Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 7/30/25

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they chat with Columbus Blue Jackets President and General Manager Don Waddell. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Beshett waiting, Martin throwing. Strike three. The marvelous Martin with his first major league. Save, and the Orioles take two in the double header from first place Toronto. Yeah, Mo, that team sure did suck last night. They just played sucked.

I've seen team suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked. I received a lot of promises from the tournament, from scheduling about giving me maybe the night match, and I did not receive that, so that kind of hurt me. Good morning back here, 6-1-9-1-A- Wednesday. Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford and is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650, and we are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Morning. Adog, 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, B.C.'s first and trusted choice for dead help. With over 3,000 5-star reviews, visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear, and orthotics working together with you in step. Three guests today as we run down the guest list on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. It begins at 630. Don Waddell, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, is going to join the program. We'll talk to Don about a variety of things from a relatively quiet offseason.

Maybe we'll talk about the lack of sellers this off season and how it's impacted the Blue Jackets. I know Don had some comments publicly earlier in the off season. It's never seen a summer like it where nobody wanted futures, nobody wanted to buy draft picks or trade for picks and prospects. We can also talk to them about what the Blue Jackets did this summer. Brought in some veteran forwards, Charlie Coil

and Miles Wood. Re-signed two big pieces of the blue line, Ivan Proverov and a local boy, Dante Fabro. We'll talk to Don Waddell, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets at 630. About all that. Seven o'clock, Nick shook from NFL.com is going to join

the program. Lots to get into with Nick. NFL sack leader Trey Hendrickson is back. in Cincinnati, and it is holdout. We will do a training camp tour with Nick. He's written about the Dolphins, the Titans, the Browns, and the Rams recently. So we'll do a whip around, and we'll do it on the eve of the start of the NFL preseason. Yes, football is back starting tomorrow.

You're aware of this? See, it's a Hall of Fame game tomorrow. The Hall of Fame game, the Chargers and the Lions. Guess who is starting at quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers? You tell me. Tray Lance. Oh, remember him? He's with the Chargers.

He's back as a Charger. Trying to make the roster. Trying to save his NFL career. So we'll talk to Nick about all that at 7 o'clock. 8 o'clock. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com. Ingole magazine is going to join the program. Kev recently penned the Vancouver Canucks team reset for NHL.com.

That's a feature where the website is examining where each team stands in preparation for the 2025-26 regular season. Kev was like, about the same. They're about the same. Got a new coach. And they got a Vander Kain. They lost Pew Suter. Yeah.

That's it. I got to make 900 words out of this. Kev said, I don't know if you said that or not. But anyway, we'll talk to Kev as we've done the last couple of weeks. It's always been a great hit, even though there's a dearth of NHL news going on. So working in reverse on the guest list, eight o'clock we got Kevin Woodley. 7 o'clock we got Nick Shook. And then at 630, General Manager of the Columbus Bluejack.

it's Don Waddell is going to join the program. That's what's happening on the show today. Ben, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? Miss 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 B-C-C-S-A.C-S-A.

We are going to begin with the Toronto Blue Jays, the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked, according to our intro. Jays hit the skids in a major way yesterday, losing a double header in Baltimore to the last place Orioles. It began with a 16 to 4 loss in the opener of the double header. Tyler O'Neill homered for a fourth straight game. Good local kid.

Good Canadian kid. The Orioles also tied a major league record. yesterday with five sack flies in the game and it was funny I was listening to the Orioles broadcast they were very excited for the fifth I think it was Gunner Henderson that knocked in the fifth because they knew that they were on the verge of history five sack flies in a 16 to four route of the Blue Jays in the opener so did you say that's a is that a record tied the major league baseball record yeah I don't know who held it previously I refused to look it up I know that they didn't sitting there like

cheering come on lazy fly they kind of were yeah like can he get the runner in And then they were trying to explain, like, you always want to get a base hit in these situations, but for the purposes of chasing a record. So that was a bad game for the J's. It goes without saying. At that point, they had been outscored 27 to 8 in the first two games of the series against the worst place team in the AO. That's not good. Needed to make a trade to shake it up. They did.

And they needed to win a game in the second of the double header. And at least it was a little bit closer. But in the end, it was Adley Rushman doubling home on a very weird play in the bottom of the eighth as the. the Orioles took the doubleheader sweep in the second game, 3-2. I want to play the audio here. Here's what it looked like when Nathan Lucas tried to camp underneath.

