Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 7/22/25

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

Mike Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look at the previous day in sports, they make some Team Canada 2026 Winter Olympics roster predictions, plus they get the latest 'Nucks news from NHL.com Canucks & In Goal Magazine's Kevin Woodley. 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 Ball game. Jeff Hoffman comes in and blows the Yankees away. He strikes out the side, he and the 9 for another save. After a few, the call in the field is overturned. There is catcher's interference. Wow! The Phillies have won on a catcher's interference! I'll take your bags. He said Jason's not there, is that right? Yeah, he's gone.

Alright, thank God. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'll take your bags. He said Jason's not there, is that right? Yeah, he's gone. All right, thank God. Ha ha. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. It's Halford and his breath with Jamie Dodd in his Sportsnet 650, and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball Ben in Vancouver, Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. And basketball Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Half of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five star Google reviews,

sore feet. What are you waiting for? Uh, we got a big show ahead. Guestless was another four guests. You're here on the Haliford and brush show on sports net six 50. Uh, it begins today, six 30 in the morning, white caps midfielder and MLS all star Sebastian Burr. Halter is going to join the program live from Austin, Texas The site of this year's MLS all-star game skills competition tonight MLS all-star game tomorrow We will talk to Seb about the year that he is having and what a year it is

Made his debut for the US men's national team having a great year with the Whitecaps and of course an MLS all-star We'll really get into the nitty gritty of the skills competition as well. Figure out the format, what he's doing, what he's excited for, all of it. First and foremost, are you involved in the crossbar challenge? Brought to you by Gillette. Gillette, we love crossbars.

Yeah, we'll talk to Seb at 6.30 this morning. Just a great year for him. And a cool backstory for those who don't know, his father, Greg Burhalter, one of the more decorated US nationals of all time, had a very extensive coaching career as well as currently coaching now at MLS. So talk to Seb about all that at 6.30. Seven o'clock, Kevin Woodley, nhl.com and Ingoll Magazine is going to join the program. There's going to be a fair amount of discussion

today about Olympic teams, Olympic rosters. This of course, in the wake of yesterday's announcement of Canada's coaching staff for the 2026 Olympics in Italy. Wouldn't mind getting into some of the goalie situations with Kev, as both Caddocks goalies appear on a trajectory to at least be in consideration for the Olympics, Lankton and obviously with Finland. The big one of course, is gonna be Thatcher Demko with the US, if he will make that team or not.

So we'll talk to Kev about all that at seven o'clock. 7.30 Dan Rosen, senior writer from nhl.com is going to join the program. He's grinding just like we are trying to get some mailbag content for nhl.com. I'm going to ask Dan about the teams that he covers the closest, all the New York teams and recap the off season that the Rangers and the Devils and the Islanders had a big one as well. So we'll talk to Dan Rosen from nhl.com at 7 30. And then finally at eight o'clock Buck Pierce is going to join the program. BC Lions head coach coming off a disappointing 33 27 loss to Saskatchewan at home on Saturday. No rest for the lions. They're right back at home on Sunday

with an opportunity to ride the ship and get back to 500 with a home date against the Thai Cats, though that won't be easy. Hamilton is tied for the East lead at 4-2 and they've won four straight. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock Buck Pierce, 730 Dan Rosen, 7 o'clock Kevin Woodley, and 630 Sebastian Berhalter. That's what's happening on the program today. Ben, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened?

I missed all the action because I'm losing. We know how messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We are going to begin with the story and the wagon that is the Toronto Blue Jays. Beau Bichette hit a go-ahead two-run double in a four-run fifth inning to break the game wide open. Another terrific performance from Kevin Gossman on the bump and the Blue Jays beat the Yankees four one for their 11th consecutive and franchise record, 11 straight home wins. Here's what the Bichette game winning RBI sounded like all the way back in the fifth inning.

This is what to left field and it's into the corner. Springer is in to score. Guerrero is getting the wave. And he'll come into a two-run double for Bichette to give the Blue Jays the lead. And that was all they needed. So to put this in perspective, they won 10 games in a row at home 40 years ago back in the old exhibition stadium. All those great Blue Jays teams that have come since then

including the back to back World Series champions never won 11 straight at home. This is unprecedented. I'm gonna say this, for the listeners that maybe don't like the Blue Jays, maybe your baseball team is one of the others. Maybe you don't like Toronto content being forced down your throat from Sportsnet and Rodgers.

I will tell you this, this is a genuinely fun team to watch right now. They play a brand of baseball that I think crosses all aisles in terms of being exciting to watch, proper baseball, and there's a really good energy about the team. And I'm not again not just putting this on for show watch that game last

night you just had a feeling that the way that they pick it and pick it and pick it and keep getting after it that something was gonna break and eventually it did. I really like the way this team plays. Now I will say I think you're right about the energy and certainly the energy in the building and I mean we played that clip of Bichette with a 2BI, uh, double and you know, you didn't really hear it in the call, but Vlad, he not just getting the wave home and scoring, but like the belly flop attack, doing a belly flop at the plate, attacking the plate. Like he was angry at it when he comes home to score. Look, I'm a Jays fan, so I'm excited. I'm fired up.

