Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 7/2/25

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the Brock Boeser re-signing, they chat with NHL insider Frank Seravalli about what's next for the Canucks, plus the boys hear from Brock himself, as we carry the Boeser Media Availability live.  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 We re-engaged and got the deal done. So I'm very, very happy. And a high fly ball to the left center field. It's good and it is gone! Lucky enough it all worked out and you know, this is where we want to be. Good morning Vancouver! Six o'clock on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody, it is Halford and it is Brough, it is Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey dog, good morning to you. Good morning. And basketball Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning.

Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for net help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Breff of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, VCs first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3000 five star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together

with you in step. We got a big Wednesday show ahead. The dust is somewhat settled on the opening day of free agency. Three guests and a media availability this morning on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. I will explain. Guest list today begins at 630. David Amber, Hockey Night Canada Sportsnet NHL host is going to join the program. It was, as mentioned, a very busy day yesterday.

The official kickoff to free agency. We'll go around all the Canadian markets with David see what work has been done What work needs to be done? Who's happy? Who's not? We'll talk to David Amber at 630 How about all that 7 o'clock Frank Sarah Valley from we don't know where parts unknown. He's like a masked wrestler from the 80s NHL insiders gonna join the program Frank at 7 o'clock. Who are the best ufa still on the board? Will a trade market open up for the teams that were left wanting after free agency? We'll get all these questions answered and more with Frank at seven o'clock eight

o'clock Brock Besser, not on the show. Exactly. Brock Besser's media availability is going to be this morning at eight AM. Sometimes we take these lives. Sometimes we don't. I think this one we probably should, because that was one of the more stunning moves of yesterday, was Brock Bester, what, a half hour after we got up the air. When I saw the first text, I thought it was a prank. I thought someone was playing a trick on me.

But Bester is back. Is he on vacation? He's in Italy, isn't he? I think he came back. The way that I understood it was he went away on vacation to Europe, came back, and then maybe that trip abroad maybe like, you know, clarified things for him, made him understand or made him realize that, you know, when he came home, he really wanted to come home

for seven years. Yeah, he's like, I don't I don't like it anywhere else. Yeah. I mean, it makes makes sense who likes going somewhere else. Yeah, God is Edmonton like Rome? Yeah When the economics were like, yeah, it's Winnipeg have any similar and then I gotta know don't Edmonton or Venice Edmonton Wow, so opposite we're gonna find out The chronology and everything else that happened with Brock Besser. We're going to take his media availability live this morning at 8 a.m.

How did the deal come to fruition? How close was he to leaving? Hopefully we'll get answers to all that and more at 8 a.m. We'll take the Brock Besser media availability live right here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. After that at 8 30, I don't know what we're doing now. We're just like done with doing what we learned at eight 30. Cause at eight 30 this morning, we got IMAQ on the show.

So IMAQ will be at the media availability. Now it's on zoom. So he'll be on the media availability. He'll join us afterwards. We can talk to him not just about Brock Besser, but the Canucks getting the whole band back together for another run at it. IMAQ has an article up on sportsnet.ca right now,

analyzing all of yesterday's moves. some really good stuff in that article Where he spoke to Tyler Myers about the room and the chemistry and moving forward with the group Well, I'm almost intact from last year. So we'll talk to I Mac about that at 830 Finally before we go to break. I need to ask you a quiet not break I always say that before we go on with the show Have you bought your tickets for the sports net six 50 J's care 50 50 for challenger baseball yet? If you have not, you have five days left to do so. The URL is J J's care golf.rafflenexus.com again,

J's care golf.rafflenexus.com. Buy your tickets now support a worthy endeavor 50 50 sales and Monday, July 7th at 6.30 p.m. And then the day after, we will announce the winner right here on the Haliford and Brough show. Again, Challenger Baseball is a great endeavor. Support it, chance to win some cash. Jay'scaregolf.RaffleNexus.com. Working in reverse on the guest list.

8.30, it's IMAC. Eight o'clock, the Brock Besser media availability. Seven o'clock, Frank Ceravalli. 6.30, David Amber. That's what's happening on the guest list. 8.30 it's iMac, eight o'clock the Brock Besser media availability, seven o'clock Frank Ceravalli, 6.30 David Amber, 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 was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? 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. So yesterday when we were on the air, we got the Connor Garland signing and the Thatcher Demko signing. We were able to break those down. We had Connor Garland signing and the Thatcher Demko signing. We were able to break those down. We had Connor Garland on the show. And at that point, I was like, well, that's it for Canucks bringing back players that they already had.