Again, it's radio, so. Here's what it sounded like. Yeah, yeah. As Nathan Lucas tried to make a valiant effort and catch this ball before it hit the wall and drop down to the floor. Here's Adley Rushman, giving the Orioles a three-two eventual win

and the lead on Tuesday night in Baltimore. High fly ball to right field from Ruchman. Back to the wall, Lucas jobs. Lucas did not make the catch. Bulls on the ground in his feet. Here comes Gutter. He will score. And the Orioles take the lead.

It kissed off the glove of Lucas and the O strike against Hoffman. So none of this is great. The Js have now dropped four straight. Lead over the Yankees down to just four games the top of the ALE East. probably no time for panic but some very, very concerning trends over the recent losing streak. If you go back to the

end of the Detroit series and then the first three losses of this series, the Jason conceded 40 runs over four games. That's bad. Let's talk about the trade they made halfway through the double header. That was amazing because it came from Baltimore

the other team, Sir Anthony Dominguez. One of my favorite names in Major League Baseball. It's amazing because it sounds like, oh, have you been knighted? Not yet. Sir Anthony Dominguez. And he's a reliever. They told him halfway through the double header.

So after game one, hey, you know how you played for the team? Baltimore? You play for Toronto now. Wait, that really happened? Yeah. Like he just swapped sides in the middle of a walk. He walked across. Really?

The game a t-shirt. Yeah. He did the Blue Jays baseball shirt on. And apparently they put his number on backwards. No, they put his number. He put the 8 in 48 upside down. Yeah, so it looked like an inverse snowman. So bizarre.

You had to really pay attention to the, but if you look close and I feel like that eight doesn't look right. He's waving to the guys in the other game. Yeah, he did. He went by the checkout. He's like, remember me? He used to be on the team. I was just here. He pitched.

He struck out two guys. Yeah, amen. And he pitched. He was the Blue Jay's best pitcher in all the games yesterday. As a matter of fact. Now, well, they got one more game in Baltimore. Mm-hmm. And then we wait for the trade deadline.

Maybe they get some more pitching. It means to be seen if it's going to be a starter or a reliever or both and what they're going to give up for that. Well, they're going to need to get arms. Yeah, yeah. Hoffman has been pitched a lot over the last little bit. He's now allowed 10 home runs this season. The only pitcher in the American League that had given up more home runs

is his now former teammate Chad Green who'd given up 14 and then was designated for assignment when they picked up Sir Anthony. So the J's, again, I don't think that this losing streak is going to undo what they did, especially coming out of the break, where they went eight and two against a pretty good team. It's right against the Giants and the Yankees and then the Tigers, but it's pretty ugly right now with the amount of runs that they're giving up. I think it just puts a little doubt into maybe the fan base that like, oh, are we falling for these guys a lot? And I don't know, there's a Canucks comparison to be made. I love it. There always is.

I love it, right? Like, this group of Blue Jays, you know, there's talent there. There's no doubt. But I said this yesterday. Like, I still don't know if they're winners, right? And, you know, I think, I think, you know, we have that question. Like, does the core or whatever, their best players, does it have the right DNA for winning? And we're going to find out about that.

I'm sure they're going to make some additions like I don't think this Baltimore series is going to be like oh we're not I mean they're still in a very good spot in the standings and it would still be a massive fall to fall out of the playoffs but I think it's series like this that have a lot of people are like I don't believe

in these guys kind of saying like see I told you so hopefully Springer is back soon that I mean that's a that's a big loss most people would say he's been their MVP this season so when he's When he's out of the lineup, it's hard. I always try and get a gauge on where the collective media is at in a moment like this, whether they're ready to sound the alarm bells and whether they believe or not.

No one that was writing about this series in that game last night went down the road of, uh-oh, here we go. This is matching the Jay's longest losing streak of the year. And I guess if they do lose tonight, it'll be a five-game streak, and that will be their longest losing streak of the year. They haven't had a losing streak like this since early May. So everyone's kind of saying, like, context matters. And if you listen to John Schneider's remarks after the games, plural yesterday,

it was a laundry list of excuses why you said Springer got hurt, Loperfito got hurt, they were tired, it was hot. And I'm like, okay, I'm willing to tap the brakes on any sort of red flags being waived because they still do have a four-game lead on the Yankees in the East. Well, Pedersen hasn't been very good either. And Petterson hasn't been very good either. I think it's probably his contract situation. There is that.