I want the good times to keep rolling. And it really even beyond this 11 game streak, you go all the way back to like late May. They've been just, I think they've lost like four times at home since then. They've been absolutely on fire even before this 11 game streak. I will say, and I'm not going to do the run differential thing or anything, but you isolate it just to last night and I get it. Hey, they're putting the ball in play. All of that. I love it. That the infield defense from

the Yankees is a trope that was sub. We were talking little league yesterday that was sub little league level like you're in the little league all star coaches would be like guys what are we doing. Come on especially the Volpe one. That's as routine as it gets. That's like as routine as it gets. So I get it. And you know there's some good at bats there and they're grinding it and look you put the ball in play and you never know good things might happen. Probably not a sustainable formula like hey maybe the maybe the shortstop the Major League shortstop will just completely throw this one away although for no reasonable reason. Ball play does have 12 errors this season. Not a player in the American League. The ball

to ball play. I will say this just to counter that. The idea of a team willing to just sort of hack away and maybe focus more on putting balls in play as opposed to trying to go yard or punch a ball in the outfield or go oppo. There was a I think if you didn't watch the game last night, there was a moment and it was more than a moment because it felt like it lasted 27 minutes. But David Schneider's at the plate. It's a 14 pitch at bat. He fouls off nine and it's just the most, it's the quintessential grinder at bat because it ended up with a pop out,

but the idea that he was able to change the flow of a game and, you know, alter the course without doing anything other than seeing a bunch of pitches and eventually popping out. It does kind of encapsulate everything that this team does. In this, you've got to put pressure on the defense. That's the thing, right? Like if you've got a bad fielding team, like the Yankees are in the infield, I think that a game plan would be like, hey, let's make sure that, you know, if we got, if we're in a two strike count or whatever, we're choking up on our bats, just like in the Lidl League, and we got, if we're in a two strike counter or whatever,

we're choking up on our bats, just like in the little league. And we're just trying to chop stuff into the infield. Or we want to make these guys make plays to get us out. And it takes a certain mentality across the lineup. I do think the J's have an advantage here and that it is made up of a bunch of like, instead of the blue J's, I've seen people calling them the who J's.

Like, I don't know who half these guys are, but they've all got that mentality where it's like we aren't superstar players our superstars aren't exactly carrying us at the moment so we feel like we're contributing and we're gonna do it in any manner in any fashion whatsoever it's a nice for the one thing I will say for the Jays is and I think this is what makes what you're talking about work is typically and I was a little different lineup last night. They had like Leo Jimenez in there who can't really hit and some other guys, but usually on a night to night basis,

they don't really have any zeros in their lineup. Like they don't have anyone where you're like, Oh, this is a pointless at bat. We as well just turned it over, right? Like even guys like miles straw, I've had moments, you know, uh, Nathan Lucas certainly has done a good job for them, a really good job for them this year. We've talked about Addison barger. So even from like seven, eight, nine, there's guys who maybe it's Davis Schneider grinding out at bat. Maybe it's somebody who can try to bunt for a base hit and

use their speed. There's guys who can do different things other than, you know, just take up a spot in the batting order, which has been an issue for the Jays in the past where you get down here like, man, this guy's definitely not getting a hit here. So Matt and Suri with an early ask us anything, which is fine, cause it's the summer. It doesn't even matter that it's Friday, it's Tuesday, completely off off like schedule, but that's fine. Uh, good question here. If the Jays continue the way they're going right now or close to it, this John Schneider going to get consideration for manager of the year?

That roster isn't exactly a list of household names. Okay, so there's two talking points here. One, with regards to the manager of the year, I think it's pretty much A.J. Hinches. Yeah. You know, I know Schneider's done a remarkable job, but if you go to the betting markets first, and if you look at that,

it gives you an idea that Detroit, what Detroit's done, what Hinch has done. That's probably going to be the favorite. Although things can change. It's still only July. Yeah. And I wonder, I mean, if the J's have the best record in the AL, yeah, that'll turn the tide for you. All. If you also want to look at, you know, you do the classic thing, you're deciding coach or manager of the year and it's like, well, who has the worst team? Basically it was the worst roster to deal with. The tigers have scuba, right? So they've got the likely Cy Young winner in the American league.

And does that weigh against hinges candidacy a little bit because the J's aren't going to have any major award candidates. There's the other good point. Nice work, Jamie. Yeah. Cause here's the thing about the Jays. They do not have a clearly defined major award candidate either on staff in the rotation or in their lineup. Like, Vlad and Bo are not in the MVP conversation. As solid as the Jays rotation is, there isn't anyone that's screaming out for the Cy Young like Scoobal is in Detroit. That honestly might end up having a lot of voters look at this and say, well,

what is it? How is this team able to, and we're talking about one of the best teams in baseball record wise, stylistically, whatever. And I do wonder if people are going to look at Schneider and say, Hey, maybe he does deserve some attention for this. But again, to answer Matt's question in terms of the betting markets, Hinch is still the favorite. And it'll probably be like that. I would say until the Jays.

And I'm saying like it's an inevitability now overtake Detroit. Well, they play them later. They'd have to sustain and probably jump over to try it for him to have a chance. But he's going to be in the mix. He's going to be get votes and be in the running. Yeah. And look, it is it is a super, super fun. And I would say unexpected story for me, especially how last year went and how the early stages of

the season went, did not expect them to rip off something of this nature. I know it's baseball. I know these things do occasionally happen where something comes out of the blue, but you and I worked in a, was it last summer? I think so. Yeah. The Jays Mariner series. We did an event where it was a watch party for it.

So we were there, watched. I mean, I can't remember the last time I sat and watched an entire series. Yeah. Like tip the tail, but that's what we did. And do you remember what both of us said about the way that Jays played baseball? He was very uninspired. Yes. Baseball.

It was like, get up, try and go yard. If not strike out, go back. There was no sort of run manufacturing. There was no sense of like you had a particular style that you wanted to play. It's almost like they just went out and played baseball. There was no identity. Just go do whatever.

