Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 6/7/24

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Mike & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, they get the latest Canucks news from Donnie & Dhali's Rick Dhaliwal, plus the boys tell us what they learned.  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. Brown goes inside! Oh, what a slam from Jalen Brown. No, not Brown. Brown, Brown. But he gets it in the air to right. Shantan Deer back.

It's going to go. Straight three. You got to be shaving me. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver 601. On a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday.

It is Halford. It is not Brough. It is Jamie Dodd. It is the Halford and Brough show, though. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Andy, A-Dawg, good morning to you.

Good morning. Greg, Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts.

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, Canada's favorite orthotics provider,

powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec, that is what you are waiting for. We got a lot to get to on a busy Friday show on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Our guest list, it will begin at 6.30. Adam Himmelsbach is going to join us.

Who's he, you might ask? Boston Celtics beat reporter for the Boston Globe. We will talk to him in the wake of Boston's 107-89 whipping of the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1. It was a beatdown. Sorry to all those that I pushed towards watching that game last night. It did not even come close to living up to the hype. I blame it on the 10 days off between the conference finals and the NBA finals.

Anyway, Adam Himmelsbach from the Boston Globe is going to join us at 6 30 so in what happened we'll do a really brief recap of last night's game we'll leave the majority of the NBA talk till 6 30 when we speak to Adam it's seven o'clock it's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway 705 David Dwork Dwork is going to join the program he is a Florida Panthers beat writer from the Hockey News. We'll talk to him ahead of one media day today in Florida. The Oilers and the Panthers are going to meet with the media, the big media frenzy, ahead of tomorrow, Game 1 Stanley Cup Final

from Florida between the Panthers and the Oilers. 7.30, Ben Nicholson-Smith is going to join us. We'll talk a little Jays with Ben after a salvaged series against the Baltimore Orioles. We'll talk to Ben about that at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall. What is going on with Nikita Zdorov? You got him out there twisting in the wind.

You got his agent firing shots at IMAC. IMAC just trying to do his job. It's all very spicy out there in free agent land. So we'll talk to Dollywall about that at eight o'clock. Uh, here's the big one. Call it the big two, two giveaways today on the program.

Uh, we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway for the best. Ask us anything. Oh yeah, that's right. It's Friday on the Halford and Brough show. It's ask us anything.

The premise is quite simple. You ask Jamie and I anything. Anything. And if you want to ask his alter ego, Jimmy Dodd, who wears sunglasses and gambles, you can do that too. Hashtag it AUA. Dunbar-Lummer text line is 650-650. Now here's the key.

Put a pizza emoji into that text and make it a good Ask Us Anything. You'll be entered into the contest to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Yes, Greg? The dogs are also good Ask Us Anything, you'll be entered into the contest to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Yes, Greg? The dogs are also taking Ask Us Anything, Steve. Any cereal-related questions? Andy's your guy. Cereal? Korean baseball.

Korean baseball. I'm your guy. Goaltending and then movie trilogies and series, right? You got it. Sci-fi. Video games? Video games, for sure. We cover all the aspects here. So, Ask Us Anything Friday, $100 gift card to AJ's. That's up for grabs. Also, last day games video games for sure you cover all the all the aspects here right um so ask us anything friday $100 gift card to aj's that's up for grabs also last day that we're giving away tickets to see snoop snoopaloo snoop dog snoop lion uh june 25th rogers arena last day we're giving away

tickets pair of tickets best what we learned if you want to win those send in to the dumb bar lumber text line of what we learned tell us what you to win those, send in to the Dunbar Lumber text line of what we learned. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Hashtag it, WWL. Put a ticket emoji into the text. You'll be entered into the contest to see Snoop in 18 days time

at Rogers Arena. Okay, take a deep breath. Working in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall. 7.30, Ben Nicholson-Smith. 7 o'clock, David Dwork. Sorry, 705 for Dwork. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza.

6.30, Adam Himmelsbach for a little NBA talk. 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 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.

Very quickly, we'll start with the National Basketball Association in the search for the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Jalen Brown, 22 points. Chris Dapp's Porzingis. Where did that come from? Huge impact off the bench with 20 points of his own. The Boston Celtics hammered the Daleks Mavericks 107-89

on Thursday night to take game one of the finals. If you were wondering about Luka Doncic, he finished with 30 points. If you were wondering about luka donchic he finished with 30 points if you were wondering about kairi irving he struggled throughout he was booed throughout and he finished with 12 points the celtics are now three wins away from the nba title thoughts on the game jim uh pretty much everybody other than luka donchic really struggled for the dallas mavericks and it was interesting i meanzingis massive impact, especially in the first half, there was a moment there where it felt like, okay, this is going to get interesting. I think the Mavs got it down to eight in the third quarter. And then Jalen Brown

kind of took over and it kind of just illustrated, you know, Jason Tatum didn't have that great a night. He had 16 points, six to 16 from the field, but the Celtics are so deep, right? It was Przingis in the first half giving them what they needed, and then Jalen Brown in the second half. They have so many options when they need those big plays, and they end up having a comfortable win in game one. As I mentioned off the top, I do apologize to any of you that might have said, hey, this Halford guy is talking about the NBA.