There is that. Speaking of Vancouver teams, when are you going to find out officially on Thomas Mueller? So the update on Thomas Mueller is that yesterday was reasonably quiet after we got off the air. We did have Ben Jacobs on the show from Give Me Sport yesterday. And he gave the most latest update, which was the discovery rights issue and the fee that needed to go to Cincinnati. It had been all cleared up between the Vancouver Whitecaps and MLS. And now we sit and wait. There are reports out there that Mueller will be in Vancouver on 4th.

Friday to sign the contract. That one came out of a German news outlet called Blid, B-L-I-D. I think I'm pronouncing it right. If not, we're just going to move along anyway. So it sounds like it'll start at the beginning of August. There's a potential for him to make his white cap's debut when they play in San Jose on the 9th of August. There's also a Canadian championship match on the 13th in Hamilton against Forge.

I can't think of a better way to welcome. Thomas Mueller, to North America, Canada, and Vancouver by saying, ah, ah, not so fast, you have to go play in Hamilton at Tim Horton's field. Imagine, I've been a huge mistake. He's like, what is this thing? What are we playing in? What's the Canadian Championship? How did you now win it already?

And they're like, don't worry, we have plans to win it. If he does not make his debut in either of those matches, you've got to fast forward all the way to Sunday, August the 17th, which would be the first home match he would be eligible to play. That's against Houston Dynamo at 6 p.m. at B.C. Place. That's when he should make his debut. I think so. Not, please don't.

Don't even show him Hamilton. Yeah, just bypass that whole thing. You're like, you don't even have to go. Okay? You don't have to go. Like, just tell him just like, we got to go do something. I can see him asking right.

Where are you guys going? It's like a team thing. But you're not invited. We're planning your surprise party. He could be asking. He's like, what is a forge? I see that there's a forge on the, on the calendar here.

We want you to like North America. We're not taking you in Hamilton. Yeah, there are going to be some moments along the way here where Thomas Mueller gets a like, what have I done moment, right? And one of them is probably going to be when the rest of the guys have to go to Tim Horton's field to play in a match and he's probably not going to go.

But there... Or he's down south and it's 100 degrees. That's going to be another one. What is happening here? For example, August 9th, when they play in San Jose, could be very hot down there for that one, I would imagine.

Although who knows what the weather's going to be like by then. there's going to be some moments over the next little bit where there's going to be that welcome to North American welcome to MLS thing that a lot of the big European players have gone through but before any of that happens, Mueller has to get the contract signed and I believe it will be on Friday and what should be a pretty Ballyhood affair and hopefully some media members and everyone else will be able to get something

I don't imagine it'll be when the hours of six to nine when we'll be on the air but shortly thereafter. So on the subject of the football, Jason, as we change gears from the Vancouver Whitecaps to the Canadian national team. Big news yesterday from Canada soccer with regards to their new, how should we put this?

It's a fundraising program that also doubles as a World Cup ticket lottery called Canada Red. And it was announced yesterday. And I signed up for it right away. Okay. So, yes. You explain that quite well.

It is definitely a fundraiser. And Kevin Blue, which is in who's in charge of Canada Red. Kevin Blue, Canada Red. Got it. He is the Canada Soccer CEO and General Secretary said, we're in a world where traditional revenue streams like government support are not projected to grow

at the same rate as the sport is growing and the investment requirements are growing. So we have to diversify revenue. Now, he did not mention that old Canada soccer business, do you remember that deal? that didn't go so well for them. The CSB. I remember hearing things like they're going to maybe try and renegotiate it.

And I guess Canada's soccer business said, no. They held up a piece of paper. I'm like, this is the contract that we have. It's binding. It's a great business for us. It's a great deal that we made. So, you know, they got to raise money somehow. And this is their way of doing that, but also doubling as a ticket distribution.

system and there aren't going to be that many tickets to the Canada games, one of which is in Toronto and then they're going to play two at BC Place and then hopefully a knockout stage one or a couple even. And there's only going to be like a few thousand tickets available to this Canada Red program for each game. But you got to get these tickets somehow, right? And And so there's different tiers. Yes. Of this, there's a free tier. So you can just sign up and be like a Canada Red.