Right. Yeah. And I know that it's, you know, it was a very small snippet of the season, but that series, I just remember walking away from it, saying like, this team is really sort of joyless. And I can understand why people soured on them, not just because of the record and the losing, but you know, especially in Toronto with the makeups of the different teams, you do kind of want to get behind a team sometimes that isn't led by the highly paid guys.

It has more grinders and has a sort of workman like attitude at times. And the Jays have established that, which is a really neat thing. And you know, again, I'm not putting it on just for the fact that we're on the air and it's summer and there's nothing else to talk about. It is a very fun team to watch. And they're right back at it tonight. Second game of this three game set against the New York Yankees, where if you know they win tonight, they're going to win the series.

So there's a lot to look forward to there. OK, let's pivot to the other news of yesterday. Canada announced its coaching staff for the 2026 Italy Olympics. And to nobody's surprise, the entirety of the gold medal winning team from this year, four nation face off, the entire staff is back. It starts with John Cooper as the head coach, and he will be assisted by Bruce Cassidy, Peter DeBoer, Rick Tuckett, and Misha Donskoff. So the exact same crew is back for another run at it. No huge surprises here.

The only thing I thought Hockey Canada might do is change out DeBoer only because his tenure in Dallas ended so poorly. Obviously with him losing his job following the Western Conference exit to the Edmonton Oilers. But I guess the counter argument would be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And you, as Jamie astutely brought up

prior to the show today, Peter DeVoe are not being employed by an NHL team. Scott all the time in the world on his hands. You're not doing anything. They're like, we're gonna give you every assignment for this tournament. And I also thought about it, whatever riffs he might've had in the Dallas room don't really matter for team Canada. It's just Thomas Harley who's gonna be in the mix and Dallas doesn't have any anybody else that's in consideration

Why Johnston? Yeah, I play myself in the mix I thought about yeah, and I suppose it's possible, but yeah, we'll get into this exercise later Boy, will we ever when you look and we're going to dive deep, deep into that roster. When you look at that Canadian roster, the guys that are already locks, especially at forward, it doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room. And there's a lot of guys trying to wiggle into that room. So we'll take a look at that in a minute. But with the news that former Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick Tauke is back in the mix as an assistant. I did kind of start to think about how many Canucks players are going to be. I mean it's gonna be a big part of next season. The NHL has obviously carved out

a three-week break. We did a ton of schedule talk last week when the schedule was announced. You got a three-week break for the Olympics and as we saw with the Four Nations there was a divide between the players that went and the players that didn't. I mean, you want to talk about the injuries specifically to the Kichucks in that tournament and to Charlie McAvoy. There's always that risk when you've got guys going and playing and again, playing in high stakes hockey. And it's also very curious to see now that the field obviously has expanded beyond the Four Nations to the entirety of it, how many Canucks might actually be at this tournament. So for certain goes without saying anyone that's been listening to the station over

the last few months, we've said it countless times, Queen Hughes and Teddy Bluger were first six choices for the U S and Latvia. So at the very least, the Canucks are going to have at a minimum two players going to represent their countries in Italy for the 2026 Olympics. I'm going to safely assume that Elias Patterson is going to represent their countries in Italy for the 2026 Olympics. I'm going to safely assume that Elias Patterson is going to be a member. Boy, if he isn't, then we're going to be having some fascinating conversations. Your co-host Jason Brough is going to be loving life. Like the drop off, especially you look, they're not that deep at center. Like they've got a very good team, but it's not like they've

got this, this massive group of young centers waiting to take his place in the NHL. So he would have to just completely crater. It would have to be like last year, no change, no improvement whatsoever. And even then he might get on still the most damning thing for him and his national team candidacy, which again, I do not think he's in question in the slightest. However, given what happened last, last year at the first, the earlier this year at the four nations, it does have to give you the slightest pause because, you know, brough brought this up numerous times on our show. That was one of those moments where the rest of the league kind of took notice

to what was going on if they weren't paying attention to the Vancouver story. Or maybe only had the snippet of, well, you know, Pederson and Miller weren't paying attention to Vancouver's story. Or maybe only had the snippet of, well, you know, Pederson and Miller weren't really getting along, but that's okay now because they traded away the quote unquote problem. I know like Fludo Shinzawa of the Athletic out of Boston wrote about this extensively and a lot of national pundits picked up on it that, whoa, this is a guy that now we're seeing it in this great tournament, best on best. And he's again brought that sort of inferior play, but this time to a different stage.

Well, and not even just media people, but like team Sweden, that was the arc for team Sweden. If you go back and look and remember, when they were there practicing before the tournament and people were talking to the team, Sweden players about, oh, Patterson, he's struggling this year and like, oh man, no, gonna be great. We trust him. He's just gonna have so much fun here He's an amazing player and remember there's a practice and he's skating around smiling and everyone here in Vancouver's like, oh my gosh He's having so much fun away from JT Miller Every was all optimism was all everyone's so excited to see what he could do in that environment and then he got on the ice and

Everyone was like now looks the same ice and everyone was like, now it looks the same. And team Sweden was like, what? Yeah, and he didn't play by the end of the tournament. And that was another big red flag was that despite the fact that Sweden head coach Sam Hallam said all the right things publicly. The ice time or lack thereof kind of suggested something else, but anyway, let's just say for sake

of argument that Pedersen is in. And just to illustrate this, even with his incredibly poor performance last year and only playing 64 games, he was still 12th in scoring in the NHL for Swedish forwards. So if you assume there's even modest improvement, he's a lock. There's just not enough candidates to replace him. But man, if he's on the cusp or he doesn't make it, oh boy, it's going to be fascinating. Rob and Suri text in to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at 650-650.

