is probably come and gone. And if they're going to put any positive spin on it in the aftermath, it's going to be, Hey, everyone goes through adversity in this league. When we talk about McKinnon, you can talk about the year where his team finished with like 38 points in the standings and he was the leader and the highest paid guy on one of the worst teams in recent memory and he talked about it.

It's being a low point in his career. Everyone has them and we tried this approach. It didn't work. It broke you down, but in the end, it will ultimately make you better because you've gone through that adversity now. You can't go through it again though, right? No, no, no.

Once you've learned your lesson and that goes on both sides, once everyone's learned their lesson, you have to have learned from it. And learning means not repeating. And I don't want to call it mistakes, but not repeating the behavior that led to, let's be frank, terrible results across the board. Last year was an abject disaster for a lot of different people involved. And in the aftermath, JT Miller was gone and Rick Taukett was gone, right? Two of the main figures involved in everything that went on last year are gone.

Who remains? Pedersen. And Pedersen's goal now is to take that adversity, build from it, and have a much better campaign starting this year. Um, text in, it feels like we should be expecting him to be more of a quiet leader, like the Sedin's Barkov, almost any Euroleaders, haha. It's just different.

How about you don't expect him to be a leader at all? You just expect him to be Elias Pettersson. Just be a good hockey player, man. Yep. Like you can, you can go into the room and say, and say nothing. And then I suppose you could say like, I lead by example, but like you don't even have to do it. Just be a good hockey player, man.

Like, and leading by example, like is he the first guy on the ice and the last guy at the ice? Like just be a good hockey player, man. Let's start. Because we've seen it before. We've seen you be a good hockey player. So I think for the coaching staff, for the organization, just find a way to get back to

how it was before. That's how you got that contract. You know, Pedersen is probably, he's never going to be like, there's another thing, like he'll be like the Sedines. The Sedines are the hardest workers ever. They're still running fun runs and marathons and cycling and doing all this crazy stuff. Maybe Petey's just never going to be like that.

Phil Kessel's never going to be like that, but he's got immense talent and there's still value to be given there. And I'm just hoping, again, this is a fresh start. My eyes, as one of his main critics, are just like, I want to see something. And I hope this is a fresh start for Pedersen because I want to actually praise this guy. And it's why I brought up this conversation that he had with Adam Foote because I'm dying to report positive things about this guy. I really am. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find a whole bunch of stuff, but recently, what

I found out again is that he had a really good conversation with Adam Foot, and we can ask Adam about this when we have him on the show. And he said, you know, like, I'm not going to put words in his mouth until I ask him, but from what I heard, he was left very impressed with Pedersen. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. To the phone lines we go, the Power West Industries hotline. Happy to be joined by the head coach of your Vancouver Canucks, Adam Foote joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Adam.

How are you? Good guys. How you doing? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it. So first, congrats are in order on the gig. I know you've been named head coach for a while now, but things are still unfolding, including the completion of your coaching staff behind the Vancouver bench now.

So first question for you, Adam, how does it feel to have everything sorted out and your coaching staff filled? Well, it's a good feeling. I mean, it takes a lot of, it's a long process for sure. You know, there's a lot of great coaches out there and you just want to try to get the right mix, the right feel. Um, it was, I enjoyed, uh, speaking to so many people and, um, open up

some new relationships as well. And I think I feel real comfortable with the guys we got. Was one of the questions you asked to these guys, how can you help us score more goals? Everyone's stuck on that one, aren't they? Wow. Yeah. No, you know what?

Yeah, they really are. And that's fine. Uh, you know, we always go at one thing, but, uh, no, you know what? We've got great minds there with, you know, Scottie Young was the guy that's done all. And, you know, you look at his career and, you know, he was kind of like I was with, with, with my family. He wanted, he wanted to coach. He did two years with Quinn at Boston university. And then he did a couple of Olympic teams and power play, things like that.