I was very skeptical on suitor. I wasn't even skeptical on Besser. I just assumed that was done. Well, it was done, but not in a way that I thought Brock Besser signed a seven year 50.75 million dollar contract to remain with the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. AAV of $7.25 million. Brock Besser is back for another seven years in Vancouver.

Do you think the total money, $50 million did it? Was that what put it over the hump? Probably helped. Yeah. That.75 maybe? Yeah. Tipped it over the edge. Yeah, whenever I listen to Canucks Central, Dan and Sat,

they're always talking about total money, total money. It's a lot of total money. I was like Connect Central, Dan and Sat, they're always talking about total money, total money. It's a lot of total money. I was like, yeah, $50 million. I want total money like that. I think, as you said, the Besser signing caught most of us by surprise. I don't even think Besser thought it was going to happen.

I was speaking to a few people that know Brock yesterday and they were all, I was like, do you think Brock ever thought this would happen? He was like, no, he was pretty much gone. Um, but I guess we'll find out for real what he has to say in a bit here. So Besser stays, Garland stays, Demko stays, Petey and Hronix stay. For now. And both now have full no move clauses.

Correct. There weren't even any secondary guys like Joshua, Hoaglander, or Blugger shipped out. Basically, it's a Vander Cane in and Pugh suitor out. Now, for now, right? I know Patrick Galvin, uh, told the boys yesterday that the door is still open for Pugh suitor to return. He hasn't signed. I think the Michael Grandland, uh, uh, sweepstakes

yesterday, God, is that, is that what it came to? Um, might've held up a Pugh suitor signing somewhere. There's still some players out there, including Nick Ehlers. Um, so for now it's a Vander Cane in and Pugh suitor out. If the Canucks were to revisit bringing back Pugh suitor or Pugh suitor came back to the Canucks

and wanted to talk, the Canucks would probably have to ship out a Joshua or a Blugger, maybe more. I don't know. I haven't done the math and I don't want to do the math. So the Canucks have a top six of Pedersen, Debrusk, Besser, Kane, Hedl, and Garland. Obviously the top two lines won't always

comprise those players, but I think it's fair to say that those are the top two centers in Pedersen and Heidel and the top four wingers in Debrusk, Kane, Besser and Garland. Yep. Right. That makes sense. So from a narrative perspective, this core

group has everything to prove. Guys like Besser, Pedersen, Demko, Hughes, they've been with the organization for a while now. Like Demko was drafted back in what? It's like for Demko and Besser, it's got to be a decade with the organization. Pedersen and Hughes, maybe a little bit less, but they haven't accomplished much as a group. They've been to the playoffs, what, twice? This will be Garland's fifth season with the team. He's part of the core now.

Said so in the press release, he's part of the core. Now I want to hear from the listeners on this, Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650 650, because some fans will love that all those guys are back because they like them as players and they like them as people. I would say in particular Brock Besser, beloved. Others will think, what are the connects insane that they're all back? Because they haven't accomplished much as a group and they were a dysfunctional disaster last season. So I'd like to hear what our listeners have to say.

Are you happy about this or are you sad? And the question is, you know, bringing the band back together, not specific to Besser, not specific to one player. I'm just talking about like, pretty much no changes from the way the Canucks ended last season, except for a Van der Keene in and Pugh Suter out. I think both of us are on the record as having wanted some big changes to the group, but I also understand why it turned out the way it did. Other teams are feeling the same way.

Like they were like, we couldn't, we couldn't really do anything. And the Canucks actually did some stuff. You know, they did manage to bring these guys back. They were, you know, Besser could have just left, but he didn't. Besser always wanted to remain a Canuck. He almost certainly could have earned more elsewhere, but he wanted to be a Canuck. And to me, that's important.

I think we all want to cheer for players who want to be here, that take pride in wearing the Canucks jersey, that have a belief in the group. And we want to cheer for a group that wants to win together, that's willing to sacrifice for each other, which is why the Pedersen Miller rift turned so many people off last season. And we don't want to cheer for mercenaries. And overriding all of this is the big hope that Quinn Hughes will feel the same way when

it's time for him to decide on his next contract. And yeah, and that's that's all great. Keeping the band together, you laid out multiple positive reasons I might add why it's a good thing. There's camaraderie, there's chemistry, there's, and I think it is an important thing. I don't want to downplay this, that you bring in people or you retain people that want to be here.

Big picture, this wasn't the summer of change. We thought it might be. We thought that they would ultimately decide that this was the time to move on from Brock Besser because his contract did run out of term. And let's be honest, this is a management group that hasn't exactly spoken fondly of Brock Besser publicly over the last 12 to 16 months. Publicly facing, you got the sense that they would have been.

