Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/16/24

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

Mike & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, including a memorable MLB Home Run Derby, they chat a bit of hockey with NHL.com Canucks & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley, 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. Teo Oscar Fernandez! Teosca Hernandez! Teosca Hernandez is your 2024 Team Oklahoma Derby champ. And the Rockets red glare. And the Rockets red glare. Uh-oh. I'm asking, can you see?

Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is the Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650 featuring Jamie Dodd. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning to you. Good morning. in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning to you. Good morning. A-Dog, good morning to you. Good morning. And welcome back to Laddie. Good morning to you, Laddie. Hello, hello.

I hope you're feeling better. I'm feeling much better, thank you. Half and Breath of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

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What are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. You know, some say that this is the slowest time of the year in sports. And they're correct, because it's the slowest time of the year in sports. However, however, we have a pretty good show to put forth here. We have a few different things to get into. We have a good guest list. Shockingly, we have a pretty good show to put forth here. We have a few different things to get into. We have a good guest list. Shockingly, we have a great show for you.

As opposed to most of our shows, which are average at best. Today's a really good one. Guest list begins at 7 o'clock. Axel Schuster, Whitecaps CEO, is going to join us. We will talk to him about Wednesday night's match. It's 80s night at BC Place between the Whitecaps sporting Kansas City. Whitecaps are playing some good football as of late.

Brian White finding the back of the net with regularity. We'll also ask Axel what he thought about Ali Ahmed at the Copa America with Canada. And here's a thing, Jamie. So yesterday,

someone texted in asking us if we could find out more about the turf situation for the upcoming Wrexham match against the Whitecaps at BC Place. I'll own this one. I scoffed at the question. Scoffed! I said to Jamie, I'm like, what turf situation? What's this guy talking about?

Then I did the research. It turns out that there's an active standing request to have temporary grass put down in B.C. Place for the Wrexham match. And of course, from Axel, we're also going to get the for a dog, the official rundown of all the arcade games that will be on the concourse on 80s night. You got to lead with that question, which I'm sure Axel was personally involved in making the details of this event. Hand selecting which Street Fighter two console he wants to put up. I want to know every single game that's there. So Axel Schuster is going to join us at 7 o'clock, 7.30, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, Ingle Magazine.

Hey, if you have something that you've ever wanted to ask Kevin Woodley, now's your chance to do it. We're going to get him on the show. We're going to talk anything and everything there is to do about the world of hockey. You can even get in on the action. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. You don't need to hashtag it. It's 730. Know that Woodley's going to be on the show. I got a question for him. You have a question for him.

How do you get his own commercial? Are you talking about the White Rock Highland commercial? By doing great work. By putting in the hours. Kevin Woodley? What do you mean? How do you get his own commercial? How did he not have his own commercial before this? You know what we need to ask Woodley, though? Why does he have not one, not two, not three, but four Hyundais? That does seem a little bit much.

Does he have a hoarding problem? Is he stockpiling them for the Armageddon? What's happening here? I have a question. First of all, how dare you? Yes. Thank you, Andy. So 7.30, Kevin Woodley's going to join the show.

8 o'clock, it's our regular Tuesday BC Lions guest. We're going to be joined by offensive lineman and good local kid, Suk Chung's going to join the program. Fresh off the heels of a very big victory for the Lions on Saturday against the previously undefeated Saskatchewan Roughriders. Okay, so working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Suk Chung, 7.30, Kevin Woodley,

7 o'clock, Axel Schuster. 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. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happ miss 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. Part of the reason that this is the slowest time of the year is because when the MLB All-Star break happens,

there's no other sports going on anywhere else. Obviously, there's no other baseball games. And then the entire world becomes glued to the Home Run Derby, an annual event where we actually play it on the radio sometimes. And that is scintillating radio. Let me tell you what. It was actually a very dramatic event last night, though. Teoscar Hernandez is your 2024 MLB Ho Run Derby Champion. An exciting

final round against Bobby Witt Jr. I was a big fan of his dad, former Texas Rangers pitcher, Bobby Witt. Teoscar wins. I guess the big story of the night was that there were a couple upsets in the early rounds. Pete Alonzo, a lot of people's favorite, including

our very own MLB insider, Adnan Virk, was knocked out early. Gunnar Henderson, Adolis Garcia, I think a lot of people were rooting for him, obviously, because he was a Texas guy. They were all out in the first round. That paved the way for Teoscar Hernandez. Not necessarily even close to being a favorite going into it, to win the whole shebang. Laddy, while you were at home nursing your ailment, were you watching the home run derby last night? Off and on.

I didn't see the very finish of it, but I watched as much as I could. And yeah, it was good to see Teoscar and Laddie back together again, the two bros, wearing his jersey. It was nice. So we need to discuss, and because we've got Jamie Dodd and Greg Ballack here,

two huge Blue Jays fans, anytime that Teoscar Hernandez or any of the guys that have been jettisoned do anything of note, I always bring it back to, why did they get rid of these guys? So do we want to relitigate the Teoscar Hernandez trade? Absolutely. What do you mean, do we want to relitigate this? Are you kidding me?

