Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/4/24

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

Mike & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports, they look at the latest moves around the NHL, talk a bit of Whitecaps, they look at what the Canucks might do next lineup-wise with Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance, the boys tell us what they learned, plus Jamie and The Athletic NHL's Sean Gentille discover they share the same affinity for the beloved soft drink known as Dr. Pepper. 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. That's giving away at the back chance here for Vancouver, and they're on the board. Who else? Brian White. Long run for Hyde. Nobody's going to get through. Whoa, that fan.

What is he doing? What is that clown doing? I thought this was America. Huh? Is this America? I'm sorry. I thought this was America. Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it.

All right. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Happy Independence Day to our American listeners. You're listening to the Alfred Abruf Show on Sportsnet 650. Featuring Jamie Dodd for the remainder of the week. Jamie, good morning.

Good morning. Our resident Dooley and American, Andy Cole. Good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Breville in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. The guest list today begins at 6.30. Sean Gentile, NHL

writer for The Athletic, is going to join the program. We'll talk to him about the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sidney Crosby's extension continues to be hanging out there in the ether. What's going to happen with the longtime captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins? What's happening with the Penguins in general? Very interesting team to watch as the Kyle

Dubas experiment continues in Pittsburgh. So Sean's going to join us at 630 to talk about that. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk, MLB Network, and the Cinephile podcast is going to join us for a little baseball and movie talk. And we'll talk to Adnan about, well, Jamie and Greg's beloved Blue Jays. Yeah. Who got those City Connect jerseys off, wearing them last night. Offense really exploded, wearing black. That was pretty good.

Offense goes dark when they wear the dark jerseys. Beloved slash despised Toronto Blue Jays. This iteration of them, yes. Yeah. I'd agree. But it's all okay because Vladdy made the all-star game. That's going to make up for everything this season. Adnan Virk's going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk about that.

730, Sean McAdoo, better known as Down Goes Brown, also from The Athletic. We'll talk to him about his experiences in Vegas, the sphere for the NHL draft. He's also written a lot about NHL free agency. His experiences? It was right there, Alfred. Come on.

You're on fire today. Two dad jokes bright and early in the morning. We're not even three minutes into the show, Laddie. Save some. Save some for the rest of the show. 7.30, Sean McEnroe, Down Goes Brown from The Athletic. 8 o'clock, what an experience for you. You get to talk to Thomas Drance.

What a thrill. What a thrill. What a career highlight. Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk, the show that normally features Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance, now being filmed in by Brendan Batchelor, who we also have on this show. It's very incestuous what we do here at Sportsnet 650.

We all disappear on other people's shows until the summer comes, and then we all go on vacation. Then we all leave. Then we all just leave. 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance. 7.30, Sean McIndoe. 7 o'clock, Ednan Virk. 6.30, Sean Gentile.

That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened hey did you guys see the game last night no what happened I missed all the action because I was we know how busy your life can be what happened you missed that what happened what happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. So it's now July 4th.

Means we're well into free agency. And having done this gig for a while, including back at NBC when we were forced to cover the league at large, this is usually the time of the year where the signings dry up pretty, pretty good. And that was true to effect yesterday where the Vladimir Tarasenko signing in Detroit, well, it took the hockey industry by storm. I like you describing you being forced to cover the whole league. I'm pretty sure that was just your job. It felt at times like they were paying you to cover the whole league.

You know what was funny was the one time that we actually got good run there because, you know, NHL in the U.S. It's not a primary sport. Basically, it's whatever doesn't happen in baseball and football and basketball, you kind of get your glow. So on July 4th, that was the day that the Minnesota Wild quite famously signed Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. And I remember trying to juice the headline a little bit by combining their total salaries together in the headline.