And I'm trying to put this in the most judicious terms imaginable. They would have been OK with him moving on. They would have been OK with it. Right. That's fair to say. Well, if they had been able to replace him. Right. This just ended up not being the summer not for change. This wasn't the summer where you're like, we're gonna turn things over

because there's so many players available. I was reading an article in the athletic in bed this morning as I woke up and I was like, oh, I gotta go talk to Halford again. I'm gonna read this article instead. Sure. And it was on the Detroit Red Wings and how they're like, yeah,

we still need a bunch of things like they got Gibson. Mm-hmm, but they're like, yeah Market was tough. Yeah, we're the Detroit Red Wings. And although we've got history and tradition to sell we're not a contender and You know, we don't have Besides our history and tradition. We don't we don't really have a lot to sell players No, not a lot of people shook loose yesterday. We're also in Detroit. Yep. And that doesn't help. But a lot of things that I think a lot of players that people thought were either going to shake loose or just open themselves up to bidding. It didn't last very long. The Grandland sweepstakes as we coined them earlier in the show, didn't last very long. Anaheim stepped up and gave Grandland the biggest contract,

at least in terms of AAV in his career. And he's been playing for a long time. He's a seven million dollar a year center now. And he lasted all of two hours on in the free agent market. So the guys that people thought were going to shake loose didn't. So the Canucks pivoted. And that's what sometimes you have to do is when you get down to plan and or or P or Q or R or S yeah sometimes it's just a straight pivot to

let's just go with what we know okay that being said mm-hmm if it doesn't work out next season the Connex are gonna get hammered yeah because the you know look if it works out great great. That's awesome, right? But, but if it doesn't, you know, it's the same as, same as story as like the Leafs losing in the first round or the second round, you're like, well, yeah, you have the same core that's been losing every year in the first round in the second round.

They, yeah, I mean, they have locked into a core group of players that have had what two playoff appearances in the last 10 years. Because if you go back and you look at it, yes, Besser and Demko took a while to get to the NHL, but this is Demko's 11th year with the organization. This is Besser's 10th, right? They were drafted in 2014 and 2015 respectively. So they've been around for a long time.

And the early stages, the infancy of their NHL careers, the team was bad, but they've had the opportunity to grow. We're not quite talking about the core four and the amount of leash that they were given in Toronto, but it's not far off, right? Besser, Hughes, Demko especially, those guys, and then you're going to lump Petey in there as well, even though he was a little bit later to the party. They're being tasked now with being the core four for this group moving forward with a couple of guys on the fringes like Connor Garland and to a lesser degree, Tyler Myers.

But those are the guys that are going to be driving everything on ice, in the room. That is your Vancouver Canucks core. The texts that are coming into the show right now in the Dumbar Lumber text line are very polarized. I don't know if his real name is Gary, but Gary texted him this morning and he said, when Brock resigned, I actually felt sports happiness. I was happy for Brock. But Gary is feeling sport, he's feeling it.

He's feeling sports happiness that this group is together and that Brock is back. And then we've got an unsigned text here. I am so far checked out now. It is like this management group is ruining this club on purpose. Like. Well, hold on.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, but like, it doesn't matter what you think about that text. on purpose. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no core that has frustrated us for the last five, six years. Totally valid. And other people are like, well, the market dictated what happened and I think they did the best that they could. And also I like these players. Like I like Brock Besser. There's a lot of people that are super happy that the Canucks kept to Leas Pedersen that they never traded. And there's a lot of people that are like, that the Canucks kept to Leas Pedersen that they never traded and there's a lot of people that are like,

that contract is going to bury the Canucks. And, you know, we haven't talked that much about Pedersen for the last little while, because let's face it, we needed a break, but you know, Pedersen is, you know, now that they brought back Besser, like I think those two will probably be reunited. they brought back Besser. Like I think those two will probably be reunited.

And you know, Pedersen's important just grew. I mean, I had someone on, get me on Twitter, he called Pedersen's the linchpin for the team next season. I was like, yeah, I can't disagree because the way I see it is that the Canucks have two forwards with the potential to drive play. One is Pedersen and one is Garland. And obviously Pedersen didn't do a good job of driving play last season, but he's done it before.

And the Canucks are counting on him to do it again. And if he doesn't, I don't really even want to think about that for now, but if he can, he can drive one top line and Garland can drive the other, the Canucks might be in decent shape. I'm not saying the other guys are just going to wait around for Pedersen and Garland to do all the heavy lifting.