Yeah, we do. Do we have time? And the great thing about this is, like, I was trying to think, if you drew a parallel to something like this happening to the Canucks, okay, guy they traded, and then he goes on. And this is his second team. They didn't like this happening to the Canucks okay guy they traded and then he goes on and this is his second team they didn't even trade him to the Dodgers right they traded him to Seattle then he left in free agency signed with the Dodgers and like wins you know MVP at the all-star game or something right and people are freaking out and texting

in like oh how do they let this guy go look what he's doing and in that situation I would be coming on being like look guys it's the all-star game like relax this has nothing to do with their value as a player like you do not have to overreact to this we can evaluate the trade but it has nothing to do with this that's what i would be doing my professional capacity on canucks talk but as a blue jays fan i am fully licensed to be outraged that the guy they let go who's's like Vladdy's best friend, is out here hitting bombs and winning the home run derby, especially because, and here's the thing, it's not just because he won the home run derby,

it's because the trade itself is so emblematic of what this front office's approach has been, which is hyper-emphasizing years of control, right? So, hey, he's a year away from free agency. We're going to get ahead of this and trade him for Eric Swanson, who's got all these years of control right so hey he's a he's a year away from free agency we're gonna get ahead of this and trade him for eric swanson who's got all these years of control left right and a prospect who's got even more years of control left and and we're gonna get better at run prevention we're tired of hitting all these home runs and not being able to feel very well we're gonna get way better at run prevention and eric swanson is now a 30 year old reliever who

had like a 13 era this year and is in AAA. So it's like, oh, great that we have years of control left on him. It's not going to amount to much because he's in AAA. I remember when the trade happened at the time. So the trade was, and it was after the meltdown series against the Mariners, right? The two-game sweep, which is still funny vernacular to throw out there, but the two-game sweep, which is still funny vernacular to throw out there, but the two-game sweep.

And then I don't know if it was – I think it was probably a hybrid of things. It was probably what you were suggesting, the emphasis between Atkins and Shapiro and having guys on club control. I also think that they wanted to make a statement to the dugout and the clubhouse about less celebration, more seriousness. Well, he was known for his gaffes too, right? The team wanted to get more serious. He's not a great fielder, to be fair. And he does strike.

Like, he's not a perfect player. There's a reason Seattle let him go too, but he's a good player. Strikes out a lot, but apparently very good when it's batting practice fastballs coming in. Right. He was the one that would throw the sunflower seeds on everyone when they did something good as well.

Which he does with Shohei now. His buddy Shohei in LA, you know, the team that's just so good tough. Just a good player. So I think what this... If you want to kind of extrapolate a lot of different conversations from one particular move, I do think that this was partly about what the numbers and the metrics and the analytics tell you,

as opposed to what the vibes and the mood and the atmosphere and attitude of your team is. Because in that same offseason, they also got rid of Lourdes Goriel Jr., who I think in his first year in Arizona, he ended up making the All-Star team. And he's been kind of the same guy in Arizona that he was in Toronto. And I think you could maybe say the same with Teoscar. He still kind of does the things that he does. Very similar.

In that series against the the two game series the two game loss to um Seattle if I'm not mistaken Teoscar represented about half the runs that they scored in that series I think they scored nine and he had four he hit two home runs and you could have made the argument that he was one of the guys in that series that didn't kind of shy away when the lights got bright and there was pressure on them, right? Where a lot of other guys failed in that moment, he didn't. And I wonder, as we extrapolate another conversation from this, I do wonder if when we look back on where the downfall of the Jays, because we're seeing it happen in front of our very eyes here,

if they decided to tinker too much or move off the things that gave them known success and wanted to go into some sort of weird abyss where we don't know what we're going to be, but we know what we're not going to be. And we're not going to be this sort of loosey-goosey, fun-loving, highs or highs, lows or lows kind of team. We want to be more straight line and pragmatic and phlegmatic even, calm in our approach.

And it hasn't worked because they're now below 500 baseball teams. Yeah, and they're just below 500 baseball. Yeah. And they're just boring and joyless and not fun to watch at all. And Teoscar, for all his flaws, is super fun to watch and super charming and super engaging. And I think it's also just an example of them misreading the market. Right. Because I understand like, hey, this guy's a year away from free agency. There's some flaws in his game.

Do we really want to keep him long term? Maybe let's get ahead of this and try to trade him. But he ended up signing a one-year deal in free agency right it's not like they were going to have to pay an arm and a leg and commit until he was 37 to keep him around and i think it's just like they're kind of out thinking themselves right like oh we're going to trade this guy before he's a free agent it's like well you could just sign him to a one-year deal it wasn't going to be that expensive to keep him around it would have been very low risk to keep him in toronto ultimately uh text into the dunbarumber text message in basket.

It's in all caps, and it has two exclamation points. So you know it's important. They kept Alejandro Kirk over Moreno. That was the worst trade of all. We talked about this, Laddie, prior to the break. And Moreno's been fine? Yeah, he was better last year.

I think this year he started off a little slow, but... He's still been pretty good this year. Yeah, he's been better of late, and Kirk has been better too, but he was off to a really slow start. So, yeah, I don't know what the long-term future for Alejandro Kirk looks like, and now it sounds like they might trade Danny Jansen at the deadline, so I really don't know what they're doing, what they're catching. They nailed it.

