Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 7/1/25

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they preview the start of NHL Free Agency with Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, plus the boys chat with newly re-signed Canucks forward Conor Garland.  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. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da Deep out to right center field, does he get enough of it? Yes! Number 33, Cal Raleigh! Porter, that's him! He scores! An incredible game winner for this winner! Are the Leafs maybe a little bit worse next year without him? Probably, but I think the most important thing here bud is that they are different ladies and gentlemen the weekend

good morning Vancouver six o'clock on a Tuesday it's not even a weekend happy Tuesday everybody happy Canada day everybody happy free agency day everybody it is Alfred it is bro it is sportsnet 650 we are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. TGIF buddy. Good morning. Hey dog, good morning to you. Happy Friday to you man. And laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello, it's a holiday. Halferd and Brougham for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for net help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sans-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. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step.

So I gotta hurry up here in the rundown because Freage is going to join us in exactly four minutes here to kick off the show on free agency frenzy day. It's July 1st. It's a big day brackets. We hope so. Freage is going to join us. It's six Oh five. I will ask him about everything that's going on with the Vancouver Canucks. Pew suitor. Will he land or stick in Vancouver? I should say what's next for Brock Besser. We could talk about the Vegas situation yesterday. Crazy stuff out of Vegas yesterday regarding Alex Patrangelo and Mitch Marner. And maybe we'll talk about Florida as well. That's all coming up at six Oh five

with Elliot Friedman. He'll join us right after this rundown. Uh, at six 30 Greg Wyshinski from ESPN is going to join the program. Wish wrote a lot yesterday about a massive Monday for the Florida Panthers in case you missed it. They re-upped with both Aaron, Echblet and Brad Marshawn. Some interesting wrinkles on the Marshawn contract. We can get into that with wish at six 30 seven o'clock, Luke Fox, uh, NHL writer from sports net is going to join the program. There's a big day in Toronto yesterday. They finally fit a bid farewell to Mitch

Marner. So we can talk to Luke about that at seven o'clock at eight o'clock. Dan Murphy is going to join us. Canucks rinkside reporter live from Rogers arena where he's on site, uh, for Canucks free agency and their headquarters at Rogers arena. There were a bunch of smaller signings for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday, which happened about a half hour after we got up the air. So we can break down some of those as well, but we get to Murph again, barring any massive news, which he has to go cover in the moment.

We'll join Murph from Rogers arena at eight o'clock this morning. Finally, before I finished the rundown, I need to ask you all a question. Have you bought your tickets for the sports net 650, Jayscare 5050 for Challenger Baseball? If you have not, there's still time to do it. The contest runs until July 7th, which is next Monday. Buy your tickets now at jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. That URL again, jayscaregolf.rafflenexus.com. You can buy 50 50 tickets until Monday, July 7th

at 6 30 PM. So you got a while to still do it. Support Challenger Baseball, get a chance to win some cash and support a worthy endeavor brought to you by Tile Town, proudly Canadian owned and operated since 1971. Working in reverse on the guest list, it's Murph at eight o'clock, Luke Fox at seven, Greg Wyshinski at six 30 and Elliot Friedman's going to join us in just a

moment here. 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. action because our. We know how messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? As we work on getting Elliot

Freeman on the phone, I do want to run through some of the transactions from yesterday. I do want to get these Vancouver Canucks signings out of the way so we can discuss them later in greater detail. On Monday, the Canucks announced that forwards, Archdy Baines and

Atu Ratu have signed two year deals, two year extensions with the club while defensemen Guillaume Breesbaugh Breesbaugh and Forward Max Sassen signed one-year contracts each. Breesbaugh's still here, buddy. He's never gonna leave. He's never gonna leave He's gonna be a Canuck for the rest of time the longest tenured Vancouver Canuck now I assume because Brock Bezler's contract. Well, he's still got a few hours left before it officially runs out. But yes, Breezeball and Sasson one year deals, Baines and Rahtou two year deals.

They also extended qualifying offers to defenseman Jet Wu and goalie Nikita Tolopilo. In case you're wondering the specifics on the deals as they pertain to the NHL club, the Baines deal is a two year deal as mentioned. The second year of a deal is a one way contract. These deals all come in at $775,000. Ratu gets a two year deal.

It's a one way contract for both years of the deal. Sassen's one year deal is also a one way deal worth as mentioned, 775K. And Breezeball is on a one year two way contract. So my takeaway, again, I'm no genius here, but my takeaway was that these guys, especially Ratu and Sassen, are going to be very much in line for NHL jobs next year.

And the idea with Baines is that in year two of the contract, they're anticipating that he'll be making a push for the NHL roster. Yeah, I guess it's noteworthy that all those guys are, the second year of Baines' deal is a one way deal. Right? And RATU's both years, one way Sasson, one way Breezebois, two way contract, which is fair for Breezebois.