I think they call it like a starter member. That's right, Jason. Right? And then there's a community member, which is also free. But I think you have to be like a soccer coach or something like that. Coach, referee, volunteer, alumni. And then the first level is 50 bucks, squad. You're on the squad then.

$150 is Premier $500 is you're a champion That's me I'm a champion now You're a champion? I signed up last night You signed up as a champion

Yep I get an exclusive keepsake gift From Canada soccer at some point I heard it's a I heard it's a drone There's so many of them lying around It's a drone Could you imagine

And it's got a Canada flag And you just fly it around You're like They make you pay for shipping move Yeah It's like I'm a Canada red champion $1,000, that's a legend.

$5,000, that's an icon. And yes, if you're an icon, you have the best chance of winning a lottery to go see Canada, the World Cup. And I think this is probably going to segue nicely into our next conversation. What are we going to have to pay to get into these games? A lot.

$50,000. A lot. It is, so there's a few other ways you can get, just to finish it off. Yeah. You can also enter into like FIFA's lottery for tickets, and that's going to be, that's going to open in September at some point. Do you think they'll give us press passes? You know what?

Maybe. I don't think so. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. But that's one way. And then right now, you can, you can buy hospitality packages starting at. $2,500 and I'm sure the resale market will be active too, and I'm sure FIFA will threaten

to bar people who buy on places like stub hub because FIFA will want people to use their own secondary reseller market. But I think it brings up a good time to like have this conversation that it is insane how expensive tickets are to major events. I remember when the pandemic was coming to a close it was understandable I think that people would pay more to go to a big concert or game and I think you saw a lot of the major stars

going like you know I had planned to tour in an arena like an NHL or NBA arena but now I'm only doing stadiums because the demand is that high like Elton John did that yep you know I actually had tickets to see him in Brooklyn

I remember before the pandemic and then the pandemic shut that down and then he reannounced his tour and it was like we're playing MetLife or Dodger Stadium and when they came to Vancouver they came he came to BC Place so I understood why tickets were crazy and the man was crazy but

it seems to me at least and I wouldn't mind hearing from some listeners on this topic the demand hasn't gone away no like it's still crazy expensive to go see these major events and this is one of the words

I like of our times actually I hate it but like the normalization of spending I don't know like even like a thousand bucks on the secondary market

to see something you know Taylor Swift was maybe maybe a bit of an exception but not that much of an exception but not that much of an exception. I bought tickets on the resellers market for major concerts in the last

little while. Haven't been great seats. I've spent a lot of money and I've enjoyed it. But like it is I just wonder I wonder what the World Cup is going to be like. So the FIFA lottery for Qatar tickets. I do

remember that the lowest price for entry for a group stage game the price gauge was from $94 to $2,000. So a pretty big swath there between the two prices. I anticipate that that 94 total is no longer even in the cards. I bet it would be a lot more than that.

That's in Qatar. Yeah. So this is going to be ridiculously expensive. The lottery system. And by the way, what Canada soccer is doing here isn't that unique and isn't that uncommon? As a matter of fact, USA soccer has a very similar membership. program that they've had up and running for a couple of years. And the other one that's relatively new and has even taken these sort of alternate revenue

streams to the nth degree is the Australian team. As a matter of fact, the Australian team now is called the Subway Socceroos. I was unaware of this. It's not the Socceroos anymore because they have had a three-year naming rights agreement with the restaurant to what was previously known to. the Socceroos, they're now the Subway Socceroos. And there's a lot of tie-ins, including the fact that Subway's colors are an exact match for the Australian national team's colors.

That agreement runs out, actually, in August of 2025, in which time the naming rights are then flipping to Commonwealth Bank. So there's a lot of different ways that national teams are trying to come up with alternate revenue streams. So what Canada Soccer is doing here isn't all that revolutionary. It's just the first time that they've ever done it. They get 8% of the purchasable tickets for Canada matches. at the upcoming World Cup, 8%.

So, I mean, I plop down money in part because I want to support both the men's and the women's national teams that I've long followed them closely. And I figured at least I can do to try and support them. Also, I wanted to get my foot in the door in this lottery. But I have very low expectations of getting tickets through this mechanism. I was looking around at the Australian one as well. And it's kind of a similar algorithm with the amount of tickets that are available. Because obviously, Australia is going to the 2026 World Cup as well.