Another master class. So it's interesting because we've been re-litigating trades. We're going to do another one. And we've actually got a question out there that we'll do later in the show about the best move of the Jim Benning era. But yesterday we did one where we were talking about the sort of now infamous Keith Ballard trade for the Canucks in 2010 that was in part due to Willie Mitchell's departure, whatever one preceded the other, and talked about how it affected the arc of a very competitive team and there's some comparisons to be made here with the jays because there is an

important important point to make here is that the the fun of a team the way that it interacts with its fans if a fan base likes a team or not i think is more important than executives will give for like i and i you And they were a fun team. I remember being more enamored with those teams than what we're seeing now. Oh, no question. Jamie and I were working the Seattle Jays series, so we watched it in full. Yeah. And I do recall saying, like, the games are tight,

and there's an entertainment value to this series, but the teams don't really play sort of inspired baseball. I came away from those two games being like, I hate both don't really play sort of inspired baseball. I came away from those two games being like, I hate both of these teams. These teams both suck. Yeah. This is awful.

There's nothing sort of charming or alluring about either of them. They don't play particular scrappy. They don't have one guy that makes you, and not even get out of your seat because of the athleticism or the heroic nature of it. I mean, like personally, like I remember when we used to coach baseball, I was like, if your uniform is not dirty at the end of the athleticism or the heroic nature. I mean, personally, I remember when we used to coach baseball, if your uniform is not dirty at the end of the game, it means you haven't played a good baseball game, right?

You want guys. It's not necessarily a Charlie Hustle thing, but you want some guys that are going to bring energy to a sport that oftentimes needs it. I will also say, to be fair to both the Jays and the Mariners, I think they're both kind of representative of where baseball is as a whole, which is there's a ton of mediocre teams and guys can't hit. Like both when we were watching that series, both teams had multiple guys hitting like 200 or below in the lineup.

And that's not atypical for around Major League Baseball. It's a problem for the product. It makes it tough to watch. And then you have the expanded playoff field. And, you know, Jerry DiPoto had the famous quote, like, hey, just be 54% year over year, right?

54% winning percentage. And it's like, it's not that entertaining to watch two teams who can't really hit and are striving to win 54% of their games play against each other.

It's that all or nothing mindset, right, that every team has now. Sure. It's okay to strike out three out of four times as long as that one that you get hit is a home run, and then it makes up for it.

So you see a lot of those 200, 179 batting averages, and it's weird, right? As someone who's grown up watching baseball, if you were under 200, you were off the team, but it's not that way anymore. Speaking of hitting a home run, Quinton Byfield hit a financial home run yesterday. Look at you.

The Kings hit a home run with that AAV. I think everyone just hit a home run with this one. So the Los Angeles Kings signed winger Quinton Byfield hit a financial home run yesterday. Look at you. The Kings hit a home run with that. I think everyone just hit a home run with this one. So the Los Angeles Kings signed winger Quinton Byfield to a five-year contract with a $6.25 million cap it. So he was in the last of his ELC, which means he gets a very substantial raise, more than 5.3 million per year. And he makes the jump up to making 6.25,

which is a nice piece of business for him he gets a lot of money out of the deal and also for the los angeles kings who if this works out and he continues on the trajectory he's on will probably be a steal of a deal in a couple years uh last year he had a breakout season 20 goals 35 assists 55 points in 80 games he scored that outrageous highlight reel goal against the columbus blueets mid-season where you saw kind of the culmination of everything that he brings he's 6'5 he's 220 he can skate like nobody's business and he's got really good hands he looks like he's going to be a real problem at the power forward position for years to come they've got him locked up until he's 27 now so a couple jumping of jumping off points from this. One, that draft class, which we don't really think about here in Vancouver

because Vancouver barely participated in that. Yes, yep. I don't think they drafted until the fourth round. Although, Nils Oman, who was a sixth-round pick in 2020, has actually turned into one of the steals of that draft. You've got your Stutzli and Raymond as being the guys that would probably, if you were to do a redraft in Lafreniere, would be the top guys at the end of that draft.

Now it kind of feels like Byfield's ready to reenter that after being the second overall pick. I think after the first couple of years, there were a couple of question marks, but he looks like he's going to be quite an interesting player moving forward. And you're going to ask, well, why are you talking about this at length? Well, one, how does it pertain to the Vancouver Canucks? And two, a gentleman by the name of Ian Who, WHO? W-H-O question mark on Twitter, threw out a question for us,

which is a perfect jumping off point from the byfield extension. He wants to know, Halford and Brough show featuring Jamie Dodd, what is your too early prediction for the Pacific Division standings next season? And for the teams outside the top three, do you predict any get in on the wild card? So really quickly before I throw it to you, we'll recap. Last year was obviously the Canucks won the division. Edmonton finished second and got all the way to game seven of the Stanley Cup final. LA finished third.

Vegas finished fourth. Those were your playoff teams. Vegas was the wild card. Calgary fifth, Seattle sixth, Anaheim seventh, and San Jose was the worst team. In probably the last 20 years, they finished dead last. So if you were to, you know, I know it's important to do this on July 16th.

That's the time to do it. Yeah. How would you? Everyone's expecting it. Everyone's like waking up. Got to hear them talking about the Pacific Division today. Is it July 16th? Dancing around the fireplace.