Yeah, I mean, I've got a lot of things to say on the Vancouver Canucks, but I don't really want to get rolling until Elliott Freeman joins us. Sure. Where are we at with Elliott right now? Are we still working on getting him? Oh, there we go. Just one second.

Okay, great. We'll run through a couple of these other deals as well in case you missed it. The Vegas Golden Knights finalized their deal for Mitch Marner in what ended up being a sign-in trade. Extortion works. Everybody Marner's new deal with Vegas is worth 96 million over eight years. Vegas did indeed complete the trade part of the sign and trade, sending center Nicholas Wah to the Maple Leafs to jump the line for Marner. So Marner now comes in with a 12 million dollar cap hit all the way through 2033.

So congratulations. We now exist in a world where deals are going all the way through 2033. So congratulations we now exist in a world where deals are going all the way to 2033. Now the other interesting wrinkle here is that the deal came together at the same time when Vegas announced that veteran defenseman Alex Patrangelo was gonna step away from hockey due to a hip injury and subsequent, I guess he's got to still get it done, a hip procedure which is gonna rule him out for the foreseeable future. It was very vague on when timelines would be, if there's a timeline at all. But that was the big news for Toronto and Vegas yesterday.

We got Freage on the line now. We will now go to the Power West Industries hotline. Elliot Friedman joins us now on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Freage. How are you? Good guys, how are you guys doing? We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So we ran through a few things here around the Vancouver Canucks,

but we want to ask you about the big two here as it pertains to free agency, Pews Suiter and Brock Besser, and anything else you might have. What are you hearing right now? What's going on with the Vancouver Canucks? Well, obviously I think the biggest thing is that, you know, the Ped Patterson story is over. I like, you know, he's, he's got his no move clauses kicked in. So I expected that to happen,

but I think that's a big one. Um, you know, obviously we're going to get the Garland extension done today. Uh, I believe we're going to get the Demco extension done today. It sounds like that's pretty much done if it isn't done already. So they've got some stuff going on there. Souter, I heard last night that they hadn't closed the door on it, but it was unlikely. I think the Canucks felt that they were going to go where Souter wanted to go. They would have to clear out money. And so seeing

as how that hasn't happened yet, either they either they sign them and punt that decision to later, or he's just going to be out there and look like towards B. But I'm always careful to point out that anything can change with one phone call. But last night the word was that if they were going to sign them, they would have to move money out. You know, Besser, it's interesting. Like again, there were some people who thought that the Canucks might take another run at them. I don't know how likely that is, but again, they would have to move money to to do it so you know we'll see I think I'm definitely expecting two extensions to be announced and and we'll see where we go from there. Are you surprised that the Canucks are at this point where the only move that they've made

is bringing in a Vander Cane? No I'm not because the place where they're really looking is is the hardest is one of the hardest things to find in the league right now. Like what are the two hardest things to find? Right shot defensemen and high level centers right? You know I was at the, I was at the board of governors meeting last week. One of the things I was talking about with a couple of the governors there is that with Pittsburgh being the only team to sell, there simply are not enough players available for what everybody wants. You heard Doug Armstrong's quote this week.

You know, when he was talking about Jordan Kyra, he said, you know, we're like 27 other teams, we're looking for a 2C. If you find one, let me know. And so I think the challenge is, that with so many teams trying to get better and only one team really taking it down with studs, there isn't enough supply to meet the demand.

There was skepticism as soon as Jim Rutherford said his plan at the end of season press conference though. But I think for a lot of Canucks fans, he said it so confidently, like, yeah, we're going to add two to three forwards and, you know, they weren't going to be bottom six guys because he really wanted to totally remake the top six, not totally remake the top six, but add two to three players to it. And I think a lot of us, fans and media like, we're like, well, that's going to be interesting because the Canucks don't really have all that much to trade except, you know, some

prospects that, you know, aren't exactly like the top of the line prospects, there's some good prospects. And then the 15th overall pick, which is a mid round, first round pick with the cap going up and teams having the ability to retain. Like, do you think, do you think they misread the market when they, when they, when they said that? No, I don't think they misread the market. I just think that like the one thing I've

just learned over the years is that Jim Rutherford in particular is a really confident guy. He always goes from the point of view that he's going to accomplish what he wants to accomplish. And so like I think when he says he is going to do something, he believes he's going to be able to do it. But I think one of the things that's happened, like I said, Jason, is that teams have been surprised at how little, how many teams are going for it or want to get better. And there just isn't the supply available. And you know, like look, like I think the other thing too, like there are some teams that are always destinations. There are some teams that are destinations when they're doing well and they're not as

big destinations when they're not as doing well. Like look what's happening in Florida right now. Like all those guys, you know, they're staying because it's a great place to be. Like I think the Canucks were really interested in Matthew Shane. He didn't really want to leave Dallas. His heart wasn't into it. So right now, with the cap going up and so many teams looking for players, players have a lot of leverage, a lot. And you you know, you, you really have to battle to, to get these guys. And there's going to be Vancouver's not going to be the only team here saying they're looking for a two C that may not solve their problem today.