But his mind is, is I played with him. He's great offensive score. Really, really one of those guys with that shot that need those guys with those shots. You got a couple of guys, you know, a guy named Sackett, he's pretty good. But he can put the fucking net, but he also played the wall work. He's really good on the wall and really good defensively. And I felt like when the game got tougher, he knew how to survive in those games, in those moments.

He looked at playoff hockey, it picks up dots, the boards and the grinds. And he'll be able to give these guys a lot of good tips with his, you know, he's done it. I watched him do it and he had success doing it. So really excited about that. His life changed where he can now take that time to coach all in. And I'm very excited. He'll teach these guys a lot on the offensive side, but also on the defensive side and wall

work. You know, and then you get a guy like McLean. I'm excited. I knew about McLean. I'm excited. I knew about McLean a long time ago, met him years ago and knew what he was all about, but you know, he took over that power play in 2021 with Kaprizov, his first season, you know, and by the time in his third season, that power play was running at a 25% at some times in that season. And, you know, then Kaprizorice gets hurt just like he did this year.

They dipped from 10th last year, the 20th this year when Caprice up got hurt for 40 games. But you look at his, his numbers, uh, what he did, he, he was able to groom Caprice over that third year. Uh, you know, Addison had trouble playing five on five hockey as a smaller defenseman, so like Minnesota made a little bit of a change talking to Billy Garen and and Henrikson that that they had to get a Another defensive man before a favor came in and spurging and Brodean were good defensive

But not necessarily quarterback quarterback defenseman like you see favor doing it or or huge what we got So running at that numbers and talking to Ebison, I really, I love talking to a guy like Ebison, um, you know, I knew a lot about Brett McClean. I liked him a lot, but hearing a guy like Ebison say that he would, he would bring him right now if he had, if he needed them, but the Jeopardy coach for Canada and Brunette wasn't sure that he was going to go or not. And I really liked that.

Everson said to his group, uh, I'd like to take McLean if, if, if he can't come. And they were like, well, you know, the most strong personalities, how he would get with handling, you know, guys like Crosby and McKinnon and Everson said, no, no problem at all. The way he presents and the way he carries himself, it won't bother them all. So that was just another extra, you know, check mark for me. And then obviously a guy like Joel Climbal, I think they're going to offer them to be honest with me.

I don't know for sure, but I've had and, um, you know, Joel coached me as a defense coach, he was my defense coach when we won the first cup and then obviously we know what Joel has done. And, uh, he actually coached me as a defense coach. He was my defense coach when we won the first cup. And then obviously we know what Joel's done. And he actually coached me as a head coach. So I respect Joel a lot. He's won in this league and just gave you another good feel about, you know, picking the right guy and he's got to do your homework. And you guys are great when you call them. All these different coaches and different players you play against.

And it was a great process. I learned a lot. So, you know, a lot of, when a power play goes bad, and I'm not saying the Canucks power play was bad last season, although I think there were definitely times when it wasn't clicking and it wasn't working. A lot of the blame immediately goes to the coach.

It's almost like when a football team isn't, uh, you know, doing well on offense, you talk about the offensive coordinator and the, the plays that are being called. What specifically does a power play coach do? Like, why are they important? Because me personally, I tend to look at the players on the ice and whether or not they're

performing, but obviously if there is a power play coach job, then the power play coach is important. Well, yeah. And it's a loaded question, right? And you know, you look at, I'll give you an example of Kaprizov. He meets in there as a young kid as a rookie, right? The plane's got to make rooms on their 24th and they enroll up in three years. They're pushing 25 and, and, you know, they go down to 21, he's hurt for 15, maybe more.