The fireplace? Yeah, it's's off but it's still there uh how would you rank the teams in the pacific division as it stands right now all right i gotta give edmonton first spot i think yeah look i get it i get it but they improved their team from where they were they were already really good i liked what they did in free agency i think they're going to be at the top of the division, but I think Vancouver is going to be, I don't want to say right there necessarily, but I don't think there's a massive gap, at least in terms of regular season, what you should expect. So I'll have Vancouver

too. Vegas is fascinating because they didn't do a lot. They let some good guys get away from them this year. Now, they did make those, like they made the hurdle deal and they made the hannifin deal at the deadline so we haven't had a ton of time to see like kind of the new version of the team anyways but vegas this is probably the least imposing vegas lineup at least

as things stand right now that we've seen in a number of years so i'll still put them third just because i don't think the rest of the division is all that uh impressive to be honest but like i think the gap between edmonton and vancouver and what vegas does now the caveat there is it's vegas they'll probably find a way to like you know land nathan mckinnon or something right like they'll do something they'll do something to improve their team at some point sure but right now I think they're pretty comfortably in third. Then I'll go L.A., who, again, I don't think had a good offseason. Like, they don't intimidate me that much. Seattle.

And then it's like the drags. I guess I'll go Calgary, Anaheim, San Jose to wrap things up. So I've got the same. I think Edmonton's the best team in the division. When Jamie said it, I muttered approval quietly under my breath because I didn't want to make it too. And it meant a lot to me. Yeah. Muttered approval.

I show support in very, very subtle ways. I don't want to, oh, Edmonton. I know what that's going to. Yeah. I'll end up more hated than Luke Gazdik in this market if I do that. I mean, that's hard. But I think they had a tremendous offseason for a team that got as far as they did in the playoffs.

If you put them up against the Florida Panthers and the body blows that Florida took roster-wise this offseason, Edmonton came out looking like champs, honestly. They didn't lose anyone of significance. I know there were departures, but I really don't think that Ryan McLeod and Warren Fogle were going to be difference makers next year anyway. And when you're able to add the likes of Jeff Skinner, Victor Arvidsson, they got a little bit of depth on the blue line with Connor Brown. And they traded for Matthew Savoy, which I think is a really interesting deal because they didn't really, they weren't flush with young prospects.

And that's a guy that they can kind of, you know, bring along slowly and plug and play and see if something clicks. And if it doesn't, I mean, he's still sort of matriculating or whatever down in the American league or what have you. I just really liked the off season that they had.

And they've, the other part of it is that they got so close and had such a good run but they fell short so that hunger is going to be there like i could see them coming out of the gates and being ready to kick ass at the beginning of the year yeah i do wonder though also if it's hard to prioritize the regular season as much right when you like if they're looking at is like hey we're go we can coast and we can coast and we're still going to finish like second to worst in the division. You know what I mean?

So I wonder if there's some of that playing with Edmonton as well. Well, you know what my, I thought about that. My biggest concern there from a Canucks perspective is that they learned the lesson from last season. I walked right into your trap. You're like,

Oh, you think you thought of something new? Did you? Oh, you thought of something. Hmm. Interesting. It's a good point though,

because they did it last year. That's what got Jay Woodcroft fired. It was very obvious that they were working on structures and systems that were designed so they could use them in the playoffs, but they weren't doing enough of it with efficiency in the regular season. I do wonder if, because I actually think Chris Knobloch did a really good job as their head coach coming in. Oh, yeah.

I think he did a good job in the playoffs. For sure. He had the temperature of the team, yeah. I think he did a good job in the playoffs. For sure. He had the temperature of the team, the lineup tweaks that he made almost exclusively worked. And I wonder if he's going to be able to take that next step as an evolution as a coach and not just have the tactical part of it down, but have the motivation part of it down. Because that's what it's going to be at the beginning of the year. Yeah. It's going to be really hard to get that team amped up and ready to go.

I'll be very curious to see if he does it. I'm worried that they've got all the pieces in place to do that um okay so that's the edmonton part of it vancouver is number two on the list i i mean i like a lot of what the canucks did in free agency the the boilerplate real short notes on this would be i think their forward group is better than it was at the end of last season and i know that there's some concern about the mobility and puck moving on the blue line, but I like the fact that they leaned into an identity. They knew what they wanted to accomplish. And while it might not be

perfect and robust in terms of having all the different dynamics you want from a group, I like that they're big and nasty and physical. And they've got that. So I'll put the Canucks at two. I think Vegas is in line for a crater season. Ooh. Yeah, I think Vegas.

You have them falling out of the top three? Yeah. Wow. I would not be surprised if they're fighting tooth and nail for a playoff spot at the end of it. I don't think that you can have as many body blows as they took in the offseason and just run it back. There was a couple interesting quotes from Kelly McCrimmon this summer

where he said, we knew this was coming. We knew that inevitably all the checks that we were writing, they would eventually be cashed. You can't just keep kicking the can down the road and putting guys on LTIR and operating over the cap as much as they did without eventually there being a squeeze. And this summer was the squeeze. So I don't think you can let your leading scorer

and say what you will about being the face of a seven-year-old, eight-year-old franchise, but Marc Chassol was that, and he's gone. Just up and walked out the door. Chandler Stevenson was their fourth leading scorer last year, and he left with no return. They lost guys like Amadio and Carrier, who were good for them,

and did a lot of things without having the spotlight on them. And honestly, when guys got hurt or when they had to stash Mark Stone on LTIR, they relied on those guys to do good things for them and play good minutes. Like, Amadio was like seven on the team in goals last year. Amadio was really good. And the Mark Stone thing is an important point because as much as everyone jokes, like, oh, Mark Stone and LTIR again.

It's like him missing games is actually a problem for them. Like, they were a wildcard team last year, right? Because, in part, because they were missing key guys. Mark Stone's one of their best players. If he's only playing 50 games with the decreased talent, you're right, that puts them potentially on the margin of a playoff spot. If I was to say there's just a random NHL team,

it's not Vegas, it's just Team X, barely made the playoffs last year. Lost in the first round. And then lost the amount of guys that they did. You'd be like, oh, they are going to be hard-pressed. And like one of their best players among the most injury-prone players in the league. Right. It's like, oh, that's tough.