There's going to be a few of those. Like, you know, I'm, I'm curious to see what's Montreal going to do. St. Louis is, I think St. Louis has got a decent shot at Grandland, so that might solve their problem. But there's a lot of teams out there looking for that position who might not find it today.

Is there any anticipation that a more robust trade market might open up for Rutherford and some other executives after free agency? Because if there's all these teams that want to make moves and want to add and want to still be competitive and they don't get to feed in free agency because if there's all these teams that want to make moves and want to add and want to still be competitive and they don't get to feed and free agency, which is a fair assumption because there's not a ton of talent available here. Are some executives,

maybe Rutherford included anticipating that the trade market might heat up after July one? Yes. Like I'll tell you this, like I like one guy of her is like, for example, is a guy like Victor Arvindson in Edmonton. Now I don't think he's going today, but I do think that when everybody takes stock of

what happens over the next 24 to 48 hours, there will be a market for him. So I'm also very curious about a guy like Adam Henrique. Now Henrique has control and so it'll be his decision. But I can see teams going to the Oilers, depending on what happens today and saying, hey, what would you be interested in doing here? What do you think the player would be interested in doing here? Like I think there's going to be a lot of that. Like for example, I'm not expecting an era

Carlson trade today, but I can see a situation where, you know, when everybody sees how it all lands, people then starting to call Pittsburgh and ask Carlson who has control, okay, what are you thinking here? Yes. I do think that kind of thing is going to be happening. So on Besser and on Souter, if it's not the Canucks, do you have any best guesses on where each

of those guys land? No, I think Winnipeg really has prioritized Besser. I'll tell you one thing about Besser, as I wrote this morning, there was a player who said, he joked with me, they're like, Besser is the only player who's not afraid of the cold. Like he's willing to go to some of these places that a lot of other guys don't want to go to. I think Winnipeg has made Besser a high priority. I'll tell you this, I've heard the possibility of Edmonton. That will take some

surgery. It's not an easy path, but I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility. I think he, he would be interested there. I've heard Boston. The other team I really wonder about is, is it's different because they're farther away from winning, but San Jose is really far away from the floor and they're gonna have to pay some people and I think a guy like Besser could really benefit from that. So we'll see but those are the kinds of places I'm looking at for him. Souter, the team I've wondered about for some time now is Philadelphia.

I mean it's an obvious connection but like there's a whole bunch of centers out there. There's guys like Suter. Suter had the great year at the right time. You know there's players like Sturm. There's other players out there. There's a bunch. Holmberg, who the Maple Leafs didn't qualify. I know there's a lot of interest in him but I think we've like I've heard Suter is going to get somewhere between four, five and five. You know, Philly can do that. We'll see who else. Um, another guy I've wondered about for Philly is Archer's Sealovs.

Do you think the Flyers might take a chance there? I do think Sealovs is out there. Um, I don't know if I expect that. I think someone told me that Philly has their eyes on a free agent target out there. Okay, so I want to ask about the Vegas situation, acquiring Marner, which is definitely going to help them. Um, and then, uh, losing Patrangelo, which is, which is a big, big loss for them on the blue line. Um, when you're talking to people, uh, in the league, is there any skepticism about the Patrangelo statement or do they just like, do most people just

think like this guy is actually for real, never going to play another game in the NHL? So like like I'll tell you like I was being I knew there was an issue there I talked about it a couple of times But the one thing I really stayed away from were the specifics because I heard there were a lot of potential outcomes here um You know like you guys saw Petranpo at the end of last year, he could barely move. Like, like he really gutted it out. I, he wanted to compete, he was trying

to compete, he wanted to play for his team. And I think also the Olympics, which he's won a gold medal at before, was something that was very important to him. I think he wanted to play at the Olympics. And he's and but what I heard was if he got the surgery and it's they mentioned the wine, like there was a possibility might I heard he might have had to have more than one. There was at least one person I really trust this person who said if he got the procedures he needed to get, it might be 18 months before he could play. Yeah.

And so like, I think this is very legitimate. I know why people roll their eyes and stuff. I think in this particular case, it's very legitimate. He had some serious injuries and you know, one of the reasons I think the statement was worded the way it was yesterday, Jason is that I had heard that if he even if he didn't have the surgery, like he can still have a very good

quality of life to skate with his kids and golf and stuff like that. So I believe that was one of the options. Like if if you're gonna have a, if you had two years left in your contract, and there's a chance you might not play for 18 months and the other option is just don't have these huge surgeries but still have a good quality of life, I get it. I get that you're weighing those two outcomes. Well, as soon as golf is threatened, you have to make the right choice there.