When are you going to start driving? But I do think that is maybe the simplest way to look at it. And I know we've got some audio from Yannick Hansen and I think he talks about Heidel which we can talk about driving the second line I think if Garland is on that line he's more likely to be the play driver on that line but you know Yannick I think rightly puts it puts a lot of the responsibility for

next season success or failure at the feet of well, it makes sense the highest paid player on the team. Yeah, health is a big thing here. And if PD returns to the player, we hope he will be. Yes. If he's a 40 point player, no. That's where you're putting your eggs, not in one basket, but like if Heedle and Petey don't turn out the way we hope, there's no chance. You need them. Kane was a legitimate top winger a couple years ago. He needs support now and then he can provide scoring. He can provide. But a lot of, a lot of, a lot of, not a lot of players on this roster can, um, but he's not going to drive it by himself anymore.

Um, the brusk is not going to drive it by himself. Brock, we've brought better and that we know won't drive it by himself. You need these centers to, to put everything into perspective to come and pull everybody together and make sure that you have a one-two punch here in Vancouver. You have deaf pieces. We haven't even talked about Gabluger, Joshua, all of these players that have performed admirably. A full off-season for Joshua will be good for him as well. The DS is still good. So you have a lot of these other pieces where we're just we're just hoping that our number one and number two centers can one stay healthy and produce at a pace that will we don't need them to produce like dry

saddle and McDavid or McKinnon. But we need to to produce the point of point of game average if you're hoping to compete here. It was funny that on a day where the Canucks resigned two wingers and a goalie to fairly lucrative and fairly long-term contracts, the Demko one wasn't that long-term, the majority of the conversation yesterday that I saw ended up focusing on the center position. They signed all these guys and they're like, what about center? So the takeaway from yesterday was that when the dust settled on July one,

the Canucks were left with Pederson and Heidel as their top two centers. Suitors still on sign. So who knows what's going on there? And then the question who's comfortable going into the year with PD is your one and Heidel is your two. The answer, according to Patrick Alveen, it's the head coach of this team, Adam Foote. Here's Alveen yesterday talking about Elias Pettersson and Philip Heel being the one, two punch down the middle at center for next year's Vancouver Canucks. Adam felt, you know, very confident starting the season with PD and Heel as the number one and two. You know, we have a couple of younger centers, Raddys, Hassan, I forgot his name here, Mueller,

that are playing really well in Abbotsfern, deserves a chance too, but absolutely this is something we will continue to look at and see what's available. Obviously there wasn't, I don't know if it was, it wasn't one center available at the free agent market there today and, and no trades. So obviously teams are, are holding onto centers. So we'll see where it goes. But you know, again, Adam felt really confident in, in PD and Cheadle being the number one and two here. So Patrick Alveen says Adam Foote is comfortable and confident with Petey and Heedle as the

number one and two centers. And then he followed that up by saying he better be because there's nothing else walking through that door because this has been a free agent period. And I watched yesterday go down and I was I wasn't shocked at the number that Grandland got in Anaheim, but I was surprised that I guess it was Anaheim and that they had clearly, clearly identified him as their guy and weren't going to be helped bid. And when I saw the number, I'm like 31 other NHL teams were like, you're right.

We're not going to outbid you for that. So there's one off the board. I don't know what is gonna happen with Souter at the end of the day, but with every passing moment, he becomes more and more valuable on this market. And it's great that they're comfortable and borderline confident going into the season with those as your one too.

But I don't know of another one, two punch in the National Hockey League at center that's gonna enter the 2025,2026 season with more question marks. I don't think there is one. There's question marks and big ones hanging around both of these players. I mean, I almost don't want to wait for the entire summer. Like, I need to know what Pedersen looks like right now. Well, I mean, Heidel is if he's going to be tasked with the two see a spot,

by the way, which he was never really able to fully grab onto in New York due to a logjam at center and health issues. Both things roadblocked him. You're asking Pettersson to return to form and he'll to get to a form that he's never been to before. And that's all going into this very pivotal year, again, under a rookie head coach, where you don't know who your three

and four Cs are going to be. Not exactly the most ringing endorsement for Ty Mueller there. I know he just forgot his name in the moment, but it just goes to show, after your top two, you've got some candidates to try out. I forgot the word insomnia yesterday. I was like, what is that word where you don't get enough sleep? And I was like, this might be a sign that I have insomnia and I'm not getting enough sleep and

then I can't remember the word for it. I do want to read a couple of texts here. Scott texts in, I'm not surprised there's people disappointed bringing back the best player in free agency. We have a lot of dumb people in the fan base. And I replied to Scott, I was like, it's not the best or deal.