But this, I mean, it's like, it's like how many tickets are available to this 54,000 seat stadium? It's kind of like, how many tickets to the Vancouver Giants make available every game? To give you an idea of the amount of money that you could potentially make off this, though, like Australia already has a membership group with the subway socceroos of 400,000. And they're anticipating that number to jump exponentially because they're getting a lot more people signing up in advance of the 2026 World Cup. So I was chatting with a family about a week ago. And through their credit card, they got Taylor Swift tickets, four tickets. And they bought them for like a thousand bucks each, right?

They sold them for 40 grand. Wow. 40 grand. And they're going on a trip to Europe. Wherever we want at that point. Yeah. We're going to tour the world. I mean, I think the teenage daughter might have gone crazy when they sold them.

But I wonder if is there going to be that sort of opportunity? here and how's that going to make the event feel for the average person that can't go? Like I, you know, people, there will be watch parties. I bet you, like they're going to have that FIFA fan festival out at the P&E. I bet you even getting into that thing for the Canada game. No, like, well, they'll probably be on the secondary market, right? Is this any different than the Olympics in 20? though, like to go to those hockey games.

The prices. Well, like, I don't know, like those prices to go into those games for hockey, which was the Marquis that. Or the Canada games, maybe. But, like, I remember seeing, like, Russia and Latvia, and it was not that expensive. I saw some curling that wasn't that expensive.

Like, you got to go experience the Olympics. And maybe there are going to be some cheap tickets, you know, if BC Place hosts a non-markey game. Well, there will be able to get into that. Because when the tournament, you got to remember,

tournament, the field is expanded, so there's more matches than ever, first off. And secondly, there's going to be some end-of-group stage matches where two teams are playing, they're playing out the string because they've already been eliminated. And it could be two countries that maybe aren't that well-represented fan-wise. Those tickets are going to go through the floor. But at that point, you're what you can't really base a trip around that.

You're just sitting around waiting for some cheap tickets to float onto the market. And that's not really what you want to see. No, you're basically going to say, I went to the World Cup. Yeah. And I don't know what that's going to look like other than it will happen. But who knows what it's going to happen? Like, for example, for Vancouver fans, it would want to go to BC Place just to kind of get the experience.

I mean, those tickets will filter down at some point. But overall, it is going to be really expensive. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 6.32 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Net 650. Halifton and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80%.

With no more interest, visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Columbus Blue Jackets, General Manager Don Waddell is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of hour one. As a matter of fact, let's go now to the Power West Industries hotline. And joining us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. As mentioned, GM of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Don Waddell here on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Don. How are you?

Excellent. Thank you for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time to do this. So slow time now of the offseason, and it's been a very interesting offseason. As a lot of general managers and people covering the league have noticed, not a ton of sellers or readily available sellers this year, it's impacted a lot of different teams in terms of what they've done

or what they haven't been able to do how is this rather unique off-season impacted you guys in the Columbus Blue Jackets? Well, as you said, first of all, teams are locking up their players long-term before you get to free agency and then, you know, there's players that want to stay with their current teams

and so, you know, the market's changed. With the cap going up, there's more money available in the market. You know, usually if you go, back even a year or two, the last couple years, you know, you'd have 10 or 12 teams that were pretty tight against the cap and looking to

shed some payroll to make room for either new players or young players coming up, and it really didn't happen a whole lot this year. There's a couple of teams maybe that were forced to do a few things, but I think the landscape for free is going to change in the next few years, as it did

this year, because there's two reasons of trying to lock your own players and then everybody's got money, in the cap, whether they can spend it all or not, is a different story. Are general managers taking some time off now, or are there some, I mean, the hope among some fans and the media covering the slow months of summer is that there would be some, maybe some hockey trades in the middle of the summer? Yeah, you know, our jobs never stop.

You know, as I sit in my office here in Columbus, it's just, you know, every day you're looking for ideas, you're looking for how you can make your team better. You know, we have a couple players that we potentially can move for the right positions. You know, we're trying to address a couple things that we still feel that need

to be addressed. And then, you know, the part that we all don't want to talk about a whole lot, you know, the business part of the sport. You know, it's a sport, and that's what we're all, and our fans are worried about wins and losses, but, you know, our schedule came out, you know, two weeks ago,

trying to plan all our travel. I had a lot of off-season contracts get done with staffing. So it's just, you know, in this business, you feel like you get caught up and then the next day you never know it's going to hit you. How are you feeling about your team right now? Because last year with the Johnny Goodroo tragedy, it must have been really difficult. I mean, you guys were played very admirably.

but it was tough, I imagine. Does it feel different this season? Yeah, I think, you know, obviously you're never going to replace a player like Johnny Goodroll, that's for sure. But, you know, I give our leadership group so much credit for how they carried themselves on and off the ice last year and put ourselves in a position. We used to be competing for a playoff spot right until the second, last day of the season. And, you know, we also got hit early on with us, Boone Jenner, the day before the opening night until almost March and Goodbrunson. You know, every team has injuries.