And I mean, they got rid of Logan Thompson for nothing. It was essentially a giveaway. I know that they like Aiden Hill, but Aiden Hill's had a hard time staying healthy over his time in Vegas. I just think that, and I would savor it, like it's going to be, the ironing will be delicious if this team that is always constantly going for it just completely craters this year.

I'll love that. And then I think that LA will finish third. I don't like LA's summer. No, I don't at all. But at least that they did something. At least that they leaned into, like the guys that they brought on board. It's like Warren Fogle, Tanner Janot.

I have to be like leaning into that identity, though, that their players are like openly like, we don't like this identity. It's like, well, guys, guess what? I got more of it coming. But it definitely works during the regular season. Yeah. Because you get enough games against crappy teams. That's true.

That's just going to choke them out, right? You go to Columbus and you go to all the other teams in California. You're like, look, we can beat these teams with this style. When they get into the playoffs, I think they're toast because they don't have the offensive capability to score enough. I mean, I don't think that they can with the style that they play, but at least they know what they want to be. That's the strongest sort of advocacy I can give towards what they're doing

is they know what they want to be and they leaned in. And you're right that in the regular season, I mean mean as we saw with the Canucks this year like a strong identity can carry you a long way if you get buy-in on that in the regular season I know we're up against it for time but what the hell we'll keep going who cares I think Calgary's gonna be awful yes I think Calgary's gonna be like down bad Calgary thinks Calgary's gonna be awful this year so I I don't know if it's the right move. They're high on Dustin Wolfe, correct, Laddie? They're very high on him.

Everyone's high on him, yeah. Right. I would worry, because he will be the nominal starter. He might not get a lion's share of the starts, but he's going to be the number one guy. He's their guy. Their blue line stinks. It's not good. And at this point, I don't know why you would keep

Rasmus Andersen around for long. I don't know why you'd keep McKenzie Wieger around for long, to be honest. I wonder if the fire sale continues and they're throwing a really young goalie into the fire this season with a bad defense in front of them and a forward group that might not be all that motivated it was Andre Kuzmenko and Jonathan Huberto like not you know what I mean I do wonder if that's going to be an issue the only thing with Calgary is and I know like Drance hates their roster and he's like oh they could be in the running for the first overall I think they're gonna be really bad I just like they

don't have a first overall pick roster though like there's still as much as like that's a good point their veterans have been disappointing you look at the teams that like like San Jose last year didn't have anywhere close to the talent that Calgary still has on its roster so don't get me wrong they're going to be really bad they're not going to sniff a playoff spot but

I also don't think they're going to be first overall pick bad like which is kind of a really terrible going to be really bad they're not going to sniff a playoff spot but i also don't think they're going to be first overall pick bad like which is kind of a really terrible place to be right it's like when you're cruising for the seventh overall pick again or something like that that's kind of where calgary feels to me i'm with you there's too much i mean too much high price talent to the traditionally be the we're bottoming out team i just don't know if they're done the teardown yet. There's still time to move things with this team. And so that's a wild card.

As for the, I'm actually slightly intrigued by the basement this year because I think San Jose climbs out and I think Anaheim moves in. I don't even know if Anaheim realized that July 1 came and went. I don't know what Pat Verbeek is doing, but they didn't do anything of note. They were like, we're pretty good with being this bad. And it feels like they're going to be just as bad this year. When your biggest off season acquisition is Robbie Fabry and new uniforms. I don't know how much that's going to win over fans in Anaheim.

So there's your Pacific division rundown on July 16th. I hope you enjoyed it. Everybody. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and broth. You're listening to the best of Halford and broth. 7.30 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and Brough, but it's with Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650.

Halford and Brough, this whole show, all of the hijinks, the wackiness, the user-created content. The good and the bad. All responsible of this sponsor. The begging listeners for content ideas. All of it is brought to you by Pacific Honda,

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 two of the program. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and InGoal Magazine. A presentation of Weyrock Hyundai

is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor. Without compromise, you can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. Before we get to Kev, I'm going to throw this out there,

and you guys can answer via the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650-650. Dalvir the Commander. He's even given himself his own nickname, which is awesome. He's got a Mount Rushmore idea. Now, i acknowledge the mount rushmore thing can kind of become a bit played out you do them enough and it's like they've lost all meaning but this one is something that we haven't addressed yet and it's a good way

to address it because you have to narrow down to four dalvir wants to know our mount rushmore of worst contracts the canucks have signed in the cap era. Now, be clear, contracts that the team acquired don't count. Yes. OEL cannot have his face etched in stone on this one because they traded for that

contract. It would have qualified if they signed it, but they didn't sign it. So, think about it. Const think about it. Construct your Mount Rushmore of the worst contracts of the cap era. For those that are asking, we'll call it 05 and beyond. Okay? That work? We'll call it that because that is, in fact, the cap era.

Some people are saying, is it starting in 06? No. Like the moment that they put the salary cap in, 2005. So you got 20 years of bad contracts to go for. Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650-650. Get them in. We'll put it together on the other side of the Kevin Woodley interview, which we're going to conduct right now.