Yeah, I do too. I totally get it. Freish, before I let you go on the subject of potential skepticism with these deals, is there any around Brad Marshawn being signed until he's 43 years old by the Florida Panthers? I have to say, some Leaf fans were mad about this because they sent me DMs about last year

that people talked about investigations into the TANF deal. Like, I don't care about that stuff. I don't freak out about that. I have no problem with the TANF deal last year. I don't have a problem with the Marchand deal this year. I will say this, like I was talking about this with someone last night, I don't know if you've ever seen a contract like this before.

Has anyone ever gotten a six- deal to take them to forty three? Like, you can think of it with me is like I look at it for the player. Like, if someone wants to do that with Brad Marsham, I'm like more power to him. Like, you're worth what someone's willing to pay you. I do believe he is the first player in the cap era to sign a six year deal at age 37. So I'm good on him.

How long did they have Kovalchuk originally? 17 years. Until what age though? Cause that was the crazy thing. I can't remember how old he was. If he was 20, like at that time he couldn't be a UFA until you were 27 or about seven years in the league, or 27. So at minimum, he had to be 25.

So 42, yeah. All right. A 17 year deal. That was amazing. All right, well, thanks for taking the time to join us this morning. We'll see what the Canucks do today. If anything, I expect they'll announce

the Garland and Demko extensions, and we'll see what the Canucks do today. If anything, I expect they'll announce the Garland and Demko extensions, and we'll see what else. Enjoy a very busy day, Freage. Have a good day. See ya. Thanks, buddy. That's Elliot Friedman, Sportsnet NHL insider here on the Haliford & Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650.

When Kovalchuk signed the contract, the 17-year contract, it would have taken him through age 44 with the New Jersey Devils. Okay. Yeah. So- Canucks. I mean, I came in talking about or prepared to talk about the Canucks resigning suitor

and now Freage said that he heard last night that it was unlikely. Now, again, some people are reporting that this thing could go down to the wire. So we'll see in a couple of hours, I guess. But what does it say that the Canucks had to circle back on suitor? I think Freage said a lot of it already. It starts with the fact that they failed to

address the centre position via trade. Um, it's also believed that Michael Grandland doesn't have any choice and any interest in joining the Canucks. Uh, Freach suggests he'll end up in St. Louis or it's a strong possibility. Um, it's been widely reported that the Blues are really going to target Grandland.

Um, I do wonder about some other guys, Roslavec, can they afford him in this market? Right shot center that scored 22 goals for Carolina last season. He's going to get paid. I actually wonder about Jonathan Durant just because that's more of a me thing because I really think the Canucks

could use some more playmaking ability up front. But we all know this is an underwhelming list of UFAs. The Canucks were hoping they could do better than the guys on this list, but they have it so far. And this is, I mean, I can't believe in a lot of ways. We've had a lot of, I can't believe it's come to this in the past year for the Canucks, after the season they had before last season.

But I can't believe we're like, can we afford Pew suitor? That's where we're at. This is the most bargaining power suitor's ever had and probably ever will have. The guy had an unbelievably timed contract year, given what he'd done to that point in the NHL, which is bounce around.

Part of that was because he played legitimately really well, but I also think you have to remember the opportunity he was given after the Miller-Pettersson feud blew a hole down the middle of the roster. Suiterer at the end of the season was regularly logging over 20 minutes a night because Miller had been traded and Peterson got hurt.

And then he just happened to become an unrestricted free agent in a market that was suddenly flushed with cap space and short on centers. And the question of whether that was a market the Canucks should be playing in anyway, was out there. A lot of mistakes get made on July 1st when there are markets like this, but Suter brought

a lot to the Canucks beyond just goal scoring last season. He was versatile. He could play center. He could play in the top six as a winger. And don't forget, he was a big part of the Canucks returning their penalty kill to respectability in the NHL.

He was the guy that was out there first, most of the time among the Fords. He's very crafty, defensive, you know, 200 foot player. He's not the fastest skater out there. He's not the fastest, but he's one of the smartest. So, you know, I think there will be some people that are like, you know what, I'm okay with the Canucks not giving Pugh suitor four years and

20 million dollars or whatever it's going to be for suitor, but they're also going to have to replace them. And, you know, I, I, I threw out a question on social media yesterday and it was essentially like, what is the Canucks top six look like? And there's two locks, Pedersen and Debrusque. And then you've got three solid candidates, I

think in Kane, Garland and Hedl. Now, if Souter's not there, Hedl is your second line center, for sure. So you can't bump them to the wing. And then you're going to have to find one more winger for the top six. Now, you know, people can say, well, try Hoeglund there or try Carlson there. And for sure, that's fine. Go for it. Try anyone there.

But Pedersen, Debrecht, Kane, Garland and Hedel, I like the Canucks goaltending. I like the defense, but that is a very thin forward group. I mean, in light of the contracts that were signed yesterday where Atu Rathu and Max Sassen got one year deals or sorry, two year deals and a one year deal, both one way contracts. I wonder if we're staring at a world where you're one C is Elidus Patterson, your two C is Philip Heidel, your three C is Teddy Bluger reuniting the third line and your fourth C

is a battle between Rathu and Sassen and somebody else. I wonder if that's what it's gonna be. Souter sounds like, I mean, again, if we go on what Elliot Friedman is saying, that it's unlikely to happen in Vancouver. Pierre LeBron just put out that Mikhail Granlin is officially going to market. He informed Dallas of that this morning.