And then we tackle that on top of everything that happened in the summertime. You know, we were very proud of our players of how we dealt with it. And so we went into this off-season, you know, saying, you know, if we could stay relatively healthy, which, you know, we always know, there's a few things we want to address we have all left-hand shot centers and we felt we weren't great on the right side so we went out and got Charlie Coyle on draft day and Little Energy in Miles Wood

who we know very well playing in the east year for a long time and then it was important to keep our own players we signed Provaloff and Fabro real close to July 1st we liked our defense last year We scored a lot of goals. So we just thought if we could add a few pieces here,

have a good off season, come to camp relatively in pretty good health that we will give ourselves a chance to take that next step. I do want to ask you about Fabra, obviously. There's a local connection there, him growing up in British Columbia. What was the big difference from him from going from Nashville where things didn't really work out? Obviously, the team that drafted him, but you guys were able to pick him up.

And not only did he come in and contribute right away, contribute in a major fashion, and then you guys reward them with a pretty nice four-year extension. Summarized that year for Fabra, which obviously had some tough times, but ended on a very high note. And then, of course, with a really nice contract extension. Yeah, you know, it goes back to my days in Carolina, and we played Nashville quite a few times during the COVID years.

And, you know, he played his best hockey when he was playing with Yosi. And, you know, he's a compliment player that can play with good players. And, you know, when they made some changes there and brought some younger guys in, you know, he got pushed down the lineup. And so when he went on waivers, you know, I said to our coaches, you know, I believe he can help us, but he's going to help us if we get the opportunity to play with the Vorensky. And so we brought him in.

They put him with Zach, and he did everything that you could ever ask for from a player during the course of the year. And, you know, some players, you know, it's interesting because we've all seen it. You guys been around a long time, too, that, you know, it's just like when you call up your leading score in the minor leagues and you put them on the fourth line and then 10 games into it's got no goals and say well he can't help us you know in this case you know we knew this player has the ability to play up in the lineup and we had to provide that opportunity and we provided the

opportunity and I give the kid a lot of credit because he took advantage of it and of course now went from you know making $2.5 million last year and being put on waivers to a nice four-year contract. So I think both sides are very happy about the outcome on this. You mentioned the coaching there. What can you say about the job that Dean Evesant did last year? Dean's unique. He's obviously players love to play for him.

He watches out for his players. He's motivator as far as knows one pull the trigger. And I think what I give Dean a lot of credit. He uses the assistant coaches extremely well. And so he's not always the voice in that locker room. He relies on his assistant coaches to deliver the message, and then when it needs time for an extra push or we've got a special game that we really feel is important.

You know, that's when Dean can step up. So it's not in that locker room 82 times a year for 82 games in between every intermission, you know, talking to the players. He allows his assistance. to do their job. I think the way he directs his coach and staff, I think it's been very successful here,

and I look forward to continued success coming in this year. How did he go about addressing, handling, and dealing with the Johnny Goddrault tragedy in terms of what he was going to say to the players, how he was going to manage emotions, and then also how he was going to manage focus on the task of actually playing hockey while also dealing with this sort of unimaginable tragedy? Yeah, you know, it's what's, I'm going to give our leadership team a lot of credit along with Dean,

but the true star in this unfortunate situation was Meredith, you know, Johnny's wife, because, you know, at the funeral, she said, Johnny wants you to play hockey, I want you to play hockey, go play hockey. And I must have repeated that 500 times during the year in our first very first meeting, you know, right after the tragedy, all the players flew right to town and we sat in the locker room there for hours, because everybody agrees differently. Some show their motions, some don't, some go home and show it more. So we want to just be together and, you know, we delivered that message from that Meredith they've given.

And then, you know, Meredith was around a lot this year. Opening night, she said the exact same thing. So she was really a person that we as a group leaned on because of how she, how strong she was and how much support she gave to our current player. So, you know, it's a combination of a lot of things happening. Obviously, Dean's steering the ship in the locker room and did a great job with it. But the veterans in their group, the Generous of Monaghan's and Olivier's and Gobrensen's and Rorenkys. These guys, I can't say enough good things about all of them because they really kept this group together.