I'm going to try basketball. You know, he's always talking about the Hoopies, and this sounds like an exciting series, this whole Kyrie narrative. I'm buying into it. It was a dog of a game. I'll say this. I should have, should have realized that a 10-day layoff may have caused some rust. May have had guys a little janky, a little out of sorts.

It was a sloppy basketball game. I actually didn't think the Celtics played that incredibly well either. It just looked like the Mavericks were disjointed. And once they got off to a massive 25 point deficit in the first half, unlike previous series against the Clippers and the OKC Thunder, where they had spotted the opposition that big of a lead and came back, it felt like it was a task too tall for Dallas in the NBA finals against a very good Boston team and it proved to be ultimately.

And it was interesting to hear some of the Mavericks players after the game admit, yeah, the crowd noise in Boston got to us, and that'd be a little concerning, I think, if you were a Mavs fan, but maybe, hey, they've had the experience in Game 1, so Game 2, they'll be used to it, and they'll be able to execute a little bit better. Now, as we pivot to the NHL and the Vancouver Canucks, a brief sojourn to the Stanley Cup Final. I am a bit worried

that Saturday's game one in Florida is gonna have vibes like that yeah it's a long time to be off because when you're in the playoffs you're basically and I've seen we've when Brett used to work at NBC we'd go on the road for the cup final and one thing I would always do is just watch the players go through the repetitiveness and the monotony of wake up try and eat some food nap wake up game go home try and sleep and then you do that for two and then you travel right so you get in a routine and a rhythm of how your body's working and you're tired you're beat up you're at the end of a long road. So all of a sudden to throw a week-long plus break into that, I'm not surprised that the teams were a little bit off last night. I'll be very curious to see how it impacts the Oilers and Panthers on Saturday night.

And we're just so late on the calendar. I was saying just before the show, I saw the Washington Capitals tweeted. It was six years ago today that they won their Stanley Cup. The finals wrapped up today in the washington vegas series we haven't even started yet we haven't even had game one yet in this year's my hot take is everyone else is complaining about the length of the nhl schedule and trying to shorten it i like to work against the grain here i got i think we should make it longer i think if we could push the playoffs and the Stanley Cup final into late July, early August,

I think we might be onto something. You could capitalize on the entire calendar. You, sir, are an agent of chaos. What they should do is one game a week. One game every Saturday, and you just have so much time to hype it up in between. Maybe you could travel around to different neutral sites around the country. Let the boys rest. Let the fellas have some off days for some golf.

Think about it. We're already going late. We're going into the summer anyway. May as well make it the full nine Let the boys rest. Let the fellas have some off days for some golf. Think about it. We're already going late into the summer anyway. May as well make it the full nine and go into August. Okay. Vancouver Canucks talk. So just when we thought that we were going to get through a week where the only real talking points were behind the bench, ah, the trio of Ian McIntyre and Nikita Zdorov,

and Nikita Zdorov's agent, Dan Milstein, decided to spice things up. Jamie, I'm going to turn over to you because you are a very talented radio host that's so true walk our listeners through exactly what happened yesterday because I didn't even really grasp well let's not forget also Rick Dollywall involved in this and kind of the first reports yesterday came from Rick Dollywall who we'll talk to later on in the show on Donnie and Dolly and the word he used describing negotiations between Zdorov and the Canucks the chances of Zdorov returning to the Canucks and signing a new contract. He used the word bleak, basically said there hadn't been a lot going on, not a lot of talks, maybe suggested maybe even there was some frustration from Dan Milstein that there weren't more talks between the two. Shortly after that, however, IMACac our colleague here at sportsnet tweeted out

that there had been significant traction those were his words quote significant traction in talks between the canucks and both nikita zadorov and another unrestricted free agent elias lindholm then zadorov's agent dan millstein who is not shy about mixing things up on Twitter, enjoys, I think, the Canucks Twitter experience called IMAX report fake news, simply quote tweeting it and saying fake news. The idea that there had been significant traction. So damn, Dan Milstein, you kind of OK. What does it all mean? What does this all mean? Is somebody getting bad information?

What's going on here? Are who's leaking? What? Et cetera, et cetera. information what's going on here are who's leaking what etc etc and i thought both both satyar shah and drance yesterday pointed out on the station that uh this management team does have a history of getting deals done right after some elbows get thrown publicly right so it's not as if like uh-oh there's there's different things coming out and maybe both sides are trying to get their story out it's not as if that's the kiss of death to something getting done it happened i think most

notably when brock besser signed his last deal. So if you're committed to Zdorov sticking around, not necessarily time to panic. Now, on the other hand, I was thinking about this a lot yesterday, and we've heard consistently from Elliott Friedman, among others, and we'll hear from Friedman in a little bit here, for some fresh 32 Thoughts audio, that the Canucks basically know what it's going to take to keep Zdorov, right? It sounds like he has a very specific price in mind. The Canucks

are aware of that. It doesn't sound like there's a lot of negotiating to be done. So, you know, I'm sure the Canucks would really like to grind Zdorov down to a more favorable number. But I think from Milstein's perspective, he's just looking at it as a binary yes or no thing. Like, here's my price. Meet it or don't. And if you're not meeting it, there's no traction. I gave you the discount. We can't discount the discount.