But that, to me, suggests that there's gonna be a bidding war for Mikhail Granlin. That he's been bid up so much that he doesn't need to settle on going back to Dallas like some of the other guys like, you know, Matt Duchesne that he can go to market and maybe a team like St. Louis will come out of its shoes to spend on him. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 8 o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. So it's Canada Day. Happy Canada Day. Halford, rough sports net 650. So it's Canada Day. Happy Canada Day. It's free agency day. Happy free agency day. It's Big Band Tuesday. All of our themes are overlapping into one mess of a show here on the Halford and Brough show on sports net 650. Connor Garland is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off our three in the final hour of this program. Before we get to Connor, I'm going to run through some things real quick. Our three of this

program is brought to you by sans and associates BCs first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3000 five star reviews. This is them online at sans dash trustee.com. I also need to tell you about the BC lions. It's the biggest rivalry party of the year. Lions roughriders Saturday, July 19th at 4pm with the watermelon smash on Terry Fox Plaza. Get your tickets to BCclions.com. Finally, it is free agency day.

Coverage of NHL Free Agency 2025 is brought to you by Homes by David L. Young of Dexter Realty. Here, there and everywhere, visit homesbydavidlyoung.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. Guests on Sportsnet 650 call in on the hotline powered by Power West Industries. Don't get caught in the dark when it matters most. Visit them at powerwest.ca today. They keep the lights on. Let's go to that Power West Industries hotline right now. Our next guest just signed a six-year contract extension with

the Vancouver Canucks with a six million dollar AAV. Very happy to bring our next guest on the program. Connor Garland here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Connor, how are you? Good morning guys, how you doing? We're good. First off, congrats. Thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. How happy are you to get this deal done with the Canucks? Yeah, very happy. You know, I think, uh, when you're, when you're with the same organization for, you know, I've been there four years now, start to get into a routine feels like home. And, uh, you know, I was very excited, uh, you know, when the offer came to, to be there for, you know, extended period of time and just, uh, of time. I had my son there in November

and for him that will be his first place living and a lot of his first memories so we're very excited about it. How is little Quint doing? He's good. He's trying to talk every day. He's crawling now, sleeping through the night. He's an easy baby and he's just fun to be around in the summer. What does it mean to you to be considered, and this was in the press release

and this was in Patrick Alveen's quote in the press release, what does it mean to you to be a core player on the Vancouver Canucks? Yeah, that means the world to me. I think any player you know especially someone who is you know passed over in a draft and drafted later in the fifth round you know usually those are those are guys who are high end picks and you know I've been fortunate enough to kind of improve as a

player each and every year and you know to be trusted with that with you know a great management staff and coaching staff means a lot to me so but it but it's, you know, I don't take it for granted. It's something you have to earn every day and perform each and every day on and off the ice. So, you know, I look forward to having that challenge. Do you consider yourself one of the veteran leaders on this team? Like, has there been talk of taking an expanded role in that leadership or is that role already there with you? I think that comes naturally. I think this year I took a step in that direction and then

this summer playing for Team USA and being one of the leaders there, it helped a lot just continuing to learn how to do that day in and day out. But I think Huggy and I have a pretty good relationship and he trusts me a lot. And Myze in the same sense and Demer, we've been together for a while. So when you have a leadership group that's pretty tight, you can lean on each other and get a message across the room in a great way. You must have been happy to see that Thatcher Demko extended as well. I was very excited. Obviously when you, you know, I believe

he's the best goalie in the world and most talented, you know, at his position. And it's obviously, you know, an easy way to win when you have a great goalie, Kandem. So to sign on with him at the same day was pretty awesome. I think we talked recently on the phone and we're just really excited to be able to play with each other for a lot more years ahead.

Connor, Patrick Alveen also said that your commitment to the Canucks shows how confident you are in the organization's vision and direction. What makes you so confident? Well, the management we have, if Jim Rutherford, he's won three cups, he's in the hockey hall of fame, so we have Adam Foote as a head coach, he's won two cups, gold medal in the Olympics.

They're not theorizing on how to win, they've won. So you trust in those people that have done it before, which for me is a huge thing. But then again, I look at our players, you know, I remember, you know, in practice, just thinking about how hard are these to play against, how hard is this to score just in practice, you know, we're a hard team to play against, which you hear from a lot of, from guys I hang out with in the summer. And, you know, I was excited to, was excited to be a part of that as well. I consider myself someone who's kind of hard to play against.