By the way, get yours, what we learned's in now. We're gonna do them at 8.30. Hashtag them WWL, what did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Rob writes, I think it's safe to say that Filip Ronek is a lock for Czechia. To yes, he is. I was actually surprised that he didn't make the first six,

although I'm not really sure exactly what goes into those, especially with the international selections. Who knows? It doesn't matter. Hironic's gonna be a lock for Czechia. I think the interesting one there is that nhl.com has done roster projections recently. They did them all in June and July, and they used their sort of international bureau of writers.

So they had a Czech-based writer putting together the team. And Philip Heidel is very much in that group of 14 forwards, which makes sense given if you look at the check roster, it's probably not gonna be comprised of all NHLers. They've got a handful of guys playing in Europe that are gonna make the team. The matter of fact, they went so far down the road to suggest that Heidel could end up being the two C

for the Czechs at the Olympics, centering a line with Marty Nacius on his wing. Nacius obviously has had his name bandied about when it comes to the Canucks. So there's an interesting little wrinkle there, but I would fully expect that if he's healthy, him and Hronik will both be going. So that's something to keep an eye on as well.

Go down the list a little further. We'll save the goaltending for a bit because we can end with that. I did wonder as we get back to Sweden about Marcus Pedersen's candidacy to be on that team. But then I was reminded that the strength of that Swedish roster is the blue. They're just so deep. And so I think you'd have to be looking at multiple injuries, probably to the kind of clear top eight guys.

So the top eight, I'll rattle them off. This is just the leg in a list compiled by one of the Swedish writers for NHL.com. Rasmus Anderson, Jonas Brodin, Rasmus Dahlien, Matias Akholm, Gustav Forsling, Victor Hedman, Eric Karlsson, who maybe you can put an asterisk next to, and then Hampus Lindholm. That is a very, very deep and very, very talented eight. If you were going to go to the nine hole where Pettersson would maybe Slide in you got to say well I think Philip Broberg would also very much be in the mix so you're looking at a group of ten and is

Pedersen in it remains to be seen so that's gonna be a stretch for him. I think you're right I think it would have to be a lot of injuries I have to be fall the the Swedish blue line before he got a shot or you know Like at homes getting a little older, like his play just drops off massively or something. But for the most part, I think it's going to be pretty tough to crack. And then I think on the conductor into like the Brock Bester conversation, but I kind of think that ship has sailed. I don't know. It's just so deep. And you look at the guys, they left off like Tage Thompson and Clayton

Keller and he'd have to jump over them, right? Even if you're knocking out some players from the four nations. So they've certainly got some guys they can drop from that four nations. Oh yeah. Like I don't think Chris, I don't think Chris Crider will be back. I'm not sure Brock Nelson will be back. Yeah. I'm not sure. That's a project. I'm not sure it's a Brock for Brock switch because they did leave off some young guys that looking back as well, some more high end offensive guys, because in that the gold medal,

and I know we're cherry picking a final in a gold medal game, but after the first two lines, it really felt like they ran out of scoring on us. I remember people clamoring like, where's Kyle Connor in this game? And I know that they relied on some vets to try and give leadership and some other intangibles there, but I do wonder if it's just become like,

keep it simple, stupid, and just put the best scorers out there for a tournament like I'll throw out a dark horse for the Canucks. Ah, to rot to. Yeah, I'm on a team. Finland. Good one. Nice. Like it would be it's a it is a dark horse.

I'm not out here planting the flag or anything like that. But again, it's this team where the high end is amazing, but the depth does tail off at the NHL level. If he comes in and is doing the job as a third line center, and especially as these teams look to kind of check boxes at the bottom of the roster, if he's a face off ace, right? And doing those sorts of things, again, it's a stretch. He'd have to be on pace solidly for like at least 35 points

or something like that to show he can be productive. But that was the other name that kind of stood out. Like if the stars align, if he claims that role in the NHL and everything's going well for him and he's really living up to his pedigree and all of that, at least in with a shot. Yeah, I'm with you on that. The interesting thing with all of these selections is how much are these selection committees going to put stock in the first three months of the season?

Yes. Because with Canada last year at the Four Nations, no, at least by my understanding, no one really played their way on from October to January. Like, it's just, you could have had an amazing year and it still would have been like, but we're gonna go with the guys that we know and we trust. And I think a lot of that trust is built even further from the executives that

have, especially the guys that did well at formations, right? Like the goaltending situation for Canada. I remember we had laddie on the show saying, it's definitely like, I don't even think the three best goalies are going based on current form in the NHL, but they sort of put that on the back burner and said, we're going to go with guys that we trust. And in the end, Bennington ended up being the right choice. They got it right because they won.

That's how these things are measured. I just wonder if any of these. So to bring you back to Ratu, I think the idea here would be he would have to do several things. He would have to come in and make the team opening night roster out of camp and not just be a guy who gets a look before going back to Abbotsford. No.