It's the lack of change overall. Like it's not, it's not like the Besser deal just capped off the conclusion that, wait a minute. Is everyone except Pugh suitor going to be back? Everyone's going to be back. Like it's really not, I don't think anything's about Besser, it's really not, I don't think anything's about best or it's about a lack of change. And Ozzy Goose texts in and they said they had no choice. There weren't any other

options. If Pedersen and Demko get back to form, Canucks will be good. I agree with that last part. If Pedersen and Demko get back to form, I think the Canucks could be a decent team next season. They had a choice though. They had a choice. Don't act like they didn't have a choice. The New York Islanders traded Noah Dobson for two first round draft picks and got three players overall in the draft.

But they got two first round picks for Noah Dobson. You know, the Canucks could have sold some guys. And I'm not saying they could have got those exact picks that the Islanders got, but they could have traded Garland. They, they could have sold into this market. They didn't.

They brought back the same guys. And I think if you squint and you say, if this happens and if this happens and if this happens, the Canucks could be a good team and it's possible. I don't know what the future holds. As Yannick Hansen said, health is going to be a big factor, which is an element of luck. But don't put it out there that the Canucks had no choice.

There's always a choice. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. To the phone lines we go, the Power West Industries hotline. Our next guest is a presentation of angry outer liquor. It is Frank Ceravalli, NHL insider here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 morning Frank how are you? Pretty good how you

guys doing? Hope you guys had a great Canada day. Yeah thanks it was good we had a pretty good day we missed the Brock Besser signing by about a half hour though when we got in our cars and by the time I got home I was shocked when I saw the text as a matter of fact the first text I got I thought it was a prank because I had little to I mean, not little. I had no optimism, no hope, no thought that Besser was going to resign in Vancouver, especially to open free agency on July 1. So I guess a two parter for you, Frank. How shocked were you when you heard the news or did you know that this might be coming?

No jaw on the floor. And to be honest, I think Brock Besser and his camp also very surprised. I mean, this call came in quite literally in the 11th hour, Eastern time, to circle back to Brock Besser. They had tried to engage him again last week, I'd say sometime around the middle of the week. And it was a kind of non-starter. And at that point, the thought process, and at least from the teams that I had been talking to around the league, I think that there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 teams that were trying to get their hands on Brock Besser. And he never actually formally made it to market.

That they were in the last, that last hour, they were just grinding on what a new deal would look like. And they put something, a lot of things changed, but the biggest change is that they put a deal on the table with term that was acceptable. Which team do you think was frustrated that Besser decided to return to Vancouver? It seems like there's a lot of teams out there that didn't get their needs met. Yeah, that's the thing.

I would say there was a lot. I mean, there were even a surprising swath of teams. Like I had heard at one point that the Pittsburgh Penguins were gonna be a team that was gonna try and make a push for Brock Bestor and I was like what? And sometimes some of this ends up being fiction but the point being there was look I think the Canucks are the biggest admission of this truth is

It's so incredibly difficult to add to your top six this market this summer. That's why you see a Vander Cane and a Canucks uniform. That's why Connor Garland gets re-upped at the first possible moment. That's why you come back to Brock Besser in the last hour before free agency because the Canucks otherwise couldn't think about accomplishing their goals for the off season because those players just aren't available and or the acquisition cost is too high. Yeah, it is.

It's totally understandable the way things played out for the Canucks. I mean, in a lot of ways, Besser is a lot like Brad Marchand, who a lot of people were wondering if he'd be able to stay in Florida. Um, the Panthers managed to keep all their free agents and that leaves a team like Toronto looking

for a winger because correct me if I'm wrong here though, I think the Leafs had their sights set on signing Brad Marchand and now they've lost Marner and yeah, they got a third line center or fourth line center back in Nick Wah, but they've lost a top six winger and a really good one and they haven't replaced them. Yeah, there's a lot of teams that are waking up today on July 2nd holding the bag that they just didn't get what they needed and that's why I think it's going to be interesting to watch the trade market over these next couple weeks because

Whether you're Edmonton and you didn't get the goalie that you want or you're the Leafs and the forward or pick pick a team um, there's a lot of Entup frustration and anger that they weren't able to make things happen And you know what happens when that happens teams begin to push and get a little aggressive and crazy that that might spark things on the trade market. Where are based on your dealings and talks from around the league, the 2026 draft, because we saw this year the picks at the 2025 draft didn't hold as much value as previous drafts for a multitude of reasons. But some of it I think had to do with the draft class as well. Going into next year with the McKenna sweepstakes, have you gotten a sense that teams might be

more intrigued or more willing to take on futures and by that I mean picks in the 26 draft as opposed to this year's? Yeah, I think teams are definitely more interested in those potential lottery picks and hey, you never know when you go and acquire a team's first round or what it will end up being. I mean did anyone see the New York Rangers falling off as precipitously as they did after winning a president's trophy? Probably not. Maybe Chris Drury. Yeah and so that's that certainly is in the back of a lot of people's minds.