The hometown discount cannot be further discounted. And that might account for the discrepancy in the reports from Dollywall and IMAC yesterday, right? If the Canucks have moved up from their number, moved closer to Zdorov's number. They may see it as significant traction. Milstein might see it as not close to good enough. Yeah, and that's a perfect assessment of what probably went on. If you have followed enough free agent periods, the song and dance during negotiations is often the same, right? Sometimes there's a wrinkle on the lyrics.

Sometimes there's a baseline, but it's always the same song and inevitably the same dances. There's the elbows thrown, as you so eloquently put it, in the media, especially when you have as active an agent as Dan Milstein and a market that is covered this thoroughly like it is in Vancouver. You've got people prying for stories. Speaking of people prying into the story, on the latest 32 Thoughts podcast, Elliott Friedman took his stab at what's going on with Zdorov and the Canucks.

Here now, Elliott Friedman. The latest on the Vancouver Canucks, including Elias Lindholm, Nikita Zdorov. What do you hear? What do you know? Well, if Nikita Zdorov keeps golfing with Vancouver media people, there's going to be a story a day. He's on the golf course the other day with Murph. And now there's all of these scoops about what he's asking for,

how close they've been. Are they making progress? Are they not making progress? This is what I can tell you i think nikita zadorov has a number and the vancouver canucks and and i don't know when it was i i don't know if it was before the playoffs or I don't want to get into all of the infighting in Vancouver right now.

I just believe Zdorov has a number and it might actually be a little less than he could get in the open market to stay in Vancouver. I don't think Vancouver is far away from it, but I don't think Vancouver is far away from it,

but I don't think they've hit it. Now, I think they know what it's going to take to sign Myers, and they can just park it like a Sierra Elevation. When you don't need to use it, you just park it over there, and you say, I'll get you when I'm ready. That's what I think they're doing with Myers. When it comes to Zdorov, I don't think they're far, but they haven't gotten there. And because I think Zdorov is inclined to give them a bit of a break, they have to get there.

I don't want to handicap it. I don't want to say it's this percentage or that percentage. I think Vancouver is trying to make the best deal they can. They're not there. And we'll see where we go here. I don't think this is impossible, but I think they have to get there. Because I think Zdorov knows if he gets to the open market, he's going to be happy with what's out there. So it's going to be up to the Canucks to get to the number he wants. Okay. Okay, we're going to ask Lindholm.

So I remember a couple weeks ago on the pod, I think it was actually during the playoffs, we said that we talked about how the recruiting efforts I remember a couple weeks ago on the pod, I think it was actually during the playoffs, we said that, we talked about how the recruiting efforts from the Canucks players were pretty intense. You got to stay, you got to stay, you got to find a way to stay. I still think that that's going on. I, this is my guess okay i think the canucks are willing to go in the seven times seven range i'm just not sure it's gonna get it done that's a good way that's a bomb to drop it. That's a lot of money and a lot of term.

Possibly shows how enamored they are with the big Russian defenseman. And if that is the case, I'll be curious to see what kind of money is left to spend on everybody else because there was another contract. That was the Lindholm 7x7. Sorry, okay, good, yeah. That was the tease where we wanted to talk about next

sorry i got confused there in the moment um the lindholm situation was also brought up in connection with zadoroff yesterday because as ian mcintyre threw out there on twitter which was rebuked in part by dan millstein not lindholm's agent though so maybe not take the twitter yesterday uh your thoughts on what you heard about lindholm yeah so I mean seven by seven man that is a big big number right and you know they got in after that clip they got into uh a little bit a little bit of a back and forth about whether you can afford to pay your third line center uh that much money in that much term and uh ellie freeman apparently is calling everything loser thinking these days so he decided to call that loser thinking but like i think there's a lot to that i mean you already you already are paying jt miller eight million well into his 30s you're

paying elias petterson 11.6 million uh for the remainder of his prime and into his 30s elias lindholm is 29 and i know he was really really good for you in the playoffs but you also look at his career trajectory over the last couple years it doesn't paint that pretty of a picture I don't know I don't look at it and think oh that's a player I want to be investing big money as he ages into his 30s in and okay I guess maybe you could make the case all right like can you move Pedersen to the wing and you move lindholm up to the top six and then you're you know you're at least solidifying your top six a little bit i guess but i just look at lindholm and i understand the face-offs and the physicality and all of that but what have we been

talking about so much with the canucks it's the need for more scoring punch in the top six and i think you're you're already paying miller a lot you're already paying Pedersen a lot the next big ticket contract you give out to a forward I think it's got to be somebody with some some game-breaking offensive upside I don't know if you can afford to pay that much and commit that much into the future for a guy who so much of his utility is penalty killing his defensive his face offs who you're not sure is going to have that that legit kind of top six offensive upside going forward no it's a good point to bring out because uh ben kuzma earlier in the week for the province astutely pointed out that if they wanted to go one two three down the middle next year with uh miller petterson and then pew suitor sort of re-emerging as a you know a fine 3c in the nhl as opposed to when you would have Miller,