Like you're fully in the mix. No, you've got to be a clear cut, productive NHL player who's filling a role for a decent team to have a chance. Then you'd have to thrive. Yeah. And I don't know if even there'd be enough runway through the first few months of the season. The other ones that we will get to, and it's appropriate that we save this because we'll talk to Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingo magazine at seven. We do need to talk with Kevin Lankinen

and then the big one, I think the biggest one for any Olympic roster decision as it pertains to the Canucks is Thatcher Demko because it's such an interesting, convoluted, confusing dynamic. There's a lot of different facets to it with regards to health and form, would they want them to go? I'm assuming Demko would absolutely want to go having missed out on Four Nations. So there's a lot there. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

In light of the fact that Hockey Canada yesterday announced that they're bringing back the entirety of their staff coaching wise, that led the country to gold at the Four Nations face off earlier this year. So Cooper's back, Tauket, De Boer, Sweeney, and Misha Donskoff, they're all back. And then we started going on the road of, well, what are the Canucks going to look like as they go into the Olympic break with all the number of Canucks?

The other really interesting thing, I think, is going to be the Canadian team because it's pretty much understood that things went well at the Four Nations. Everyone was happy at the end of it. They won, you know, and ended off with, you know, Connor McDavid scoring the golden goal and a lot of the big guns firing and the goaltending came through in the end. And if you were to look at the projected roster for 2026,

you'd have a hard time knocking a lot of guys off it. Now there's gonna be some turnover, no question, because of injuries and age and everything else. But generally speaking, when you win, much like with the coaching staff, there's a nod to, let's just run it back. Everyone gets a leg up. Everyone who was on the roster gets some bonus points, right?

And you talked about how there's not that much of a runway. Now I think they're naming the rosters a little bit later in the season for the Olympics. And they did. It's going to be in by the end of December. Yeah, but the four nations, it was like the beginning of December. It was quick, right? You're really talking about, you know, like eight weeks of NHL season to try to sway the decision makers. I think there's a little bit more runway now, but still if you were on that team, you have a leg up. Although I will say, I do think it matters how your four nations went because we definitely saw

when we talked about with the American roster right where by the end of the tournament. They were probably wondering like man, why did we bring Chris Krider? Why did we do this? But and there was nothing as extreme with team Canada, but you look at like Thomas Harley who comes in as the injury replacement was not on anyone's radar. Like it's not like we were talking about my god Thomas Harley just missed me making the four nations. He wasn't on anyone's radar. He comes in as an injury replacement and immediately it's like well you're playing way more than Travis said. I mean

we yeah you are right away. You are way better suited to this. You're a better fit. You're logging major minutes so Thomas Harley to me is a lock now even though he wasn't technically on the roster and then what does that mean for Travis Sandheim? I think he might be potentially on his way out I would agree I'd look at also like Mark Stone okay so let's start at the forum group okay yeah let's say for sake of argument it was a break this down that the following are gonna be locks it for okay Sidney Crosby Nathan McKinnon Connor McDavid Braden Point we're ready to lock him up right I think he's been named already. Yeah, Sam Reinhardt

Sam Bennett, I'll throw Mitch Marner and absolutely. Okay, Marlon's a lock. So now you you mentioned stone already. Yeah In a in a in a way, I actually think stone could be more of a wild card than Brad Marshawn Even though Marshawn's 37 years old. I I think Marshawn kind of played his way on in the playoffs. I do too. Here's the thing, if you're gonna do the resume on Marshawn and you're gonna say, well, what's he bringing to the table? Everyone said that his personality and his attitude meant something to that Canadian team at the Four Nations.

And the turning back the clock as a third liner, which is kind of the role he's gonna, I mean, maybe third, fourth line with Canada, but as a third liner, which is kind of the role he's gonna, I mean, maybe third, fourth line with Canada, but as a third liner in Florida, it was the kind of performance that you say, hey, he's a gamer. In those smaller sample sizes, shorter windows, where the pressure's on,

you've got a guy that's got the experience to fall back on that. You want that in those moments, when you're in the trenches or whatever sort of like cliche you want to use. So I do think that he's on. I think the issue with Stone is that on talent level and intensity alone, you absolutely take him with his health. Yeah, it's just a major concern because he doesn't know that Marshawn is a burner right now either. But like Stone doesn't look fast.

Well, he's never been a fast skater and at his age, I think you saw that at the Four Nations, like can he keep up? Can you play him with O'Connor McDavid or Nathan McKinnon up in the lineup? And I read an interview with Doug Armstrong at NHL.com and you know, he was asked, oh how difficult is it to resist the temptation of assembling an all-star type of roster? And he was like, we want to build a highly skilled team that can play with pace. It's pace, pace, pace. They want to have that speed and skill element.

And I don't know if Stone is going to fit in with that anymore at his age. So I would say I'd also, I liked Hagel enough that I would have him back. Hagel's a lock. I him back. It was a lot I don't see any reason why he wouldn't with the Cooper connection like he's a lock for sure keep Hagel Yeah, great call for Marsha though. You just said he's a third or fourth liner But he was producing against third or fourth liners in the NHL. No, that's fair