We're speaking with Don Waddell, president of Hockey Ops, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I want to talk a bit about the move of players from the CHL to the NCAA because one of your top prospects, Caden Lindstrom, decided to go from Medicine Hat, lost a couple players this year, to Michigan State. What did you think about that decision and what's it going to mean for Lindstrom? I think all these decisions come down. to what the player feels is best. You know, a player talks with parents, agents,

and, you know, they come up with a decision. Obviously, we were involved in it. And I learned years ago before this even kind of decision when players were trying to decide whether they go to the CHL or go to play college hockey is we can't make that decision for it. You have to make that decision because if we make it for you and it doesn't work out, guess we're on the hook for it. So we always say,

We give the pros and cons of both situations. What we think is the pluses and minuses. And then it's really up to the player. And Cadence, he took a lot of time. And he went back and forth with this pretty much all year. Obviously, he was missing most of the season until the playoffs. So he had a lot of time to think about it. But at the end of the day, him and his representation and family felt that, you know,

because he missed so much hockey this year that playing less. their games and spending more time in the weight room was best for his career. How is he health-wise? Because he had a back issue, correct? Correct, yeah, yeah. He was good. He had back surgery back in December, got cleared in March and started practicing, ended up joining medicine hat there, went up there for two or three weeks in practice before he started playing in the playoffs, played in Memorial Cup, and was here at development camp in July, and we're all hopeful that it's all behind us. He's feeling great and hoping that all he has to focus on going forward is playing hockey.

You guys must be feeling pretty good about where you are down the middle. We joke on this show a lot that, like nobody has a 2C, apparently nobody has a second line center available. You got Sean Monaghan, Adam Fantilli, and Charlie Coyle down the middle now. Plus, you've got a guy like Lindstrom waiting in the wings. Yeah, and Cole Cillinger played center, you know, last year and probably will play some center this year. Yeah, you know, if we talk about all the time, you know, down the middle is important along with your defense and your goal tent.

And so as I look at it right now with Monaghan having the last two years that he had and Tilly coming last year really took a big step. getting that in Charlie Coyle, Cillinger. We signed Lundstrom out of Anaheim, probably our strength of our hockey team. And it was last, if you look, we scored a lot of goals last year. Goal scoring wasn't our biggest issue.

We just won too many games and lost two big games, six, five. So we got to work on that end. But I think down in the middle, we don't have, you know, that's super, super star. But we got pretty good depth all the way through the lineup. Are you looking for another goalie? I go to bed looking for goalies You know

It's interesting because I'll say this You know Elvis Merlickens has been here Up through March He actually played very well He won us a lot more games than lost us for sure And we as a team in him As an individual hit a

Rough spot there in March And we couldn't win the games We went six games which really hurt us without winning, and then we called up Jet Grease who came in here at the end of the year and played lights out. I think he went 6-0-1 or something.

It was last 7. So, you know, goalies obviously always get to blame, but we also got to be better defensively. So, you know, we're confident with Greece and we're Lickens going into the season, but saying that, you're always looking to upgrade. You know, I would say that about every position

if it was available. But, you know, this year, you guys follow this pretty closely. You know, it wasn't a big goalie market. There wasn't a lot of guys that were, you know, you go back a few years ago where it always seemed to be two or three clear-cut starters. And this year there was very few.

So, you know, it's a position that we all need. We always look to improve it. And if it happens, great. If it doesn't, we're very satisfied where we're at. So I got to ask you, would you consider having a conversation with the Carter Hart camp. That's a tough one. You know, we obviously have talked about it

internally here. It's, you know, obviously we don't have to worry about it right now because the league is not authorize those guys to go any place. But, you know, that's probably a decision that I would take upstairs to my ownership if we were interested.

You know, it's tough. I've got to be honest, you know, because of, you know, there's the hockey side and the personal side. And, you know, we've got to see how this is all going to play out. But, you know, time, I guess, will tell. I know, I thought you have pretty good. Very impressive, Don.