Pettersson, Lindholm where you're talking about maybe, I don't know how many other teams are going to rival that quality of centers in the National Hockey League. They have a cheaper, fine option available in Suter. And I'm kind of with you. I know they like Lindholm.

I think it was very obvious that Rutherford's past connection with the player and the way that they went out and got him early. Paying him 7x7 low would be insane. Like, there's no way they can do that. I understand it conceptually. And he's not going to allow it. It would be bad.

No, I like Lindholm. He's putting his foot down. I like Lindholm. He's great in the playoffs. I'd love to see him come back. I'm just saying a 7x7 would be nuts. I would understand it conceptually from we're paying in the first half and understanding that the playoffs. I'd love to see him come back. I'm just saying a 7x7 would be nuts. I would understand it conceptually from we're paying in the first half and understanding

that the back half's not going to age well, but we're in our window right now. There are going to be teams that are going to be clamoring for his services this offseason. I think Boston's going to be right at the front of the line. He'll get paid. The idea would be, can we get a guy that's going to make his money elsewhere

and he's going to be a highly sought after commodity if we tack on a year or two extra of term? Can we keep him in the mix? Right. His stuff's here. He's familiar with what we want to do. He got better as the season went along. The break really revitalized him. And I would say of guys that showed who can and can't play in the playoffs, Zdorov absolutely or sorry,, Zdorov, Lindholm absolutely ticked the box in the former. He was a very, very good playoff performer. All that being said, seven times seven is a lot. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of term for a guy that's that close to 30.

And I can understand why some people would be concerned. I do wonder, the other part of what Friedman reported there on Lindholm, right, is that there's been a really intense recruiting effort from the players. The players really saying, hey, man, you got to stay. You were a big part of the team. You were so great in the playoffs. Can they convince him to take less? You understand that. And I do wonder if

thinking back to the post-bubble exodus, if management feels like they have to really go right to their limit where they're comfortable to be seen to do so with Lindholm because of the players. Right. They don't want to they don't want to see is like, oh, we just let this guy walk. We were never going to sign him when the players liked him so much and wanted him to stick around.

So I'm not saying it's all smoke and mirrors or anything like that. But I wonder if there's an element of kind of publicly doing their due diligence and doing their best to sign Lindholm to kind of send a message to the players who want him to stick around. So real quick before we go to break, because we're up against it for time here, I did want to mention one other story from yesterday. We'll get to the Rick Ball thing maybe later. Maybe I'll do it in what we learned.

For those that missed it, Rick Ball, longtime voice of the Calgary Flames is now on his way to become the voice of the Chicago Blackhawks. We can discuss that a little bit later, but that puts a bow on the NHL stuff for now. I do want to mention the Canadian soccer friendly yesterday. Canada went to the Netherlands and got thumped 4-0 by the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands. And it was a up and down, largely negative, I would say, performance. Especially in the second half for the canadian squad under the new gaffer jesse marsh this coming after a good first half in which they pressed high they showed some interesting things tactically they created a few pretty good chances they defended well when they were put under pressure and they went into the half tied nil nil and then it all really fell apart in the second half jesse marsh talked after the game and said four nil is not a very uh appealing score line when you see it hanging up there at the end of 90 minutes he thought it wasn't entirely indicative of the match here's my big takeaway jamie dodd and this is going to be the biggest thing that Jesse Marsh is going to have to figure out.

And this is the biggest thing that media are going to glom onto. It's how are they going to utilize and deploy Alphonso Davies? It was the premier. Put it this way. In a match where they conceded four and did not score. And there were a lot of other talking points that didn't really pertain to Davies. Everyone was talking about Alphonso Davies after the match because right now, for club at Bayern

and then possibly in the future in Real Madrid, he's a left back. By trade, through and through, he plays on the outside as a defender. He's one of the best in the world at doing it. That's why he's such a sought-after commodity. There's an idea and an understanding that for his national team he has to play in a more central role in a more advanced role because you need to take advantage of all the talents and skills

and natural physical ability that Alphonso Davies has the issue with that is that again by trade he plays this one position and he plays it very well. And he played it yesterday for Canada, and it didn't go especially well. Wouldn't say it was one of his stronger matches by any stretch, but there were a lot of people clamoring for Marsh to throw him up front, play him at striker, play him in the middle of the park,

let him do the things that his God-given gifts allow him to do. And fair or not, Marsh is going to have to either address it or figure it out because it was one of the predominant talking points. And again, this morning, you know, there's a million things to take away from a 4-0 loss to a team, a Netherlands team that is highly ranked in the FIFA rankings but put out essentially their B team yesterday and still managed to find great joy against Canada.