That's a valid point when he was playing top-tier talent in the four nations It was like you don't look like you belong out there. You're playing first liners every time you're out there. He's too slow He wasn't able to produce a high level. Are you saying Marsha off? I am Oh I don't I just think that like he doesn't bring enough to the table at that elite level anymore It's it's absolutely fair because of the guys that were off looking to play their way on right like you're gonna make room For Tom Wilson are you gonna make room for Macklin Celebrene are you going to make room for Tom Wilson? Are you going to make room for Macklin? Celebrating you going to make room for Nick Suzuki? I think the number one is one I, if I had to rank number one guy who didn't make it at forward, who's got a chance to make it Robert Thomas out

of St. Louis with the Doug Armstrong connection. You also just look at his production over the last like three seasons for NHL forwards. He's right there in the mix. He kills penalties. He's a right shot center. Like he brings all your time. Oh, we need speed and pain and skill, but also guys who can impact every facet of the game. Like he may as well be talking about Robert Thomas. Well, I agree with Ben on Marshawn. There is one thing to consider in the fact that he's a very,

very well known big game player. He shows up in big moments, gets big goals. And he did that in the playoffs this last season. And yeah, he's not, he's slow now. He's old. He's not, you know, he's not able to keep up with the highest caliber of players anymore. And that's not a slight do it was just his age, but he still gets you those big goals when you need them. The Marshawn thing is fascinating because if he had stayed, if he had exercised his full no trade clause and said, you know what, Boston, I get it, but I don't want to go anywhere. I'm a Bruin for life and stayed in Boston I think we're all saying he's off for sure yeah no doubt about it he's off for sure it

actually reminds me a little bit of like international soccer where guys will leave a team specifically because like I need Champions League action to show my national manager that I can still play at that level. That's almost what happened with Brad Marshawn, where he went to a better situation, got to show that he could still do it in big moments. And now I'd be surprised if he's not on the team. Yeah, like, let's be clear. Last year in Boston was an abject disaster. It was a nightmare of a season. Right. They were all awful.

That was one of the worst teams they've had in the last two decades. They stunk and they were playing out the string by January, February. They knew they weren't going anywhere and they sold at the deadline. So I've got time that that's a good soccer analogy. Thank you, Jamie. We like soccer analogies here on the show. So, okay, so let's put it for the sake of argument. We've got our locks, by the way, I think Seth Jarvis is pretty much back too. I'd have a hard time saying no. I don't know. I could see it. Like I couldn't you see Nick Suzuki out playing stuff Jarvis. You know what I like about Jarvo is the style that they play in Carolina. Sure. Is he's kind of trained to be like you're going to go

and you're going to do certain things with buck retrieval and straight lines. And we know you can do it because you play it 82 games a year. I like stuff. Jarvis don't get me wrong, but I think I don't think he's a lock. I think there's room, like if you're talking about the Shifely, Suzuki, Thomas, Wilson kind of class, he'd be one of the guys they have a target on. So the guys that are probably on the bubble are Marshawn, Konekne, Stone. Do we need to bring back Anthony Cirelli?

No. Do we need, and I know Cooper would bring every Tampa Bay Lightning player if he, yeah. But I do wonder if they saw Cirelli at the Four Nations, And I know Cooper would bring every Tampa Bay Lightning player. That's the thing. Yeah. But I do wonder if they saw Cirelli at the Four Nations. They're like, yeah, you're fine. But there's other guys that can do what you do and maybe at a higher level. So that could be a real simple like four in, four out.

Remember, I think the rosters are going to go 14, eight and three. So 14 forwards, eight defensemen, three goalies. And then when it comes time to dressing, who's actually going to play? That's an entirely different matter but you guys land on the Celebrini, Bedard area in terms of... Celebrini I think is a very good chance he makes it Bedard it all comes down how well he plays this year because like obviously didn't do very well last year. You fall into the camp of like see what happens in the What have you done for me lately right? I'm in the camp of the two I think Celebrini right now has a

better shot at making it than Bidon. Does Evan disagree with that? No. How much of an emphasis do you put on giving these guys an opportunity at a young age, whether it's one of them or both of them, to play beside McKinnon, Crosby, McDavid,

McCarr at the highest level? It's the Drew Doughty and Jonathan Taves in 2010 argument all over again. It's like that. If you hear them talk about her, anyone else talk about it, like not only did it teach them certain leadership skills and what it takes to play at that level by being around those professionals, they also raise their game within the tournament. And that young energy, it helped. Right.

I think a lot of it is also naivety. You don't understand how big the event is because you're just kind of thrown into it What are the rosters have to be finalized again? It's a January and a December beginning of January Yeah, so like if the dart is going on a tear going into January then I could see it making it like if he's absolutely Playing out of his mind, right? I do the level that he's I think the dart would have to be Like top 10 and NHL scoring. Yeah to have a chance because he's got the skill set that would allow that Potentially, but celebrini has more of the you know battle-winning. Yeah sure physical game already So he still has to like I think it's gonna be an uphill climb for both of them even for celebrini

Celebrini has a clear path like with bedard it has to be Undeniable this guy is an offensive force at the NHL level now because there's still going to be questions about his all around game, his physical makeup, all of that. Whereas celebrini, you can see him more in an energy type role for the team because he's just more physically developed. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and in goal magazine joins us here on the Haliford and Bref show on sports net six 50. What up, Kev? How much I feel like sort of like a more like European hockey jersey right now with all the different logos on it, right?

That's a lot of read for that's well done. That's what our station is. That's what we aim for. So this is funny. There is a Austrian team. I sent this to my buddies this morning, and they released their new kit, Austrian Bundesliga, 23 kit sponsors. So all across the jerseys, both sleeves, and then down the shorts. And let me tell you, it is a kaleidoscope of advertising.

It's a lot, but yeah, it's very much what we do here, is we try and make sure we get all of our advertisers in early, especially ahead of Kevin Woodley, because we got a lot we need to talk to you about even though It's the middle of July and there's no hockey news. Okay. Well, I'm just glad that that team's giving you guys something to strive for And I will say that life is a little easier for me. I take a little less ribbing Pardon the puns now that now that it's a white rock Hyundai is the main one on the logo as opposed to the old days with the old rectile dysfunction. It's just a little easier to get through.