Kevin Woodley joins us on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Kev? Wow, like thinking caps, right? Like right out of the gate here. So I'm just going to go because i don't have the ability to pull up a computer i'm actually in my car just to be clear where i didn't mean to throw you on the spot with but we may as well go down this road now yeah yeah i mean i know one

probably jumps to mind for you kev i'm gonna say yeah so that's what i mean i want the easy out i'm taking the easy one the top of the charts like as soon as he put the goal into his own net, I can never forget being in the press box and watching Louis Erickson bank pass to nobody and have it go into the empty net on a delayed penalty and thinking, wow, that's rather ominous. Yeah. So he's got to be. And like I said, like, total top of the head here. I'm sure there's some doozies.

But that one has to be number one with a bullet in my mind. I'm sure your listeners will tell me if I'm wrong quite quickly, but I'm taking the easy way out and just putting him up there on the Mount Rushmore right away. I don't think you're getting a lot of pushback on that one from the listeners. I think that's got to be number one. We had to chisel out earlier, yes. Louie's luscious hair into the side of the the rock okay um earlier in the

show we were talking about the quinton byfield extension in la and then we jumped off to talk about uh the pacific division and how it stacks up right now and i thought like we should ask you from a goalie perspective because we're trying to figure out who the power players are going to be and not be in the division and go one through eight and what have you. So the two really interesting ones for me, we kind of said like, Edmonton will be good, Vancouver will be good, LA and Vegas. And both of them made pretty curious goalie decisions this summer. At the very least, they made choices and they made moves. I wanted to get your thoughts on what LA did with moving off Talbot

and bringing in Kemper and then what the Golden Knights did, basically shipping Logan Thompson off and now going with a tandem of Aiden Hill and Samson off in that. Well, I think, you know, if you were to rank the Pacific Division, like forget the goaltending as a whole, I'm with you.

Like those are the two biggest wild cards, right? Sure. Like it sort of always felt like Vegas would just figure it out and yet you're right. Like there's some, there's some serious questions there, including in goal and in LA,

like I bringing in Darcy Kemper, I just kind of point to what I said about camp Talbot last year, like camp Talbot is going to be fine in LA because goaltending is not something they typically have to worry about because they don't ask them to do much. They were the best defensive team in hockey, and yet we saw in the aftermath of the season some pushback surprisingly open from players about the style of hockey before the team doubled down on the coaching staff.

So I do wonder slash worry for the Kings about buy-in. I suppose much like Boston when it was Bergeron leading the way, you probably don't have to worry too much about it as long as Andrzej Kopitar is there. And so as long as they play the same way, Darcy Kemper is going to be fine. Now listen, Darcy Kemper's numbers were off the charts bad last year. Like, I think 97 qualifying goalies on clear-side analytics and sort of set the minimum on who played. Like, he was 97 out of 98 or 96 out of 97. Like, that's how bad it was, his adjusted numbers.

That wasn't just Charlie Lindgren stealing the job. That was Darcy Kemper handing it to him on a silver platter so that he could go run with it in Washington. I do believe in talking to people that were close to it that most of that was injury-based, and that is sort of the outlier for Darcy Kemper when it comes to seasons I think he'll be more comfortable back in the Western Conference where he spent most of his career and if he gets back even to the year he

had the first year in Washington behind that defense he'll be fine Like Cam Talbot had the highest expected save percentage in the NHL by a wide margin. I'm frankly more curious about the Red Wings decision to give him 5 million over two years than I am doubting whether Darcy Kemper can have success in LA. So I just don't, I think they're just built not to rely on goaltending. And so Kemper will be just fine.

Even if the ticket, the cost, and what they're paying him won't really match probably the underlying numbers. Vegas is curious because Aiden Hill, by all accounts, has been held together by duct tape and bailing wire for a couple of years now. And so with that, you need a lot out of your second goalie logan thompson gave them that at times but i think was frustrating to them uh in some of his approach stuff um you know the word professionalism was one that i heard a little bit behind the scenes question at times i

think he took stride last year um but clearly for them to move off a contract that effectively had a year left, even if they knew they wouldn't keep him beyond the year, but a year left under the league minimum on a team that has cap challenges annually and is giving you good minutes when he is healthy and ready to go,

I think that tells you something, that they were willing to move off of that. And in Samsonov, I'm not sure that they were willing to move off of that. And in Samsonov, um, I, I'm not sure that they're going to be that much more impressed by the same sort of questions. Like there's talent there, but I'm not sure. And I should say that I've heard this now from two organizations.

There are questions about sort of the commitment and the work ethic. And so if they get that out of him, maybe there's upside yet. But two teams haven't. And so, you know, this one, like it could go either way. And I'm not convinced based on some of the conversations I've had over the past couple of years about some of those, you know, work habit things and about some of the expectations in Vegas, I'm not sure I see that as a perfect fit, despite the obvious upside that Samsonov brings.

He just hasn't, you know, whether it was in Washington from the get-go or even at times last year, the last couple of years in Toronto, hasn't seemed willing to sort of make adjustments. And the way he played in Toronto, positionally, tactically, not really the way Sean Burke would prototypically ask his goaltender to play. Like, they may see this as like, hey, if we can get him to play our way and fit into our system, play a little deeper in the crease, that Ben Waller, Sean Burke philosophy, we think there's more upside here. But there's a track record of not really being willing

to make those types of changes, or at the very least, willing to do the work necessary to make them easily. So I actually have more question marks about what the goaltending ends up looking like in Vegas than I do with the Los Angeles Kings despite the fact the goalie going to LA has more question marks based on last season. Looking a little further down the projected standings at least in the Pacific Division, Kevin, and the Calgary Flames, so of course with Jacob Markstrom out now, you've still got Dan Vildar and then Dustin Wolfe, the much-hyped young goalie who's been so good at the AHL level. He's going to get a chance to be a full time NHL or now. But, you know, you look at that roster and on the blue line, there's not a lot of established talent there beyond McKenzie Weeger and Rasmus Anderson.