And it ended up being like $198 million or something like that. And it actually drew the attention of the desk. And I was like, hey, bruv, we got it on the front page of NBC. He's like, yeah, because it's July 4th and nothing else is going on. I'm like, oh, yeah. Right. Thanks, teammate. But, because it's July 4th and nothing else is going on. I'm like, oh yeah. Right. Thanks, teammate. But now it's another July 4th. So the Red Wings

signed Tarasenko yesterday. Say what you will about the deal. I guess he's a David Perron replacement in Detroit. We're not going to spend too much time on that actual signing. I think it is kind of interesting that the Florida Panthers, speaking of things that historically happen every July, the Stanley Cup champions slowly being whittled away in free agency.

And it's such an odd dynamic because in the span of a week this year, because of the compressed and condensed NHL schedule and how late the Stanley Cup final dragged on, within a week of hoisting the Stanley Cup as a member of the Florida Panthers, several guys then bid them farewell in free agency. So Montour, Ekman Larson, Stolar is one of Laddie's favorites, Ryan Lomberg, Kevin Stenland, and now, of course, Vladimir Tarasenko. So their Stanley Cup defense is going to look a lot different,

especially on the blue line. Yeah. I mean, losing Ekman Larson and Montour is like two big losses for that team, especially given how well those guys played in the playoffs. Well, and especially Brandon Montour. I mean, all of our Ekman Larson was Montour is like two big losses for that team especially given how well those guys played in the play well and especially Brandon Montour I mean all of our Ekman Larson was good for them as well they did uh fill the bought out former Canucks defenseman slot on their blue line almost immediately though by signing Nate Schmidt once he was bought out in Winnipeg so is there another guy that got that covered is there another guy that got jettisoned from Vancouver

we can pick him up on the cheap yeah 800k 800K. So Nate Schmidt, we're going to be watching the playoffs next year. Nate Schmidt's going to be logging huge minutes for the Panthers, and everyone's going to be like, what? So I didn't realize there was actually a market for Nate Schmidt. Now, according to some, there were several suitors interested in his services, but he wanted to reunite with Paul Maurice from their time together in Winnipeg, so he made a beeline for Florida. But it'll be interesting to see what happens with Florida moving forward.

And again, we kind of laughed at the Red Wings yesterday. And actually, someone texted in earlier talking about this show talking things into existence, because yesterday we called out the Iser plan, talking about how we weren't exactly sure

what the Detroit Red Wings were doing. Very quiet on the free agent front prior to yesterday. Having really only signed Tyler Mott and then extending Patrick Kane. Not necessarily the hallmarks of a team that was looking to get over the top and get back into the playoffs, but now they bring Vladimir Tarasenko in. And that was sort of the big signing from yesterday. A couple other ones that came along. I thought it was interesting.

Not necessarily that Carolina signed another guy, but they've apparently come to terms with Jack Roslevic. Not a name that's going to jump off the page. Don't yell at me for bringing it up. The only thing I'm interested in, because we missed so many things that happened in free agency, Carolina's doing all those long-term low AAV deals right now. So they signed William Carrier, one of my favorite deals,

the six-year $12 million deal, where you can be like, I'm making $12 million. Of course, it's spread out over the next half decade and plus. So that's a $2 million cap hit. They did the same thing with Sean Walker, five years, $18 million, and to a lesser degree with Goss Dispair, three years, $9.6. So I'll be curious to see how those turn out.

And then, and this one kind of caught my eye jack johnson went back to columbus wow so if you remember jack johnson's had a very um eventful career he's played in a lot of different markets um he actually requested i don't there's not many guys that go back to a market after requesting a trade out of there yep but he requested a trade many moons ago that was also the place where that a very unfortunate scenario unfolded with his parents where they were basically embezzling money from him and then he had to declare bankruptcy and then it severed ties with his parents i don't know why you'd ever want to go back to the place where all that bad stuff happened just think of bringing a bunch of bad memories but i guess it just goes to show that if someone's going to sign you to a deal in the NHL, you'll pretty much go anywhere.