But I'm going to throw another tough one at you because we're on a roll here. What's going on with... Keep moving your feet. What's going on with Igor Chinikoff? Ah, good, good question. Well, I'm speaking with him and his agent at 10 o'clock here in the next 20 minutes or so. So, you know, Chinikov. He wanted to block last year, the first five or six weeks,

and one of our better players played on the first line with Monaghan and Marchenko. Then he had a back injury, and it took him a while to get back. He didn't get back until, you know, right after the first part of March. And then it didn't go well for him. He played eight games and had no goals and one assist, and our team was struggling. And so coaches decided to take him out of lineup, and they didn't play at the end.

And, you know, players aren't happy. about that. So I had spoken to his agent multiple times in the summertime about, you know, we're counting on and be healthy and part of our team, but if there was something out there, you know, I always, I'd trade pretty much anybody, you know, not everybody, but a lot of players. I said, you know, I'll look around and see what happens. So we were going through that course and then a week, 10 days ago, he came out and said it might be better if he moves to another spot and then so that created my phone to just keep ringing from all my friends in the league they were trying to be nice to me and take them off my hands but you know he we have in pennsylady

right now in our top nine he can really skate he can score you know after he said the comments obviously then he tried to backtrack which you know I think sometimes players particularly a Russian players when they say some Russian they don't think it's going to make into North America, but it finds its way pretty quickly. So we're going to have a call. They want to have a call to clear the air. We're going to do that today. And, you know, as I said, and I'll continue to say, if the right deal was there,

I'm not training a player just because the player, you know, I've been through that multiple times, obviously, you know, my career, we're not going to trade a player just because the player wants to be traded. We'll trade any player if we feel like we're getting value and we're helping our hockey team take that next step. Okay, and before we let you go, you got a lot of things on the go today, apparently, but we already talked about the Coquillum kid, Dante Fabro. We've got to talk about the poor Moody kid, Ken Johnson.

And production-wise, 57 points and 68 games last year. Something of a breakout season in terms of production. What can you say about the year that Ken Johnson had for you guys in Columbus? Well, he's such a smart player. He's probably the smartest player we have on the ice. You can make plays that most guys can't even dream about making. And, you know, Kent is going to continue, as he's put in a good summer, you know, getting stronger. He's not going to get any bigger, but he can get stronger.

And that's something that we have his eyes on him. As he left the season, we've checked in with him multiple times during the summer here to make sure that that's one of his goals. But I look for Kent to continue to take big steps. He's a skill level, like I said, his skill level and his hockey senses is off the charts. So when you have those kind of dynamics and you get an opportunity to, to play with good players, you know, who knows what the ceiling will be. Don, it's July 30th, and we were dying for some good hockey talk, so thank you so much for coming on to our show today.

Always appreciate when you take the time to chat with us here in Vancouver, and good luck with all your work today, and good luck next season. No, I appreciate it, and thank you for having me, and hope you have a great day in Vancouver today. Thanks, John. I appreciate it. That's Don Waddell, Columbus Blue Jackets, VP, and general manager here on the Halpert and Brough Show

on SportsNet 650, our annual Don Waddell interview. So we do this thing every summer, especially when it gets slow, is A-Dogg sends a chase out to all the NHL teams and just, hey, we will gladly, gladly, underline, gladly have your general manager head coach on the team, or on the show, in the hopes that, I don't know, five or five or six of the 32 will respond and four say no

right and then don what else is yes every year two teams get back to me and the other 30 are like we're on vacation actually we should give we should give credit where credit is due because Chris Brumwell in Seattle right used to work for the Canucks now working for the crack might get someone from the cracker yeah he's he listens to the program maybe Brummer's listening right now

Thank you, Brummer. Please send someone soon. Dallas stars as well. Maybe Dallas Stars. Yeah, there's a handful of teams. Every once in a while, they reach out to you. But Don Waddell with regularity. I feel like every summer. He's like, yep, I'll do it absolutely. Yeah, he's a great guy. Yeah, and there's a handful of teams that are, how should I put this?

More open and more responsive to their executives and their coaches doing media. Some aren't. But I also think it's just down to the GMs, like some of them don't mind doing it. They enjoy it. Some of them haven't gone to the cottage yet. Yeah. Like Don Waddell. And others would just don't want to do it.

It's the same with the media. There are some guys you reach out. They're like, yeah, I just don't want to. And others were like, yeah, I like doing media hits. Or it's very, very early in which I say, I understand. It is very early. Well, we got him before he has to have a phone call with Igor Chinikoff and his agent, which is going to be a big one for him.

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