We know they're kind of in teardown mode all over the roster. How difficult a spot is that going to be for a young goalie like dustin wolf trying to establish himself as a full-time nhl or given the talent that's going to be in front of him in calgary yeah it's it's going to be tough and i think um like i fully believe in the talent of dustin wolf in the work ethic of them in the mentality um i said that when he was one of the last players picked in the draft here in vancouver, that he was going to prove a lot of people wrong despite the size questions. And so far he has. He's going to get there.

I'm really confident in that. Whether there is really good 1B or bonafide number one starter, I lean more towards the starter size. But I'm biased because I've gotten to know the kid over the last, actually probably five or six years. And talking to his coaches and sort of understanding what makes him tick and seeing that upside. But you're going to have to have some patience. There's going to be some growing pains.

With Markstrom gone, there is no number one to sort of mentor him in those next steps. Dan Vladar is going to be learning on the go himself in terms of the expectations and requirements of more minutes after being a backup for most of his career. And he's given them some good stints, but this is an entirely different ask. And so to have both guys in new roles

behind a team that, interestingly enough, some of their defensive metrics actually improved as the year went on last year like for the first two thirds Markstrom was basically being asked to stop bullets in his teeth and he was to the point where prior to the trade deadline and shedding of you know not only some of their best defensive players in Tanov and Lindholm and obviously Noah Hannifin pretty much your top pair, but also some of his closest friends, not just on the team, but in hockey in Tannev and Lindholm.

Like he was a guy up to that point that, you know, was running away statistically with the Vesna. I don't know that he would have got it, but at least statistically, Clare Seid had him, you know, lapping the field, 10 goals saved ahead of Hellebuck, ahead of Demko in second place around that time before the bottom fell out. And the bottom fell out for him, but some of their defensive metrics actually started to improve.

So just because you've lost the name brand talent and clearly, as you said, in more of a rebuild mode doesn't necessarily mean the environment's going to worsen significantly. You know, the coach there did a nice job of sort of over the course of the season getting them adjusted to a new style, a new system, and we'll see if that can continue. Regardless, though, when you're in a rebuild mode and you've got a young goaltender and, you know,

a goaltender in front of them that's never done it before, it's just a lot to ask. And I would expect there to be peaks and valleys as much as I also expect Dustin Wolfe to come out on the right side of it. Just don't know if it'll, you know, will it be this year? Will it be next? You know, the fan base and the management in Calgary, they have to have some patience with it.

And it's almost like double because it's Wolfe and because it's so easy to start questioning the size rather than properly evaluating the environment and the performance. And I've seen it happen to him already. And so that's where you have to be careful. Like, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater and just start looking for faults based on the size. And, you know, that to me is the bigger task for the Calgary Flames,

as a management group even, and for their fan base, especially this season for Dustin Wolf. We're speaking to Kevin Whitley from NHL.com and Ingle Magazine, a presentation of White Rock Hyundai here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650K. Non-goalie division within the division, but just the teams in general. Who's going to be worse next year, the Anaheim Ducks or the San Jose Sharks? Oh, man.

Like, they're both going to be bad, right? I haven't even looked at the Ducks roster. Like, I know they've been trying to shed John Gibson this summer, I believe, at his request um but no takers there so i feel i feel like that um that could get even worse right like in terms of of the mindset and the approach if things get off the rails early we've all heard the talk around trevor's egress it's like that's it's a turtle derby right and that's the good news you've got two question marks in vegas and la um you know even if one of them is a wild card in the positive direction i

don't expect them both to be um and and then you've got sort of the bottom of the division it's going to be really important to feast on those opponents right like i thought anaheim for a stretch this year got at least tougher to play against um didn't win a lot but were in more games and made it more difficult on opponents more often than they had in the past and so if they take strides they're like if they force you to put your work boots on you're not going to be able to give away because because i believe that the players and management were right in their postseason address here in vancouver about not surprising anyone like i don't know that the first third half of their season is going to be as easy next year as it was this year. I just think teams, it's human nature. Like, they inherently overlook them early

on. You don't have to go back and look, but, you know, it just feels like a lot more backup goaltenders coming into Vancouver, especially early in the season. I don't think they'll have that. And so against the lesser lights, if they do start to buckle down defensively and force you to work like that's going to be, that'll be the test, right? Like not playing down to opponents levels and making sure you bank those, those points against teams. You should, you know, even if, especially with Cronin and Anaheim, like he's a guy that can,

and would like to make opponents earn it more than they've had to in the past against Anaheim. And that'll be, it shouldn't, these are points they should always come away with here in Vancouver. But like it might be a little tougher next year, even if it's marginally so in Anaheim, at least compared to San Jose. Because I think the Sharks, as much as they've added a little bit of talent on the offensive end, are still going to be a massive work in progress defensively.