So there's a lot to be taken away, but the Davies thing is going to be at the top of that list. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall.

It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Dolly. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. It's time for Rick Dollywall. Rick Dollywall. 8 o'clock on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford, bruh. No wait, that's Jamie Dodd. Sportsnet 650. That's right. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour three of the program. knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for sales financing service or parts we are in our three of the program as the music suggests rick dollywell is going to join us in just a moment here on the program our three of the show is brought to you by campbell and pound real estate appraisers trust the expertise of campbell and pound visit them on the interweb at campbell-pound.com today we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for?

Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know what else we're waiting for? The weekly appearance of Rick Dollywall on this radio station. No waiting needed any longer. He joins us now. Dolly, welcome to the program. Gentlemen, happy to be here. Let's go. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's start. I'm going to give you one-word questions you're going to answer. First one, Zdorov? Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Wasn't that an interesting... Exactly. Oh, boy. Studios. Wasn't that an interesting 24 hours yesterday? Look, when it comes to Zdorov, here's what I want to say. It is pretty quiet when it comes to Zdorov here's what I want to say it is pretty quiet when it comes to contract talks there has not been an offer since the playoffs ended there was an offer

before the playoffs late in the regular season that was rejected by agent Dan Milstein so right now I want to say no progress no offers no concrete conversations at check, the Canucks did not meet with Milstein at the NHL Combine this week in Buffalo. Milstein's got some clients that are going to go very high in the NHL draft. If the silence continues, now it's a big if for capital letters, Zdorov most likely will be gone. Milstein's trying hard to get a deal done, but at some point you need another party to talk with. Both the term and the money is expected to be high on Zdorov, and why not? He had a great playoff. The Canucks were hard to play against in the playoffs. He was a big reason why. Milstein is very open. He was

very open to signing a contract when Zdorov arrived in Vancouver on November 30th. The price that day, November 30th, and the price today, they're two very different numbers. Some believe the two sides are not super, super far apart, but that doesn't explain the lack of contract talks. If you're really close, finish it. Why are they not finishing it? If some believe that the two sides are close, well, last time I checked, when two sides are close, they finish it. They get it done. That's not happening here. So there is still time to fix this.

One phone call can always change things real quick. We all know that. Right now that call is not being made. Clearly the Canucks would love to re-sign Zdorov and Elias Lindholm. And those are going to be two sizable contracts by the way last time i checked in on dakota joshua not hearing much there it's pretty quiet there as well but again i do want to say this lots of time i'm not ruling out any of these free agents till july 1st the canucks are obviously out there let's be honest they're trying to make trades

they're trying to you know free up some cap space so they can sign the joshua is a door office of the world but right now uh on the door off front guys and he's put himself and here's the other thing the canucks let's be honest all the leverage is with the door off and milstein because here's the leverage and lindholm too because if you don't cut a deal in vancouver they're going to go to j July 1st and they're going to have a ton of teams after him on July 1st and guess what the leverage is with these two guys so I guess they can sit and wait and on Zdorov I know Elliot Friedman today on 32 thoughts said he thinks Zdorov might even be able might even be willing to take a little bit less than he could get as an unrestricted free agent to stay in Vancouver because he liked the experience with the Canucks.

Does that match what you're hearing that I'm not saying it would be a big discount, right? But just maybe a little bit less to make something work with the Canucks. And Jamie, and the thing that one is, like I said in the opening segment is that Milstein played a big role in getting that guy from Calgary to Vancouver. There were rumors about a sign and trade and Milstein played a big role in getting that guy from Calgary to Vancouver. There were rumors about a sign-and-trade in Milstein.

Like, when the agent wants the client to sign to Vancouver as much as Milstein does, yeah, it all makes sense. And Zdorov loved it here. He just loved the fans. And remember the big goals he scored against Nashville from those weird angles and the one against Edmonton and the fans went nuts. This guy loves it here. It's a hockey crazy city.

He told you in his post-season news conference how much he loved Vancouver and how much better it was than Edmonton and Calgary and the fans and all that stuff. Look, they want to cut a deal. They want to cut a deal. But the problem the Canucks have, Jamie, is that this guy has put himself in a position to get a very nice raise. And so now you've got to make the economics of it work. Like everybody says, I still say this, if you want six times six, I don't think the Canucks have a problem

with the term. But I think where the issue may lie in these negotiations is the money. And he's going from, what's he going from, just a little bit close to four. That's a pretty sizable jump. So they've got to decide. They love him. Everybody in the city, he was the guy in the playoffs that upped his value more than anyone else. But I do agree with Elliot. They're trying to find ways to make it work.