I remember those days. That was the morning wood with Kevin Woodley. Okay, I digress. Look, so what we've been doing here throughout the morning is a fair amount of Olympic talk in wake of the news yesterday that Canada is gonna run it back with the coaching staff from the four nations.

Cooper, Taukit, et cetera, all of them are gonna be back for the 2026 Olympics in Italy. So we went down the road of how many Canucks are going to be going to Italy in the 2026 Olympics? What does the Canadian team look like? And then we saved the Canucks goaltending conversation for you, Kevin. I do want to start with that, Tridemko, because I feel like this might be the most intriguing goalie storyline going in to the 2026 Olympics in Italy.

If the US was to run it back, it would be Hellebuck, Oettinger and Swamen, at least right now. What does Demko need to do? Is it just stay healthy? Is it find the form? Does he have the trust and pedigree within that US selection committee to be there? How do you see this all playing out over the first three months of the season? And then as we get closer and closer to the Olympics in Italy?

Well, first off, interesting that you named the coaching, but not the goalie coach. Sorry. And a little soapbox moment to stand up and say that the sort of disappearance and cancellation of goal tenning coaches is pissing me off on this one, but Hockey Canada has done that before. Brother, you can go over 20 minutes on this if you want, by the way. They kept, yeah, it's July. They kept David Alexander, who as I understand it, played a pretty important role in the Four Nations in terms of pre-scouts, in terms of making sure that Bennington, his goalie from St. Louis and the other goalies were sort of all on the page systems wise.

Like he's a hell of a coach. And at Four Nations, I believe they called him a coach. For the Olympics, they've downgraded him to consultant. But I don't know if I did this rant with you guys, but when they actually engraved the trophy and showed off the engraved trophy for the four nations, his name wasn't on it. But like management, and I don't mean GM management, I mean like hockey Canada management who basically booked the hotel rooms and paid everyone,

they got their name on the trophy. So the sort of dismissiveness around the goalie coach position, obviously I'm biased towards it, really pisses me the hell off. So there's my rant rant as far as Demko David Alexander's who is the goalie coach and we have part of selection He knows how good that your demko is. Everybody knows how good that your demko is It's up to him to have a start

That's sort of you know to borrow a Thomas Drans phrase peak of powers He can't get off to a so slow start and find it. He has to remind everyone what he's capable of. And then you're right. He has to stay healthy, but healthy through when isn't selection like November in terms of naming the team. I think it's December. But yeah, it's relatively early in the process.

Not a huge window, especially when you're probably only playing every second game to start, right? So there isn't a big window here. And yet I do feel like. The goalie community as a whole, the goalie coaching community, and I would assume David Alexander is part of that understands that that's redemption at his best has in the past and has the ability to outperform other guys on that list.

And so it just because he hasn't done it in over a year, there's going to be a show me element without much of a window. And part two of this is the Americans have so many great goalies to choose from now that that makes it that much harder. So are you supplanting an Ottinger who at his age has been to three straight Western conference finals, that's going to be tough. But if Jeremy Swainman gets off to a slow start behind a Boston team that appears to be headed the wrong direction as an organization and franchise, maybe that's where the window opens. I don't think you're supplanting the three time back to back Vezza

trophy heart trophy goaltender and Connor Hellebuck, no what happens in the Stanley Cup playoffs and for the record I think by the end of it he sort of had discovered how to get back to playing his game but there might be a window there and I think Autin's real hard but there might be a window there in the three spot I kind of look at it and obviously differently and obviously biased because because I've seen what he does when he's at his best but I kind of look at it like, why not name Demko? Have that option as long as he shows you that he's playing at a high level again. There's no reason to believe he won't.

And then if he does get hurt, you just name somebody else. Like he kind of opened like the injuries as much as there he needs to prove he can be healthy. The injuries in a way allow you to sort of some wiggle room to possibly have four but that that's the challenge and it is a challenge Because the other three are really good and the window is so small See that's where I'm I kind of wonder if when we talk about running it back if they look at it the selection committee and say No one supplanting Hellebuck anyway, and if hella's supplanting Hellebuck anyway and if something happens to Hellebuck it's either an injury or really an effective play in which case we might be cooked.

So do we just bring it back with guys that as you pointed out are three very good goalies so maybe even that short window to prove if he's healthy or not might not be enough because the safest the most obvious thing might just be to run it back with Hellebuck, Oddinger and Swamen which would be unfortunate for Demko because I'm sure being part of that team, regardless of role, would be something that he would really want. Yeah, there's one thing and the challenge is Swamen has similar sort of properties for lack of a better term, similar abilities. The one thing

that Demko brings when he's playing well and when he's healthy that is that almost is above Hellebock and frankly above Autinger too is there's another level sort of dynamically offense, sorry, athletically. Like there's a there's an extra layer to his game in terms of spectacular and the ability to make spectacular saves as good as Hellebuck is spot to spot. Am I one three Vezna trophies? His ability to read the game in a controlled environment is like is that's why he's the best at it right like we always say the Dominic Aschig brain like a computer body like a slinky

Hellebuck has the brain like a computer and nobody else does it the way he does but dynamic athletic battle scramble if you need to dial up another level in the Olympics if it becomes like the playoffs where traffic and everything ramps up to that intensity and teams decide to sort of play it a little more that way, then honestly, like there's another layer there athletically that Thatcher and Swainman to an extent has beyond those first two, to be honest, more dynamic. There's a sort of, there's a higher gear, there's a higher ceiling.