I actually don't mind their goaltending with Mackenzie Blackwood, but can he stay healthy? Completing our spin around the division here, the Seattle Kraken, they made the two big swings on Chandler Stevenson and Brandon Montour, which a lot of people around the division here, the Seattle Kraken, I mean, they made the two big swings, right, on Chandler Stevenson and Brandon Montour, which a lot of people around the league were not enamored with. They made the change behind the bench as well. It feels like there's a real desire to take a meaningful step forward.

But, you know, I look at the roster and it does still feel like it's just crying out for some true top-end talent in that lineup. What do you make of Seattle and and what their position to do in the upcoming season well i'm curious to see how they play um style wise right like it was pretty easy to see what happened last year i mean they got that buy-in the season before got to the second round of the playoffs i cover i covered their their stanley cup playoffs playoffs two years ago. And, you know, that four-line mentality, talk about make teams earn it all the way up the ice, tough to play against defensively, life easier on their goaltenders,

they got that buy-in two years ago. But when you have a little bit of individual success and you think of the McCanns and the Beneers and the success they had two years ago, like getting those guys to do the same things the next year can be a little tougher right like hey I'm you know I'm a I'm a call the trophy winner you know nobody's going to notice if I don't chip this puck deep and try and carry it in and oh I turned it over and it's going the other way like those types of things crept into their game and they couldn't survive it. And as much as they have made improvements,

obviously, especially on the backend with Montour should help them transition the puck. I'm with you. Like, I don't see enough of that top end talent and they've already sort of pulled the plug on one coach who was trying to get them to grind it out and sort of have the approach that worked two years ago. I'm curious to see what Bilesma does. Like, does the approach change?

And if it doesn't, I don't know that they have the horses. And, you know, like, so I'm really not sure. Like, again, you could probably actually throw them in with the Kings and Vegas in terms of wild card. I'm not sure they have the personnel to play much differently than they were trying to last season, and yet they couldn't get that personnel to play the way they wanted to play often enough for long enough, even last year,

and the coach paid the price for it. So can the new guy come in and ask them to do the same things? And if he doesn't and they try and play it a little more open, I'm still, I'm with you, I'm still not convinced they have the horses to do it. So they're kind of, it's easy to see them being stuck in the money middle, but much like the Kings and Vegas, it feels like, you know, at least one of those ones is going to find that formula and make it work next year. I guess the question becomes, is it two out of three or is it just one?

Kev, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do it. As always, we really appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of the week. I'm sure we'll be calling again soon. Yeah, because it's like, you know what? You guys, it's mid-July. Hockey season's starting for goalies.

I'm up in Kelowna next week. Handful of NHL guys. Everybody else goes on vacation. The goalies go to work. The goalies start to grind next week. Who's going up to Kelowna? Are you allowed to tell us, or is it top secret? Actually, I got to be honest with you. There's a couple names that I can't tell you.

Oh, intriguing. I like it. That's good. Okay, we'll leave it. We'll lay you off the hook. Go enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again. Thanks, guys. Okay, Kevin Woodley from NH good. Okay. We'll leave it. We'll lay you off the hook. Go enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again. Thanks, guys.

Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and InGoal Magazine and apparently going to a top-secret goalie camp in Kelowna, which is very exciting, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, a presentation of White Rock Hyundai. I'll be there. Andy Cole. Yeah. No longer the goal king Cole, the goal stopper Cole.

Yeah, I'll be in that. You'll be in that. Yes, that's what goalies do. Stealing my bit.. Yeah, I'll be in that. You'll be in that. Yes, that's what goalies do. Stealing my bit. Yeah, that's Laddie's thing. You can't do that. Hey, dogs, we're coming in all Blue Jays gear tomorrow. Just take over Laddie's life.

Yeah. Hey, they say imitation. That's true. It's just a form of flattery. What did you think about what Kev had to say about the L.A. situation and the Vegas situation? Because that, honestly, if we're looking at the Canucks outlook

for next year, I think LA and Vegas are going to be the two that are going to have the most impact on the division. I think we're pretty much, again, like we were shocked

this year that Edmonton got off to a lousy start, right? But they righted the ship. They had a very good season. I think we know, barring something crazy, that the Canucks

are going to be there. LA and Vegas are by far the biggest wildcards because they've had the most sort of bizarre off-seasons, and both of their seasons ended poorly last year. L.A. was not happy with the way things went in the playoffs. They basically gave away Pierre-Luc Dubois. They think there might be addition by subtraction there. They kept Jim Hiller, which a lot of people weren't sure they were going to do,

and they leaned heavier into this very grindy sort of stuff. I think there might be addition by subtraction there. They kept Jim Hiller, which a lot of people weren't sure they were going to do. And they leaned heavier into this very grindy sort of stuff. And the Vegas Golden Knights didn't have a good year, barely got in the playoffs, got bounced in the first round and lost a bunch of really important players and both made goalie moves. Yeah, I think wildcard is putting it lightly. And I think those teams are sort of emblematic of the way a lot of newer teams are starting to treat their goaltenders almost like a running back in the NFL, right? Where they're replaceable. Okay, we'll go into the season with this, but hey, 20 games in, it might be something completely different. We don't care as long as we figure it out by playoff time.

And that's kind of how they're going into the season, I think. And I can't say it's my favorite way to approach your goaltending. I would rather have a goalie in your system ingrained and a system designed to play in a way that supports their goaltender. I think that is the way to go if you want to have long-term, sustained success with your goaltender. But, hey, it's the route they've chosen to take. And I don't know if Darcy Kemper at, what, age 36? 36, yeah.

Is going to be the answer, but they're going to try in LA. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.