But the one thing they need to do that they're not doing right now is get back to the negotiating table. We're speaking to Rick Dollywall, Canucks reporter from Donnie and Dolly on CHECK TV here on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Let's get an update on Ian Cole, Rick. Let me say this about Ian Cole. ...and more in terms of what the Canucks expected from him when they signed him last year.

Leader, helps the culture, good pro on and off the ice. I always go back to that JT Miller quote when he said that when Ian Cole talks, we listen. You know why they listen? Because this guy's got over 1,000 games in the NHL. He's got over 120 NHL playoff games. He wanted back in a bad way. The Canucks wanted him back, but the Canucks needed him to take a big pay cut. Some are saying under $2 million. Cole made $3 million last year,

and I don't think he was feeling, I don't get the feeling he was talking pay cut, but the Canucks needed him to take a big pay cut. Unless something changes drastically, he's on his way to July 1st. Cole struggled against the Oilers, but he did not mention, and he did not say in his postseason news conference talk about his injury, which was he cut his ankle in Game 2 with a collision with Evander Kane. The cut required eight stitches. Anybody out there who's put their foot in a boot knows, have fun trying to do that with eight stitches. Anybody out there who's put their foot in a boot knows, have fun trying to do that with eight stitches. It took a lot of work and preparation to get that guy ready to play games

in round two against Edmonton. I know he took a beating on Canucks Twitter, but Canucks Twitter didn't know that what he was going through, it was a cut on his ankle that required eight stitches. So look, both sides wanted, but here's the problem for the Canucks. They need some of these guys to take pay cuts because they got so many UFAs. You can't just give everyone, you can't have everyone, you can't give everyone a raise. You can't do it. Then you don't get everyone back. So they need to save some money here, save some money here, and they tried to save some money with Cole, and I don't think it's going to happen. Another one of the unrestricted free agents for the Canucks that has kind of been on the back burner, especially, I think, after how the playoffs played out. And

of course, this is Casey DeSmith. Archer Shelovs ends up as the starter with Thatcher Demko injured. What are you hearing about Casey DeSmith? Okay, I'm hearing more and more it's going to be Demko and Seelov. I'm just starting to get, it's I think internally the organization, it's just captain obvious, right? Demko and Seelov's the two goalies next year in Vancouver. DeSmith did a great job all last year as the backup, but he lost his job in the playoffs due to an injury. Seelov's management, very impressed with Seelov's in the postseason.

Now, DeSmith is a UFA. There have been zero talks with his agent, Jordan Newman, since the season ended. And it's too bad because DeSmith was very popular in that dressing room. Remember the video of Demko giving DeSmith a hug and talking and watching with a huge smile? That was after the Edmonton game where DeSmith played great and clinched the division late in the season. Now, Seelovs will also come in much cheaper than DeSmith. You're going to be able to get Seelovs under $2 million, maybe $1.5 million, somewhere in that area, you would think.

DeSmith will be fine. He's going to have a good interest on July 1st. Teams are always looking for a good veteran backup, but I think the fact that they have not, there's been no talks with his agent, and I think it's pretty obvious what the organization thinks of Seeloff's. And of course, Rick, the Canucks made the

coaching shuffle this week as well. We had a chance to speak with Rick Tockett yesterday, and of course he spoke to the media yesterday as well, you know, or the day before, actually, and he talked about, yes, Mike Yeo was a big loss, but obviously he has a lot of confidence in Yogi Seikasi coming in, going from skills trainer to assistant coach.

What else can you tell us about kind of the thought process behind promoting Yogi to that role? Yeah, you know what, I did a lot of, first of all, we know Yogi because, you know, all of minor hockey knows Yogi. All the kids that prepare for the Bantam Draft, pros that come back to the Lower Mainland from the NHL in the summer, they all want to work with him because he's such a great skills coach.

He's got the BC Bears spring program. Everybody knows Yogi in the Lower Mainland, and they all know he's the top guy to go to now. The Canucks players absolutely love Sefskoski. He teaches things in a unique way that other coaches don't teach. They learn new things. He teaches in a way they respond. Now the Canucks recognize that. Look, this guy's a pretty special talent. They didn't want to lose him to another team someday. Take a look at Dakota Joshua's first 10 goals in a Canucks uniform,

and then look at his last 10 goals. He scored some nice goals with some nice soft touch around the net. You know what that is? That's growth under Yogi. He worked a lot with Joshua. So other NHL players are aware of Yogi, especially the ones in the lower mainland that come back to Vancouver in the summer, but also others around the league as well. They've worked with this guy in the lower mainland to come back to Vancouver in the summer, but also others around the league. Well, uh, they've worked with this guy in the past on skill development. They see how good this guy is. I think the Canucks did the right thing here and kept this guy because hockey people are always looking for guys like Yogi.