Obviously not the biggest, but I like to be in people's faces in four checks. So I think our model of hockey and how we play and the talent we have with Petey, Huggy, Demer, some of these young guys coming up, especially the guys on the back end we have that are young and coming that I'm just really excited to, you know, be a part of that. You mentioned some of the veteran leaders like, uh, Queen Hughes and Thatcher Damco and Tyler Myers and yourself. Did you feel like you guys almost improved as leaders last year because you were forced to, given that, I mean, let's be honest, it was a difficult year,

a lot of different ways, including having to kind of keep the team together during some rocky periods. Did you feel like your leadership abilities actually improved last season? Yeah, I think when adversity hits, you know, you get really tested. Uh, we had some, you know, obviously I believe the noise outside of our rink and outside of our room was a lot louder than, you know, what it, what it was on the inside, but there was some stuff we had to deal with. And I thought we did a good job with it as players just to handle it, move forward. I think last year, a lot of what was talked about was more of stuff in the media and drama.

We dealt with a lot of injuries as well. We had some guys come in and step up and play really good hockey for us to keep us in the hunt as long as we could. But yeah, as leaders, you know, you also play another year, you mature, you go through things, but you know, we grew as a group and I think it's only going to help us, you know, later on. You know, there's not much more I think we can deal

with, so we'll be ready for anything. Um, what have your conversations been with Adam Foote since he was named head coach and if I don't know if you haven't had many conversations, like just what do you think Foot will bring to the Vancouver Canucks? Well, like I said earlier, he's somebody who's one, he knows how to go about it.

I grew up in Boston as a young kid and Ray Bork was my favorite at a young age. So when he got traded, I was, I was a bandwagon out avalanche fan. So I always enjoy talking to footy about the stories from those teams and, um, you know, I listened to him talk, talk about that team for hours. So, uh, you know, but you learn a lot of lessons listening to him. And, um, I think he's going to bring that from a head coaching standpoint,

you know, as a defensive coach in the PK this year, I think he's one of bring that from a head coaching standpoint, you know, as a defensive coach in the PK this year I think he's one of the smartest defensive minds and and someone if you listen to that he'll have tips and small little cues that you know, not a lot of people understand and you know, I'm just I'm excited to have that relationship with them of a head coach and you know, I think you know, he's he's someone that if you're playing you're gonna play and you know, that's that's that's all you want as a player Are you still a big Boston sports guy? He's someone that if you're playing, you're going to play and that's all you want as a player. Are you still a big Boston sports guy? Yeah, I mean, obviously when I got drafted to Arizona, I was done being a Bruins fan,

but I was the biggest Patriots fan for a long time. I didn't love how they treated Belichick going out the door, so that hurt, but no, I still watch them and that's probably really the only team I pay attention to now. Have you ever been part of a Boston sports parade? Yes 2003 Patriots here they beat the Panthers I believe in the Super Bowl so I went to that parade. Okay we're speaking of Connor Garland newly re-signed Canucks forward here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 You know when you talk about all the great teams is they often have an identity that's very clearly You know set out at the beginning of the year and then the players really adapt to it

And I know that's one of the things you kind of alluded to here with Adam Foote is one of the major things you guys are looking in terms of establishing identity moving forward is to be relentless and very difficult to play against. And if so, are those two things that you think you can really be a leader with on this team? Yeah, I think I can be a leader in a lot of sense. You know, I'm someone who's not overly physically gifted, but I'm very addicted to the game and trying to get better each and every day. And I take my craft serious.

So, um, you know, I think I'm a leader in that sense, right. Or I like to show how hard it is, you know, to play in the NHL on how hard it is to stay. So, but you know, being hard to play against, there's a lot of things that go into it. You gotta be able to block shots. You know, you gotta be able to stick up for teammates. You gotta be able to be in shape so you can play hard, hard minutes.

So that's all things, you know, as leaders, you know, and coaches, we're gonna be pre-training. What kind of training do you emphasize in the offseason that gives you that motor that you've got? I just enjoy skating. I think weight training is, you know, is what it is. I'm not sure how much you can improve as a player from weight training. You can put on strength, you can get stronger,

you can get faster. But as a player, I just enjoy skating and working at my skill. And yesterday I played men's league in the morning for two hours and I'm skating as hard as I can for most of the time. So I think you just build up that engine. And I've been doing that since I've been 14.

So I feel like my cardio from skating has always gotten pretty good in the summer just from being on the ice. I don't think you can replace skating at all. What happened at age 14, was there something that clicked for you or is that just when you started really taking it seriously? Well, no, I think I, it was when I, you know, started renting ice myself and I would text local college players and actually NHL players. Um, a lot of them wouldn't respond and I don't blame them. I was a 14 year old kid, but I just enjoyed, I just enjoyed having, you know, good players on the ice.