You just saw what a well-run organization it was and said, that's where I got to go to continue my career. There's never been any dysfunction here. They've always hired good general managers and coaches. Made great coaching decisions and they're going to make another one, I'm sure, any day now. Speaking of the coaching in Columbus, there was a report out there that they were going to sign Todd McClellan to be their next head coach. John Bucciagrasso from ESPN put it out there. A couple people kind of raised an eyebrow and said, yeah, it sounds like this deal is going to get done. And then it didn't.

Are we wondering, and this is Jackets are waiting until July 10th when Joel Quenville officially becomes able to be reinstated as head coach? Does it feel like that's happening right now? For the record, just so we don't get sued, I have no intel on this whatsoever. Yeah. Like they already went to Mike Babcock. Are they going to do this again? That's what I'm wondering.

Like your Brady Kachuk scoop. You could have some info on it. Sorry? Like your Brady Kachuk scoop scoop that wasn't a scoop we played the when we play the rap horns after something it signifies not a scoop it's a hot take zero intel i heard a rumor somewhere that he's getting traded okay reports out of vancouver brady could chuck on the block so back to this columbus story um i do wonder if that's what's going on here. Well, Don Waddell was asked about that pre-free agency, I think,

and he didn't exactly slam the door. He kind of was like, well, you know, the NHL has a decision to make on those guys. And it's like, so are you considering it? Because I don't think any team should hire Joel Quenville, least of all the Columbus Blue Jackets, who just went through the Mike Babcock experience. I think it would be utterly baffling,

but that is pretty much what that franchise does at this point. That's what I'm kind of wondering. Like if they've already been bitten, so you know why we may as well go for it. It would be a optically speaking a crazy move, but I do wonder why they haven't just announced Todd McClellan as their head coach. If that is indeed what's going to happen. Like it's not like they're doing a bunch of other business right now. Everything has been stone cold quiet. They have a non-answer too. But I do wonder why they haven't just announced Todd McClellan as their head coach, if that is indeed what's going to happen.

It's not like they're doing a bunch of other business right now. Everything has been stone cold quiet. A bit of a non-answer, too. What Jamie was saying, if that's what they said, if they were asked about Quenville was, oh, he's not reinstated yet. That sounds like you're just kicking the can down the road. Yeah, it wasn't like we're going in a different direction. It wasn't a flat out denial. No.

So, I don't know. Okay. And then, with all of these, quote-unquote, important signings coming off the boards in recent days, it does leave a whittled and whittled, further whittled away list of remaining free agents that could be signed. Big question here, as we circle it back to the Vancouver Canucks, your home of the Canucks Sportsnet 650. Is there anyone that you would want to see the Canucks

take a swing on? And the answer is, yeah, it's pretty limited out there. And I was prepping for the show last night and using Luke Fox, who, of course, writes for Sportsnet, his list of best free agents available. And as I was kind of copying out and going through it and writing Jack Roslevic on the list, it was, oh, Jack Rosleich's going to Carolina. So I wasn't even interested in him, but that's now one fewer option available on this list.

So I'll just run through some of the names on Luke Fox's list here. Daniel Sprong, Tyler Johnson, Philip Zedina, Kalen Addison, John Klingberg, Tyson Berry. So that kind of gives you the idea of the type of player that we're talking about here obviously at this point if you're still on the market there's some pretty significant red flags around your game the only two names that really stand out to me in any way are probably kaylin addison and tyson berry just just because of the puck moving need. John Klingberg, he was just so bad with Toronto. I have zero appetite for that. I don't know if he's going to play again.