And you know what? The Canucks did something smart here. They locked them up before someone snapped that guy up and he was going to get snapped up soon. We're speaking to Rick Dollywall here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Rick, one of our regular guests, although he didn't appear this morning on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, is Sportsnet analyst Luke Gazdik. I understand that you would like to have the floor for a moment to talk about the controversy that Luke

was embroiled in over the last week. I know you guys didn't have Luke on today, and I think it's a smart move by him. He realizes he made a mistake as a national broadcaster. You can't rip a team and a fan base like the way he did and then go back on national TV the following week. Now, in his defense, it's a rookie mistake. He let the trolls on Twitter get to him, right? They get to all of us. You guys, too, right?

We get it. We're in the media. We're human. And Twitter is a pretty toxic place where there are no rules and there's no regulations. Nobody likes getting ripped. But that's what Twitter brings. But here's another thing. Radio and TV in Canada right now not only made massive cuts in staff,

they made massive cuts in management, shoestring budgets everywhere. There isn't the leaders, a person breaking into the industry needs like the old days. I mean, management is half the size of what it was 20 years ago. Oh, and by the way, now you're hired and you're on the air. And if you need anything, I'll be in that corner over there. In the meantime, you're on your own. So I miss the old days too. I miss getting knowledge from higher-ups, being taught, learning. That's all missing today for people starting out in our industry.

If Luke Gazzic started out 20 years ago, the chances of what happened to him this week would have been cut in half. I really do believe that. Greg, that was very insightful. Thank you very much for doing this today, man. We appreciate it. Enjoy the weekend. We'll do this again next Friday.

Adios. See you, buddy. Rick Dollywall, Connect supporter, hanging up the phone loudly every week. It's the best. That rotary phone he loves to slam. The kids out there will be like, what's that noise? They've never hung up a phone in their life before. They've never slammed a phone down angrily or, in Rick's case, triumphantly.

Yeah, we can spend a minute talking about that because Luke was supposed to appear on the program today. It was kind of an understood agreement between all of us that he was just going to take a week off and let the blood, you know, less angry. He angried up the blood. He's got to de-anger the blood, if you will. I don't think that's a term, but anyway. Sure. I'll say this.

Bruff and I talked about it on the day after the comments arose on the podcast. He was on Tyler, your podcast. I don't think we need to relitigate what he said. If we're going to bury someone for making a mistake, which is what it was. I don't think anyone's going to try and gloss over a poor choice of words or, you know, he wasn't misinterpreted. He wasn't radioed.

It wasn't anything like that. He said what he said, and it was like a full blown mistake. Shouldn't have done it. He's got regrets. I'm sure there's probably a bunch of other people that have regrets too, like Rick said. Maybe a mentor or someone to kind of guide him through, which can be an ugly, ugly landscape at times. I don't know how much vitriol you and Drance are subjected to, but I imagine riding shotgun with Drance, and look, let's just be honest,

he's a polarizing figure in the market. He's probably subjected to stuff that is offside and then way beyond offside that goes beyond like poking fun at someone yeah or even giving someone a really hard time within the context of sports takes right and luke was subjected to some stuff that went far outside the realm of i'm giving you a hard time because of my favorite hockey team and a hockey team that i hate yeah that's what always blows my mind is like ultimately we're not talking about like human rights here or anything you know we're talking about hockey and sports and he was like i think

this guy's gonna score in 40 goals this year it's like you idiot how dare you i don't know i just said a guy who's gonna score 40 goals thing i wanted to throw out there you know i only it escalates so incredibly quickly in large part I think thanks to social media but in other venues as well so in a if you've got a fight or flight response and you've never really and let's be I mean honest with the guy the guy was a he used to fight for a living on ice bare knuckles so he's probably got that response inherently within him he chose to fight and it was bad and i all i'm really trying to say with this entire like preamble and leading up to this point is like do not automatically write somebody off because of a singular mistake if it's repetitive

mistakes that's behavior a single mistake i think that we should probably try and have a little bit of leeway and that's all I'm asking. I know that I'm going to get some vitriol in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket for even suggesting this, but I'll say it anyway. Well, even before Luke's rant, he prefaced it with saying he was emotional at the time. He had just seen some stuff thrown his way that got him fired up. So everyone makes mistakes in the heat of the moment. And he's been a good analyst, right? I know you guys have really enjoyed having him on the show. thrown his way that got him fired up so everyone makes mistakes in the heat of the moment right and

he's been a good analyst right i know you guys have really enjoyed having him on the show he's been fantastic and the listeners loved him too so again it's not as if it's not like this is a pattern with him right i think you can look at this and pretty easily decide that it's a one-off you hope it's a one-off it's not to excuse it as you said it was clearly a mistake he crossed a line and i think he's put himself in a tough position career-wise now i mean he'll be fine ultimately but it's still a tough position for him but that doesn't mean you have to have this kind of vitriolic knee-jerk reaction every time you hear his name now as far as the other things that rick brought up on the hit i guess we're bidding adieu farewell to ian cole and to casey de smith I'm actually really,

really interested about the goaltending situation next year. So I think we alluded to this in yesterday's show, but I'll circle back because we got a few minutes here.