And, um, that's, that's how I would train. I would just play against a lot of older and better players and we'd play for hours and hours. And you know, you don't even realize you haven't been on the ice for two and a half hours. You're gonna build up quite the stamina and then you're gonna get better. You're on the ice, you're playing games,

you're playing in tight areas against better players. So that's how I've always trained. And you know, that's how I'll have my son train and hopefully I can still be around skating when that time comes. That is awesome. You were 14 years old and you were texting NHL players to come skate with you. Did any of them respond? I'll have my son training. Hopefully I can still be around skating when that time comes. That is awesome. You were 14 years old and you were texting NHL players to come skate with you.

Did any of them respond? Yeah, I always say Kiki Andel came quite a bit. More as the summer went on when he, you know, when it was closer to training camp, which I understand now why, but he always would come and I always give him the most credit. He would talk and he would tell stories and it buddy who were on the ice and he was just the greatest guy. So that's something I always was very, very grateful for. Would you say that you're addicted to hockey?

For sure I am. For sure. I know how blessed I am to be able to play this game for a living, especially with my stature. And there's not many jobs out there that I could be having a great life like this without the game of hockey. So I'm addicted. I enjoy it. I love getting better.

And it's just the greatest game in the world. So I was lucky to be born with the love for it. Do you stay in Vancouver for the off season now or do you go back to the East Coast? No, I'm home now. I left about a week and a half after the season and I'll stay here for most of the time. I might come out for a few days to look for a place to live this year and that would be it but no, I usually, I don't like to travel too much. I like to stay home when I'm home and I enjoy enjoy my little

Osser hey, I gotta ask you you mentioned a couple times about where you were drafted the fact that you're undersized by the current dimensions of NHLers at the same time I mean, I don't want to say that you've made it but you've now signed, you know back-to-back contracts with the same organization That's giving you 60 million dollars What keeps the drive and the chip on your shoulder and not being content? Because you probably have a lot of reasons to be happy with how your career's turned out at this point. Well, it's a great question.

I think for most of my life, I had to prove people wrong and was told no a lot and I was cut a few times. It's a little different now where I've been trusted and I feel like I have to prove Patrick and Jim and Foody and the people that I've been grateful enough to get these contracts from, I have to prove them right. So they put a lot of trust in me to be one of the players on their team for the next seven years

and I don't take that lightly. So I feel it's a good challenge to be able to go out and prove them right each and every night. Well, Connor, we both think you are very deserving of this deal and we were both very happy to announce it this morning. I can imagine you're pretty happy about it as well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it and have a great season and a great few seasons

now that you're locked up for the next seven years here in Vancouver. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your summer. We'll see you soon. Yeah, you too, thanks. That's Connor Garland, Canucks Forward. Newly signed, six years, 36 million for Connor Garland, a six million AAV. It's all right here on the Haliford & Bref Show

on Sportsnet, 6.50. No shark question? Come on, man. Love that low hanging fruit, eh, Doug? Right there. And you know he was waiting for it. Yeah, he was waiting with it and dread these idiots are gonna ask me. Oh man. He loves to talk He does love to talk about sharks. I'd rather ask him about it. I'm finally

He's like I don't want to talk about that Questions that was so smart when he talked about the training with older players like that. It's brilliant It's a lot of gumption It takes gumption but it's the perfect way to get better at your craft, is just surround yourself with people who are bigger, stronger, and way better than you at it. Texting Keith Yandle. And you will naturally get better.

Yeah. So smart. What was he, 14 when he texted him? How awesome is that? That's amazing. That he was texting NHL players and be like, hey, I've got some ice, do you want to come out? Yeah, and I was like, who the hell?

They're like, who is this? Yeah, what? How'd this kid get my number? Is this some sort of sting? What's going on here? There is. I mean, we we talked a lot of different avenues around it, but I think there's a real central driving point there about

the how and I use the dictated, but there's a lot of different like phrasings that you could do. You have to have a certain level of infatuation and you also have to have all these different driving forces, be it like an itch that you can't scratch, like that's the addiction part of it. Or that's why I asked him at the end, like how can you continue to carry a chip on your shoulder

from when you got cut from a team when you were 15? Like that, but that's what he does. Yeah. And you know it because he's spoken about it in the past and what does he mention almost every time there's an interview. I was a fifth round pick. I was considered undersized.

Guys like me aren't supposed to make it. And I would say, well, you made $60 million in the sport. I'd say you've done a pretty good job. Like you've made it, but how do you not be satiated? How do you still stay hungry? And part of it is you have to be completely consumed by the sport and the other part of it Is that you always have to find a reason to be motivated and whether that's the chip on your shoulder now He brought up a good point. He's like well these guys have invested and trusted a lot in me

I have to return that Because that's what I was talking about prior to going to break like the Vancouver Canucks have made Connor Garland an extremely wealthy man They've given him two contracts Eleven years in length and sixty million dollars in value over the course of the two That's life altering money. That's you've made it you've made it in a way that what a handful of people on the planet will ever make it especially in the sporting realm, it's a big thing and on the planet will ever make it, especially in the sporting realm.