Don't, don't quote me on that. Like games, you know, this year he lost the one for the 20th from the year before you lose a guy at that caliber. It's like taking the homes out of, out of KC. Think about that. Uh, he was a potent guy, you know, if Huggy's going to be injured, you know, you want to have a little bit more structure to power play around running together. But like, the players, when a big, big guy's out, it's going to affect your numbers. No

question. But I would say, you know, chilling, I knew what I didn't like, I knew what Dr. Quod didn't like, I knew we didn't want to give them what we wanted to take away, things like that. I would say these guys are world class athletes, they're very intelligent, always powerful, they're smart. I think, just when I said about Edison talking about the playing game. The cracker he's very intense. He's got a lot of passion and he can be a guy that you have that presence with him. I'm hearing what I said to me. I knew what Brett's work ethic was. I knew this is here. I knew he was in coach, but for me, a power play as a power play coach,

once in a while you're going to say, no, you know, or no, we're going to do this. And you do it in your way where you're not losing the players either. And, you know, and I don't mean no, like a bracelet or a bath, but communicate it and get them to trust you. And, you know, you don't want to have a ton of play. They're not like, you have to attack. I think you have to attack you every time you do too many set plays, it slows it down. And I know for me

You know, I'm a shot guy like I think when I have a shot from the top coming at me early in the power play I don't like it as an defenseman But now I have to trust my fours are returning in the right leg, right? So I can't be as aggressive I mean, so I mean it's more on conversations. I'm not a power play specialist That's for sure. But I do, I do know from killing all these years, what I don't like seeing and what I, what makes me, it scares me. You know what I mean? So, um, you know, things like that.

So I think we just got a little bit stagnant at times. We got to get that PD moving a little bit. Uh, sometimes I would play those diamonds. Uh, you know, he's got that good shot from there, but sometimes we, we have a real disciplined diamond, you've got to move the top, we can go down into spread, you know, things like that. Are you looking Dallas is real? The job is that Colorado PK made a few mistakes.

Um, but I know they got rid of their power play coach, but like, I thought they're PTA made big mistakes, letting Colorado have the top, letting them move around, having one or sorry, Dallas. And Dallas got that spread. Two guys on the goal line. And then that's when you get rotated in a diamond. You see McCarr and Tate get really rotated in that diamond. And for a minute there, that back door is open. The flank doesn't know if he's going to take them or if that's going to be passed off as

a sentiment. And that's just a very simple thing that teams are doing when they play these diamonds. They're trying to rotate them. And when you have rotation, there's a pause in coverage. And that's exactly what happened on when you saw Ranton have that big night. So, you know, things like that, we'll have discussion, but Brett's one of those guys, like I said, the main thing is how he'll conduct himself with these guys and the presence. And I'm looking forward to watching him do that. I did hear you had a good chat with Elias Pedersen about a week ago or something like that?

Yeah, we got together. We went and played some golf with Hughes and Demmer. I was real happy that PD came across. He was excited. I was going to go see him and I just threw an idea and I said, Hey, why don't you come over and play some golf? Demerite had just had his second child, you know,

we'll have some fun and chat. And I was real happy that it's more than five days later he was over here. So it worked out well. Um, we had a good time and, uh, you know, we were just rich talk and having a couple of dinners and it was a lot of fun. What's, uh, what does Elias Pedersen

need from the coaching staff? Well, I just think, you know, we're, we're going to turn the page on what happened the last few years with the only relationship he had, I'm not going to talk about it with Miller and things like that. I think it just, you know, a lot happened at once, uh, it just, you know, a lot happened at once.

It seemed last year after such a great previous year that, uh, you know, I think you'll a fresh start, uh, you know, um, I get, I'm getting to know him. Like I was the assistant coach and I was doing more with D, but I did have a pretty good relationship with PD, but you know, he just, I think he needs to feel that support, but also, um, you know, I don't want him to be, I wouldn't say he was confused or anything like that. Uh, that's the wrong word or term, but just keep, I want to keep a simple one on them and just have a very good communicate what he needs to bring, uh,

and help them, help them figure that out, figure out how to be a true pro day in and day out. And, um, you know, he jumped in the league with that success quick. And, uh, you know, we've all been there. You call it a sophomore junction or things like that is because you get there. And sometimes I'm not saying he thought it was easy after, but it's, it's easily you can get caught in that trap as a professional athlete. And, um, you know, I'm just there to support them communicate with them.