He says he wants to, but I don't know. The Berry one, I'm not going to lie. There might be something there. So if you want to connect some dots one local guy from Victoria there's also the fact that we discussed this idea this notion this concept of if you're going to add a puck mover to your group

maybe it is a guy in a complimentary non full time role is he still good Tyson Barry so no yeah not really yeah that's what I'm and that's what you would be getting by adding a 7th, 8th defenseman that brings the attributes that your other 6th, 7th, 8th guys don't have. Remember, this is exactly the way that Nashville ended up deploying him

at the end of the season and in the playoffs. He plugged into the Vancouver series in the first round and actually ended up doing exactly what he needed to. I think he recorded a power play assisting game five of that series. So if you're going to put him in where you're like, okay, we're maybe a little too lumbering and we're a little bit slow on the back end and we're not moving the puck as much as we'd like, he can be a cheap plug and play guy.

He's a Brisson client for whatever that means. There was a deal in place to get him to Calgary at last year's trade deadline. And that was sort of a nod to, well, we'll move him to Western Canada and he'll be closer to home. Obviously, going to Calgary would have been more of a cap dump for the Preds and he wouldn't have done anything other than played out the string at Calgary. So you can kind of start to connect some dots and move some pieces. It would have to be a very short-term, low-money contract.

But at this stage of the game, that's what a guy like Tyson Berry is going to sign. He's 32 years old and his best years as being top four defense, in which he was at one time, are way, way past. And I remember last offseason, the Canucks signed Matt Irwin, also from Victoria, to a deal. And the idea was, okay, some veteran competition for those last spots. And he ended up spending the whole year in Abbotsford, right? So I wonder if there's something similar there where it's a local guy looking for that contract.

And at the very least, you can bring him in to compete a little bit. And maybe he ends up being your eighth defenseman, not playing a lot. Maybe he ends up going to Abbotsford. But I can see that Addison is the one with more upside and flaws, deep flaws. And if San Jose is walking away from you, given the amount of talent on their roster, that's not a good sign. But if you're looking for a little bit of upside, a guy who might be more, hey, okay, I'll go down to their AHL team and try to restart my career,

Addison could fit the bill there. So we got a text in nice and early to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at 650-650. Once again, I love all of our listeners. They're great. They never get on my nerves. And they are definitely not sarcastic whatsoever. So here's a very genuine, enthusiastic text from a listener.

Great. No whitecaps coverage after a meaningful win, but a segment devoted to a fifth-place jerk. Oh, wait, I'm talking about the listener. A fifth-place team some uh four thousand kilometers away sportsnet your vancouver home of all things toronto okay let's do some white caps talk we had an entire segment planned you jerk we're gonna do it now uh the white caps did get a meaningful win yesterday uh for the second consecutive match thecaps put up all the offense, which went missing for large parts of May and June.

Seven goals in their last two matches, including three in a 3-1 victory over Minnesota United last night. Tremendous match from Ryan Gould. Three assists on the evening. The first time that a Whitecap has done that since back in 2019 when Hwang In-bom, remember him, everybody? Hwang In-bom. I think he's playing for Olympiacos now. He did it in 2019 when Huang In-bom, remember him, everybody? Huang In-bom. I think he's playing for Olympiacos now.

He did it in 2019 against the Galaxy. So to give you an idea of the last two matches and how fortunes have changed, the Whitecaps scored seven goals over the last two matches. They went from possibly being outside the playoff picture to finishing last night's MLS action in fourth in the Western conference. Uh,

Minnesota is slumping terribly. Uh, so too was St. Louis who they beat four, three over the weekend. So it was great. And I should mention, uh,

congratulations to Brian white who's by scoring the opener yesterday now becomes the white caps all time leading score with 40 goals passing Camilo who did it with 39, playing for the team over the span of two years from 2011 to 2013. Jamie put forth a really great discussion point here. Putting it all on me. We're doing a good, positive Whitecaps segment.