It's a big thing. And if you are able to use that as a driving factor and not use it as something where it's like, I've made it, let's kick back and let's order another margarita. That's probably not in his DNA. No, because he's addicted to hockey. Yeah. He played two hours of men's league this morning. I know you didn't. I didn't. I barely got off to do this radio show.

This damn show. As soon as the show is on, I'm going back to bed. There's a signing just announced. Let's hear it, laddie. Going back to New Jersey for five years, Jake Allen. Wow. Only 1.8 million cap hit, but five years for the 34-year-old goaltender.

Five by 1.8? That's what Elliott Friedman says. That is so bizarre. Interesting. Maybe like they tacked on a couple of years to the end of that deal just to get the AAV down. What do you guys think? I don't know, but I also know that there's another deal that we need to pass along with even more local ties. I'll do respect to the Goli brethren that you and Jake Allen belong to.

The Carolina Hurricanes have agreed to a eight-year contract extension with Logan Stankoven. The Stankoven gets an eight-year extension with Logan Stankovic. The Stankovic gets an eight year extension with Carolina. Eight years, 48 million overall. Interesting deal there. They just announced it about, I don't know, five minutes ago. So we're still parsing through the details there, but Local Kid obviously went to Carolina

in exchange in the Meiko Randen trade that saw the Canes send Meiko randon to Dallas at the deadline Logan stank of an eight years 48 million dollar contract extension in Carolina with the canes Another kind of undersized player. Yep, right very undersigned Someone also pointed out that Mike got a great question. I did get a great question. That's a rarity It is rare that is very but like game recognizes game right Garland recognizes when a great question. That's a rarity. It is rare. It is rare, but like game recognizes game, right? Garland recognizes when a great question pops up. He's addicted to hockey, I'm addicted to great questions. It wasn't so much a great question,

it was just not a shark's question. So he was like, oh, nice. Yeah, Adog was waiting for the shark question the whole time. Adog, do you ever just wonder, like, sometimes those players are like, I know these guys know, like, this one thing about me that I like sharks. So they're probably going to ask me and then I

have to be like, yeah, I like sharks. It's the other way around. These guys are like, oh, I'm sick of all these stupid hockey questions. Answering the same question day in, day out. I have thousands of dollars in sharks books right behind me. Please let me use them.

By the way. Let me expand your knowledge on sharks. So if someone came up to you and like, let's say they were interviewing a dog. And someone went like, so, we heard you like the Simpsons. Oh buddy, you got nine hours? Would you really want to answer that question? So you'd be like, yeah, I do.

I do. I do. So. A lot. Wanna give me, wanna tell you some of my favorite episodes? Quote some lines if you want. Yeah. Speaking of sharks, I was hoping that Garland would bite at the questions about the new head coach

and what style they were gonna implement. Did you notice that there was a couple nuggets in there where he was talking about how, what a great defensive mind Adam Foote was and how he's always giving him tips on the defensive side of things. Yeah. And I wanted to ask him like,

well, we saw what happened in free agency so far. Are you anticipating a more lockdown style next year? I, and that was the other question I was asking about identity is I wonder if at the end of the day, we're going to see one of the most defensive oriented teams in the last few years. Like our mantra, our identity, our style,

everything is about keeping the puck out of our net as opposed to putting it in the opposition's net. I wonder if that's gonna be it. I still think they're gonna four check hard. I wonder if that's going to be a. I still think they're going to forecheck hard. I'm not saying. I think that'll. I'm not saying that. Well, well you are, because like.

Forechecking is a great brand of defense. When the puck's not in your end, that's defending. Not really, because like. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. But if you, there's a difference between sending one forechecker and two forecheckers, right? You can have a really aggressive forecheck and if it gets beaten, you might actually be looking at an odd man rush against, or you can have one guy in there and then four

guys back. Right? I get what you're saying. There is a difference. Yeah, I get what you're saying. Because they're going to have to generate offense somehow. You can have, yeah, we defend well, we've got great goaltending and deep blue line, then that's what we do best, but you still need to score at some point.

Like you're not going to win any game. And especially in this league now. You know, the Florida Panthers, I was looking at it last night and in the playoffs, they averaged over four goals. I looked back to 2003 when the Devils won it. They averaged 2.6 goals. I looked back to 2003 when the Devils wanted, they averaged 2.6 goals. It isn't that league anymore. And it's swimming against the tide to put a team that is like,

we're a lock it down team in the current NHL, where you see teams, a lot of teams that can just score and score in bunches. Like the Imminton Oilers, when they were down three goals, it was like, yeah, no big deal. They're still in this game. And that was against some pretty good defensive teams. So if that is indeed the plan and it might be the right plan for this group, it's still going to be tough to pull off. Cause you still need to score.

We got our plays going to have to be good. We got to go to break. We're going to try and get Murph right at eight 30 live from Rogers arena. Canucks headquarters on free agency day. Obviously two big deals. Connor Garland getting done in that. Your Demco getting done as well. You're listening to the best of Halford and brough.