They'll know the non-negotiables we'll discuss that in our leadership group. We really want to tackle leadership group and there's gonna be some non-negotiables but these guys are gonna make up their own contract in this leadership group as far as the standards and how we're gonna carry ourselves as pros and you know it starts now the process of winning starts now every day that's something we're going to target on. You know we got together with Huggy, Dumber and Petey that's one of the first things I wanted to hit on was you know who's going to be in a solution group and how we're going to hold each other accountable you know I want to get it to a point where I can just look at one of

them and they'll know what I mean by that and they'll fix what needs to be fixed. I think a dress room's got to take care of itself and they got to get, for me, I'd like to see them connect better and be a group that supports each other no matter what and holds each other accountable from day one. You can't turn on the switch when playoffs start or you're in a big game or the heat gets turned up. I always say the waves, you're playing an NHL game, one of the waves is three, four feet high as you're playing and you get in the playoffs, you're not playing against

your 12 feet, you get a championship game against your 15, you're really not. That's part of the process I'm talking about. If we understand that as a group, and we do the work together in the right way, day in and day out and hold each other accountable, when those big games come, we can put the noise away and we'll know how to do it, support each other,

and then just stay calm in those moments and play as a team. So that was pretty much what we were hitting on first. We met some people we needed to get working on right away. We're speaking to Connex head coach Adam Foote here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I know- Sorry, I didn't hear that.

Oh, I'm just resetting that we are speaking to Connex head coach Adam Foote here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I know it's early days in your head coaching tenure here, Adam, but I asked this question of Rick Taukett early in his tenure as well. What's been the biggest difference so far being an assistant head coach to then becoming a head coach? What's the biggest change?

You're on the phone a lot longer during the day, that's for sure, right? Annoying media stuff. the phone a lot longer during the day. That's for sure. Right. Yeah. Listen, it's, you know, I did surreal, you know, I watched Rick, he conducted it. He did so well with it. He had this energy. Um, it was unbelievable to watch him do it. You know, he, he had this energy and he always

gave people the time and, uh, you know, uh, I, I really learned a lot from that to see it didn't matter if it was just one of our stick boys. He looked at people in the eyes and he listened to them and I think that's huge. He taught me that, watching him conduct himself. He he, he wanted me to be a head coach. He wanted, he's proud of it. And, uh, you know, he's a huge part of it. And he, he taught me a lot. He, he told me like, what are these people, um, depend on you? Or they want to be, you know, everyone matters.

Like that's where we're going to talk about our group. And Rick, Rick taught me this. Everyone matters. If they want, whether you're, you know, you're sharpening skates or you're the therapist or you're the strength coach our doctors they have to feel a part of it and for me one thing Rick changed and I came in I was fortunate to be with him as we changed a place that was I felt very negative you know everyone was just down it didn't feel like it was a committed group or

team and I'm not just talking about the players. It was the whole thing. And to see Rick turning around and yeah, we had a blip last year with some injuries and we all know what happened up through the days on that one. But I'll continue that. I know I'm a people person. I really enjoy being around people and talking to them and helping them out and making them feel in a good space. That's huge, right? And that's how you win. And even when we were players, it didn't matter.

The fourth line guy or the black aces, they were, it mattered. They felt a part of it when we had our winning years in Colorado. And that's something Rick did and I'll continue to do. How different is the player coach relationship now compared to like when you broke into the NHL and you had Pierre Paget is your head coach and then you had Crawford and then you had Hartley. I imagine the relationships now are maybe a little different than the ones that you had with your coaches. Daily hugs with those guys.