I think that's also a big reason why we've mentioned this before, but how. Teams that are expected to be at the bottom of the standings are closer to it. You're not going to see those teams prepare offer sheets and not that there's really much left to even pick at. Um, you know, Will Cooley ends up signing a very reasonable deal with the Rangers. The Carolina Hurricanes tried to flex a little bit of that muscle and that's why they ended up prying Keandre Miller out of New York. But because teams, like you'd have to be a

team like Carolina to even be incentivized to make an offer sheet because you know that your team isn't going to be in that spot where you could be in the lottery conversation. And it's not just Kevin McKenna, by the way, who is, I think, nearing in on a decision here on where he's going to play next season, Michigan State and Penn State being the front runners. This is a very special draft class in general. Keaton Verhoff, I think he's going to go number two as a six foot, four, six

foot, five defenseman played in Victoria. Now going to North Dakota, like he would be the number one clear consensus, number one pick in any other draft. So this, this draft in particular, you're talking about five to six players deep of franchise potential level players that just changes the conversation. And yeah, if you know, teams that weren't interested in futures might suddenly be now that the 2025 draft is in the rear view mirror. I want to ask you about a couple of centers. The first one is Marco Rossi.

Bill Guerin said yesterday that if anybody signs Rossi to an offer sheet, they'll match. He says he'd prefer to make a deal with Rossi, but do you expect now that- He'd prefer to make a trade for Rossi, by the way. You think, okay, well, what do you think is going to happen there? Well, it's a really simple equation. The Wild want to be a good team next year. And so they've had, and Vancouver was one of the teams that put their first round pick on the table. They've had multiple teams attempt to offer them futures to get Marco Rossi. They, they can't just take Rossi out of their lineup and expect to compete, um, down the middle.

They're, they're already thin at that position. So they also view him as an RFA as an imperfect player and they're not, it's not like they're gonna bite the bullet and sign him long-term. That's not their thought process. What they might have to do if a good trade doesn't materialize is go back and negotiate a short-term bridge deal

that keeps them in their lineup and or punts this conversation to next summer. What they're not gonna do is allow a, you know, an offer sheet that provides them with exactly the same type of futures that they just said no to because they wanna make their team better. They're not trying to create a hole, particularly at a time when you can't really go out and fill it.

And not only that, I don't even really view them as an authentic offer sheet candidate because I mean how could you possibly make the AAV and picing and you'd have to go like yeah eight eight set you know it gets divided by five so it's it's difficult but like you'd have to go like five years times seven or eight million for the wild to say no and that's you're probably just making a bet yourself that you're not comfortable with Pew suitor why didn't he sign yesterday? Good question I don't know

My guess is that in the thin center market that there were teams that were interested But probably not with offers that are all that different than what the Canucks could do. And I think there's still a door open for him to go back to the Canucks because of what he was able to accomplish there that that would make a lot of sense. Yeah. I mean, I, I, do you think given the, given the needs for players, NHL players around the league, do you think a guy like Dakota Joshua would be easy to move? Yeah, I mean, I think he would be easy to move.

I think Teddy Bluger would be easy to move. Like, I think there's a few guys that they could certainly find homes for and find some decent value in. But at the same time, one of the things that obviously Rick Tocket valued and I'd imagine in a very similar vein that Adam Foote will value is that competitive juice in your bottom six that you really need. And so I don't think that they're itching to do that, but I think that's a, an exit ramp if they need one.

We're going to go right now. Join in progress, the Brock Besser media availability. Just super stoked to be back. We'll go to Ian McIntyre sports net. Hi Brock. Congratulations. Thanks Ian. So happy to have you back in that dressing room to talk to. Can you take us, you said the last hour, can you just give us a little more detail about that?

Like, where were you? Were you sitting in with Ben or at home and, and, you know, that call came in, they said what they said what you know just give us a little more detail about how this suddenly got solved at the last hour yeah i think i was actually at the gym i thought i don't know why i thought i'd be able to maybe train and work out i ended up not even working out and had to leave because i was i was on the phone the whole time but yeah we were sitting there we were talking and i was talking to Ben, just kind of going over everything. And just trying to get an idea of, you know, what could happen and whatever. And then he said Patrick was calling him.

And that kind of, you know, kind of raised my eyebrows. I was like, okay, maybe, maybe we can figure something out here. And then, you know, they kind of went back and forth a little bit and we found some common ground. And, you know, I had other guys in my ears like Gar and Demer and all those guys kind of pushing my buttons to come back to. So it obviously plays a big part to, you know, have such good friends and have belief within the guys in the room. Well, I was going to ask you about that. How, I mean, you just said it was a factor, but how tough was the idea of leaving those people?