The Thatcher-Demko trajectory now becomes really fascinating to me because this offseason, we're probably going to see Igor Shuster can reset the market

in terms of what the highest paid goalies are going to get. He probably will end up being the highest paid net minor in the National Hockey League, Shosturkin that is. The interesting thing for me is, as we talk about the Demko trajectory, is that he's going into that sort of quote-unquote Shosturkin season. Next year for him is going to be the second to last year of his current deal. When it's up, he's going to be eligible to sign that extension. He's coming off, injury aside, the best season that he's had.

It culminated with a Vezina award. He cemented himself, I'd say, as a top five goalie, as evident by a Vezina top three in the National Hockey League. And this is the year where I think his deal, which was always a good value deal, looked like a great bargain for what he gave to the team and what the dollars put out the door for him were. Great value.

Like we were talking with Besser, though, that can all change in a year. And you do have to now bring the health conversation back to the forefront. Because at this stage of the game, it's fair to suggest that Thatcher Demko has a history of injury and is a tad injury prone. With DeSmith going and Seelov's coming in as the 1B, there's a lot of different things at play. But the biggest one is how do they limit or how do they control how much Thatcher Demko plays so that he can be healthy when this team gets to the postseason, which obviously will be the goal. Yeah, health is the big conversation with Thatcher Demko now, right?

We all know what he can do when he's at his best. If you're starting to contemplate, though, a big, big money, Shostakhin-type money, although I don't think it would be in that range, but Bobrovsky-type money, that kind of thing, extension for Thatcher Demko, I mean, that has to be a part of the conversation. He's 28. He'll turn 29 next year.

So, you know, you go a couple of years down the road, you're looking at signing a goalie who's had some problems staying healthy in well into his 30s at a big ticket. And all of a sudden you go from a bargain deal, a deal you feel great about to one that gets a lot iffier. And then, of course, the other element here is Archer Shelovs, right? And I do wonder if his playoffs accelerated his kind of career roadmap a little bit, right? Because I don't think before the playoffs, he was a lock by any stretch to be the backup next year.

Oh, hell no. Now, as we heard from Rick Dolly, well, he is. He's going to be the backup. And all of a sudden, you can kind of start to plan it out in your mind, getting really ahead of ourselves. OK, he's the backup. Then he takes on

even more of a role next year into Thatcher Demko in Thatcher Demko's last year. And are the Canucks in a position to do, you know, what they did with Markstrom and Demko, where you let the guy

going into his 30s walk because you have the younger high pedigree guy coming up behind him who you think is ready to take that next step now there's a long way to go before we get there but it is kind of playing out in that way right you've got a couple years to season archer she loves as the backup behind demko and then you see where you are because joven wrote in and ask us anything by the way on the back half of this hour we're going to do ask us anything's and what we learned and give away

all our prizes and what have you. Joven with an Ask Us Anything. Are we okay with the Canucks taking a step back next year? I don't see us having the season we had this year regular season-wise. Still early, but we need key signings. Now, here's the thing. No, we're not okay with a step back. Well, you know what?

By we, I mean I. Okay. I'm not sure how you guys feel. With the 100-plus points and the 50 wins that the Canucks had this year, it went hand-in-hand with, let's be honest, playing Thatcher Demko a lot. And in certain situations and instances during the regular season where I felt, I felt that the Canucks were still in we-gotta-prove-it mode. Like, we have to show everybody what we're about and who we are. We've got to show that we're for real and that we're a winning hockey club

and that we're not going to accept losses at this particular time. In the end, I think Demko got overplayed at certain stretches in December-January, which may or may not have ultimately led to him being hurt at the most important times of the year. I do not think that the Canucks need to address the regular season with such a mentality next year. That's just me. Well, the step back is the playoffs, right? I mean, they're probably not going to have

this crazy PDO season next year like they did this year. They probably won't be as healthy. Guys won't have career-high seasons. I'm not expecting next season as good statistically as this year was. It was a bit of an anomaly, but the step back would be if they didn't make the second round or even better yet, didn't make the conference finals.

He's talking about a regular season step back. There probably will be one. I'm inferring that what this means is don't play Demko so much. Maybe you go from 109 points to 98. Maybe you go from 50 wins to 45,

46, where you're in the the playoffs but you're not having as resounding a regular season we talked about it with rick talkett yesterday we heard it from patrick alveen at the year-end media availability right the players have to take this experience and learn how to prepare themselves to be at their best or something close to their best when the playoffs roll around and i think that applies to the team, the coaching staff and management as well. Like they have to prepare. They have to help prepare their players to be healthy. And first and foremost among those is Thatcher Demko.

And it comes down to coaching and the coaching staff having the trust, one in the other goalie, but two, just in the team, that we don't need to run Thatcher Demko out here, you know, four out of every five games in order for us to have a shot in the playoffs. We can manage his workload, make sure he's going to be good going into the playoffs, and we still have enough confidence in the rest of the team.

That's up to the coaching staff, and that's up to management to put the pieces around Thatcher Demko to give the coaching staff that confidence. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.