Guys, it's the same as parenting, right? Like how hard is it to parent? Like how we were raised is so different, right? Like, how hard is it to parent? Like, how we were raised, it was so different, right? And the world's evolved, not only talk about hockey, but it's everything. Everything's changed. And I think, yeah, hardly, I wouldn't say I'd wanna hug him or he'd wanna hug me, that's for sure. But, you know, it was just a different time.

And, you know, having young kids and, you know, doing a lot of player development, coaching young kids. I think every player, I hope every player has a mentor or someone they can talk to. I think it shows strength to be able to do stuff like that and have what you want to call it a team or a therapist, psychologist, whatever you want to call it? A team or, you know, a therapist, a psychologist, whatever you want to call it. I did a ton of that when I retired, I wish I did it when I played. And it really helps out, um, to understand the different people, where

they're from and what makes them tick and what doesn't. I think with our guys now and young people, they'll do it. They'll go through the wall. They just won't know why you're asking them to do it. Like give them a reasoning. So, you know, you do that, you spend that time. And I call it a contract. Like they're, they're going to make up this leadership group plan is they're going

to make up a lot of their own contract because they want to win. And once they know it and recognize it, I just look at it, they go, you know, guys, you, you, you decide you want to do this. So, you know, that's the accountability. And, um, I think I like the communication. I like, when we did our penalty kill, when I played probably my last seven or eight years, maybe 10, you know, Warr and I were the ones,

we had a PK coach, but we would see what the other team's gonna do, what their major weapons were, our plays. And Warr and I would at the end would have that discussion. And with a guy like Mike Keene and say, okay, what do we finally do? And I want our players, they're not gonna, you know, tell us we're gonna not set up a bunch of plays and things like that, but I want them to be involved and feel a part of it and have an open book communication. And obviously I'm the one that'll have to say, it's gotta be this way. And they know that they totally know that. So, but yeah, it's different, but it's okay.

The world's different. You have to, you have to change and evolve with it. Um, one final question for you, Adam. Um, is it, how different is team bonding in the NHL now compared to when you were playing. We hear lots of stories about how the young guys, you know, they take better care of their bodies so they're not going out and drinking every night that they have a night off. But they also are more like, I don't want to generalize all the young players, but they like to maybe stay home, play video games, and just hang out that way.

And I wonder if that makes it more of a challenge to get the guys together and get together as a team. I think that's a great question. And it's on the, we're gonna have a leadership Zoom here deal going on in the end of the week with our group. And that's part of it where you nailed it. I mean, when the young guy comes up, I don't want to see him going to dinner

alone, you know what I mean? Like the guys have to reach out and there's nothing worse as a young guy when you're sitting in your hotel room alone every night and sometimes you're nervous and sometimes you need your night off and things like that, but you, you can do things like that. You have to, and it doesn't matter. One thing for me is, yeah, guys need their space. We're around each other a lot to travel,

but there are times where you want these guys to take care of each other that way and bond, and I totally groups you. It's just like, Pierre Lacroix was one of the best at it, where we would have a get together with our families right out of the gate, and want to do that with this group I want to I want to meet the you know, their girlfriends or wives and things like that And and I think it's important to do that and to get everyone

Together and I'm a big believer in that and I love the question because it's something I'm gonna address with the group I'd like to see even more of that go on and it it's not like what you said, not going out during our night like that, but just, you know, breaking the ice and getting to know each other. Um, you know, there's so many times you got guy gets traded to your team. You're like, Oh my God, I can't stand this guy. I hate this player. But once you get them home, you're like, well, he's a pretty good guy. And I love your question. And it's something I, uh, part of this leadership group, we're going to discuss part the things that I think can be better with the group.

Adam, this was great. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it. Travel safe and let's do this again as we get closer to the season. Okay guys. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Yep.

Thank you. That's Adam foot Canucks head coach here on the Halford and brush on sports net six 50. You're listening to the best of Halford and brough.