And how big, you know, if you're ranking the factors of why you chose to stay, how big a factor was it in staying with those people, the ones you mentioned and others, I'm sure were texting you and calling you? I mean, it was hard. I think, you know, I really mentally try to throw scenarios in my head on, you know, different teams I could possibly see myself being on and try to envision it. But, you know, know like that can only get you so far just thinking about it I just felt like you know in my stomach I still had a weird feeling about everything and you know when they called back you know I kind of lit up you know just even after everything that's happened I still kind of had that feeling in my stomach and you know I just listened to it and you

know it felt right when they started talking and trying to figure out a deal. I just started getting excited and, you know, I just knew it was meant to be. We'll go to Thomas Drance, the athletic rock, just reading between the lines. Excuse me. If someone, what you said there, sounds like you were able to wrap your head around, maybe testing the market and hitting unrestricted free agency, but perhaps not. I don't want to be cheesy about it, but you said your stomach, perhaps not sort of the

emotional side of playing elsewhere. Is that sort of fair to say and how difficult was that to sort of process? Yeah. I mean, I think there's a few times that, you know, we talked with the Canucks and the door was still open there and you know, it felt like the door shut a couple times there so I really you know had to wrap my head around moving on and and you know just you know and then obviously trying to get a sense in my head you know what might be a good fit and all that so there's so many things going through my head and that's why I said my head was spinning a lot and it was hard to kind of grasp.

And you know, that phone call kind of came out of nowhere. So it was definitely, you know, a shock to me, but you know, the way I felt when that phone call came is like, I told my agent, I was like, get a deal done. And you know, then we made some work. I didn't even know if Patrick was calling to get a deal done. He was just calling Hank and I was just assuming that was it. So, you know, I'm really happy that he did.

When you sort of think about your tenure here, the fact that there's now seven more years of sort of stability for you, and also the fact that the organization signed so many of your teammates yesterday. Um, how do you look at, I guess, like phase the next phase for you and also for sort of this team, your teammates, this core group that you've been playing with the last few years? Yeah, no, I, you know, I have so much faith in our team and, you know, I think the strengths, you know, we always talk about it, you look at our, our defense, our D core and the goalies goalies it's so it's so good and um you know everyone talks about you know the centers and stuff and getting another center but you know us forwards know that we need to be

better I think and um you know I'm just happy personally that I don't have to deal with another bridge deal and play through that I just want to you, I'm just happy that I got the seven years and I can just focus on playing hockey and helping our team when, when games. No Chris Faber, Canucks.com. Uh, Brock, I don't know if you saw much online yesterday. Oh, we lost them. Apologies. Let's try that.

Go ahead, Chris. All right. You got me there. Yep. Perfect. Brock, there was a lot of Canucks fans very excited online. I don't know how much you saw of it, but what does it mean to you to just be able to continue to kind of grow a relationship with the fan base? Yeah, it means a lot.

Like I've said so many times, they've been so supportive of me, you know, not just with hockey, but, you know, away from the rink. And and that means the world to me. And, you know, everyone's so kind outside when you see when you're just out and about and people say, hi, everyone's so kind and respectful. And that means a lot to me. And I've said many times Vancouver feels like my second home and, you know, it's just so comfortable.

And, you know, I love it there. So maybe maybe I can get a house there now. Thanks, Brock. Congratulations. Thanks. Thank you. Next up we'll go to Patrick Johnston, Post Media. Hey, Brock.

Congratulations here. Thank you. Now that you can actually think about where you are and what you're going to be and that you're here and you're not going anywhere, when you look back at last year and everything that went on, how can things be different this year? What needs to happen? I think it's important to think about where you are and what you're going to be and that you're here and you're not going anywhere. When you look back at last year and everything that went on,

how can things be different this year? What needs to happen? I mean, yeah, there was a lot of noise. Obviously, we all know that there's a lot of noise in that middle part of the year. That was tough to play through. It's tough to focus. It's tough to get ready and compete every night. And I think just this year we can focus on really bonding as a group, coming together and pushing for the same goal. It's not about individual stats, it's about winning hockey games. I think if we can get out to a good start of just meshing together, working with each other and being a real good, solid solid team I think we will be in the right direction and and look we had a lot of injuries last year too and we

were still right there in the hunt so you know I really believe in this team sorry about the five-year-old back no I didn't hear. Anyway, you also got recognized. Got the letter. Sorry, it's kind of quiet. Can you speak up a little bit? You got recognized as a leader last year. You know, we got we got a real sense of where you were, you know, recognized that you've been here for a while. How do you evolve as a leader? What happens for you going forward?