And so whether his body allows him to show that in the first couple of months and remind people of it, as much as if you wanna play it safe, I understand it with the first two, but if you're picking a three, do you want something different in case you need that? And so that would be the one counterpoint, but you're right, like again, Do you want something different in case you need that? And so that would be the one counterpoint.

But you're right. Like again, this is this is not necessarily going to be easy, not necessarily going to be a slam dunk, but I don't think he's completely out of it either just because that ceiling is so high when he's on. And if he can show it for show it for October, November and December, at least there's a chance. Well, it almost feels like the perfect spot for him is kind of the break glass in case of emergency third goalie on the team. Right.

And you're you're hoping that you're going to ride Hellebuck. You know, you've got maybe Ottinger there just in case. But as you said, with his upside and his athleticism, if you're ever in a tough spot in the tournament and you think, OK, we need to take a big swing here. Who better to have than a healthy Thatcher Demko? And as you say, it's not like you're taking a big risk naming him if he's healthy when the rosters are due, because you can always just sub them out if he gets injured.

I actually think there's a lot of logic. You know, it's not as if you're committing to playing him if you take him on the roster, right? You're just kind of having him there as a potential insurance option, as you say, who gives you something different and gives you potentially a very, very high ceiling in a short tournament. Yeah. And again, none of it matters if we don't see it right pretty quick out of the gate pretty consistently and healthy through whatever they name the team in

December. Right. So, you know, and that's been the question mark, but, and here the Canucks, you're probably deep down hoping he doesn't get name. No, like as much as you never want to say that and you never want. I was my only thought. Yeah. Because you're all Kevin Lakin is already gone. Right. And we've talked like the way they've doubled down on their goaltending makes a ton of sense because both guys have yet to show an ability to sort of be the workhorse.

Thatcher has for stretches but has yet to make it through a season completely healthy. And nobody makes it through completely healthy. But in his case, you know, significant injuries, at least in the season or by, I think the first year they shut him down a little early because once they realized they weren't out, his first year is a full-fledged number one But ultimately ended up needing surgery that summer on a knee. So he's yet to make it through healthy Lanking in I think probably learned some lessons and you'll see him better equipped to handle The job and the role and demands this year than he was last year

I mean until you've done it you haven't done it and so there's some some things you have to learn I think he did learn those, but at the end of the day, still hasn't gotten through tip to tail. And so if both of them end up going to Italy, because this isn't Four Nations, trip to Montreal, handful of games, trip to Boston. This is the other side of the world.

Like there's travel, there's all kinds of things going on in this one. That places an even more important emphasis on managing workload for these two. If there's a chance that both of them, certainly one, but if there is a chance that both of them are gonna go over, you have to be that much more diligent about how you handle your workload.

We're speaking to Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and In Goal Magazine here on the Haliford and Bref show, featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. The Canucks have to be the only NHL team with two goalies. And at one point it was three when Archer Silovs was still a member of the organization, but they've got to be the only one that's got two goalies that are going to be going over.

And possibly, I mean, if Demko makes it, I'm just going through the list right now. I don't think there's another one that has that dynamic at play. And I do want to focus on Lankenen right now because that's another interesting one as well. Like he's going to be counted upon, you know, a fair amount by the Vancouver Canucks this year. And then it'll be very interesting to see what happens with Finland because UC

Soros is maybe not the UC Soros of the couple of years prior. Oh, don't get me started. Oh no, you're, you're with the goalie coaches. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. UC Soros was very much a product of a horse poop environment last year. OK, Nashville. OK. Like I had people come in coming at me in November, be like, what's wrong with UC Soros? And I looked up the numbers. I'm like, nothing. He was he was literally running through the end of November at a Vezna clip.

He was doing everything in his power to prop up a really bad team that was not playing well defensively. And eventually, and we've talked about this before, terrible environments wear on you. It's really hard to sustain that over the course of the season. And yes, by the end of the year, by the end of the year, UC Saros's numbers had fallen down to just barely above expected in the NHL. By the way, still, I think 26 in the league and adjusted save percentage. So it's not like he fell to the bottom of the barrel, but you expect more than 26 out of him. The reality is for the first two and a half, almost three months of the season,

he was closer to the top five in the National Hockey League. So it's not like he forgot how to play goal. I do think by the time you got to four nations, again, another team that was overmatched in Finland, and it's not like Kevin Lankinen went in and had more success than UC did behind that team. They were just overmatched. And so especially with some of the injuries on defense. And so I don't, I think I just don't fully buy the, Oh, UC Saros like fell off a cliff last year. Everything around him fell off a cliff. He managed to sort of hold the rocks up for a good third of the season and eventually they all crumbled on top of him.

So I would not be counting him out in any way, shape or form. That said, I fully expect Kevin Lankton to be on the team. And if he's able to play like he did for the first two months of the season, kind of like Soros, right? Like Lankton was Superman for the first month. Like he was posting heart trophy numbers for the first month, leveled off in the second. And then the second half, you know, by the end of it ends up below expected for the year. So there's sort of similarities there in terms of workload and demands and asking too much of a guy in both cases, different ways asking too much of a guy for what they've done in

the past. But they're both capable and they showed they were both capable of still being really high end elite net miners. And that's the beauty and what the Canucks are hoping for by bringing back both guys. It's not just that Lankenen spells Demko and allows him to get to the finish line healthy. It's that with Demko here, you get more of that early Lankenen who was,

like I said, at one point he was like plus 4.5% adjusted save percentage through the first month plus of the season, which do that for a year you know and you've got a heart trophy so getting more of that guy for longer into a season and maybe that does change the conversation around the Olympics is part of the equation here in Vancouver. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.