Do you talk more? You know, are you more conscious of that? Yeah, for sure. You know, I definitely think I can speak more in the locker room. Sometimes I feel I might get a little too focused on my individual game and playing the best I can and I'm a little quiet in the locker room, so I definitely think I can speak up. But I think it's, with that, it's always just the mindset of coming to the rink and working hard and always trying to continue to get better too. Jeff Patterson, Nation Network. Hey Brock, congratulations. Thanks Jeff. You touched on it a little bit and you've got real estate agents now

in a frenzy here in Vancouver but the money I'm sure is great but I just want to ask you about trade protection and controlling your situation now. How important is that given the last couple of years where obviously your name has swirled at different times for different reasons, but what about the ability just to have some peace of mind and control the situation? Yeah, no, I think that was a big part of coming to terms too. I think just structuring it that way, I think it's important and now I don't really have to worry about that for a bit. Like I said, I can just focus and play hockey and be the best I can be. Yeah, I know it's, you know, just looking at the deal, I thought it was a deal that

was fair for both sides, at least for me, I thought so. And, you know, with the cap continuing to go up over these years, I thought it would be fair enough for both sides. We talked to Connor Garland yesterday about his extension. He talked at length about his excitement of playing for Adam Foote. Obviously, there's continuity there, but it's an interesting scenario in that Adam spent so much time focusing on the defense side of things. Now he's the guy in charge. What's your rapport like with Adam and what do you think he's going to be like as a head coach as opposed to an assistant coach? Yeah.

Actually, I've talked to Foddy a lot. He's been pushing hard. We have a great relationship and we've talked a lot. He was definitely a big reason why I wanted to come back to. I think he's going to be a great head coach. He's always so detailed, doesn't matter, defensive side of the game or PK or whatever. He's so detailed, he's so smart. I think he's a great communicator.

He understands and I'm really excited to see him as a head coach. We'll go to Daniel Wagner, Glacier Media. Congratulations, Brock. Thank you. Uh, there were reports during the season that, you know, the Canucks had offered you like a five year deal. Now we come in at seven years.

How important was, you know, that extra term having a long-term deal where you know where you'll be that extra couple of years? Yeah, for sure. And, you know, I think, you know, that deal came, you know, really early in the year and I kind of didn't know how the year was gonna play out. And so we just kind of talked about it a little bit

but then it kind of kind of went away and, you know, we're just playing hockey, but it definitely was a part of, of why I didn't sign. I wanted, you know, a couple more years, you know, to get that those couple extra years that thought it was important. And, you know, it's, and I wanted to be in Vancouver. So that's why I also wanted those years too. So, you know, it definitely was a key to trying to get those seven years. And you know, a couple of seasons ago, you, you hit that 40 goal mark. Uh, last season obviously didn't go quite as well as you go into the off season. Do you look at those two seasons? Do you look at video?

Do you see what you did well previously that got you to that mark? Is that something that you break down over the off season with video? Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, I've talked about it before I worked with someone privately and you know, we talk about, you know, what went well in that season two years ago and what went well last year and what didn't go well and kind of compare and see, look at stats and really dive into like how many shots I had, where was I shooting from, where was I scoring from

and kind of just look at everything combined and just kind of see what I need to do to get back to scoring more goals. Adam Kersenblatt, The Hockey News. Hi, Brock. First off, congratulations on the new deal. Thank you. This organization now has 10 players, including yourself, signed to at least three years. So as a player, what does that mean that players want to stick around

and sign these kind of long term deals with this organization? Yeah, I think it means a lot. And, you know, that's, that's what one of the reasons why I wanted to as well. You know, I think we got great pieces locked up for a while. And, you know, I think that's, that's really important. And, you know, I think it's good for, you know, guys coming together and being a team and playing together and, you know, just sacrificing out on the ice for each other. So it's something that gets me really excited. And that's why I'm super happy to be back. And, you know, this whole process from the beginning of the year to when you signed, especially last couple weeks, was there anything that you learned kind of about yourself or

about the organization as you went through this signing process? That's a great question. I don't know. It was, I mean, it was just a roller coaster and, you know, obviously you wish it could have gotten done sooner and not at the, you know, last few minutes of before it gets to July one or until free agency opens. But no, I mean, you know, at the end of the day, I understand what they're trying to do with the Canucks and, you know, I want to be a part of it.

So I'm just happy that I can. Thank you, Brock. And thank you all for joining us. That will conclude today's media availability. 8.15 in the morning. You are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. That was Brock Bester's media availability following his seven year extension signed with the Vancouver Canucks yesterday. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.