Now we're going to rip them to shreds a little bit here. I like to think that if you're talking about an entity, good, bad, or otherwise, we are in an attention economy. Bru you're talking about an entity good bad or otherwise we are in an attention economy breath was talking about this before he went on vacation so as long as we're talking about something good bad or otherwise that's the important thing right we don't put a positive spin so brian white becomes the white caps all-time leading scorer with the goal against minnesota last night then you write all credit to brian white on a huge accomplishment but is he the most anonymous quote-unquote all-time great in vancouver sports Minnesota last night. Then you write, all credit to Brian White on a huge accomplishment,

but is he the most anonymous quote-unquote all-time great in Vancouver sports history? It is funny because White's been with the Whitecaps for three years. He came aboard with, I will be honest,

incredibly little fanfare. I follow MLS, and I'm a Whitecaps season ticket holder, so I'm there all the time. I knew very little about Brian White when he came aboard. I knew that he kind of scored some goals for the New York Red Bulls. I knew that he was an American player and a striker, which is actually a bit of a rarity

because a lot of the Americans now are like defenders. Sure. It's just an easier pathway for them to make it in MLS. But he scored at a decent clip and then came to Vancouver and almost instantly found success with Ryan Gould. And I do think that's part of the reason why he's sort of played in anonymity despite becoming the franchise's all-time leader is that a lot of people have seen Gould as the catalyst and the driver

and the table setter and the crosser for a lot of the finishes that Brian White has has but i did want to ask a question of all of you and this includes the dogs so be on the ready here when i say vancouver whitecaps who's the most recognizable popular famous player who's the first player that pops to mind alfonso davies okay laddie uh camilo you already mentioned his name right camilo yeah jamie camilo it's probably ryan gauld okay or maybe camilo is the other name Camilo. You already mentioned his name. Right. Camilo. Yeah. Jamie? Camilo. It's probably Ryan Gould. Okay. Or maybe Camilo is the other name that jumps to mind. If we're talking MLS era.

We are talking MLS era. Those answers are pretty important because two of the guys mentioned have not played for the team. In the case of Camilo, it's been 11 years. And in the case of Alfonso Davies, it's been close to it. I think it's not a decade yet, but it's creeping up on that. Right.

And it kind of says where the white caps are at with regards to individual talents. Cause I mean, I was talking to bruff about this a few weeks ago that Ryan gold, by all accounts should be the face of the franchise, the star, the guy that everything the Whitecaps are publicly based around.

He's a fantastic player. He's worth the price of admission. He's got great industry, as we like to say in the industry. Work rate? Yes. I like industry, though. But he's a tremendously hard worker.

He's got a ton of skill. He's an amazing playmaker. It would be great if he got a little bit more recognition. The Whitecaps have put that push on him. They had a big push last year to try and get him in the MVP consideration, to get him some votes for that. He is going to the All-Star game this year, which is a great feather in his cap.

But I think one of the things that's happened over the last few years is every star player that the whitecaps have had in terms of individual success it hasn't translated to a lot of team success yeah that's a huge part of this i also think they the mls broadcasting situation is not doing them any favors right because i think it makes it a lot harder for casual fans to if they if they hear about ryan gold like hey i want to watch this guy play it's a lot harder for them to do that in a casual way you have to be kind of already invested uh in the team and then but more than anything it is team success right like at a

certain point there has to be a sustained run of success from the white caps for guys like Brian Wright and Ryan Gould to Gall to really get their credit. And again, I think part of this is on the Whitecaps. Part of this is just things working against them in terms of the MLS ecosystem. But it was just really striking to me because even you think about the BC Lions in some of their lean years, there's still a certain level of name recognition for their quarterback, right? Or maybe a star receiver or something like that.

And it just feels like, hey, Brian White, like all-time leading goal scorer. Yep. What's his level of name recognition amongst, like, our listeners? Like, dedicated sports fans here in Vancouver. It's low, I bet. Oh, I'm with you. And part of this is market saturation and how much you have

and how much you don't have and your presence in the market. How long have you been doing this for now, the whole sports gig? I started at the station behind the scenes 2018. Right. So you've been around long enough to see sort of what resonates and what doesn't, right? And for a team that's been around as long as they have, a lot of people are wondering why haven't the Whitecaps captured the market before because all the pieces are there, especially at the youth levels.

Soccer registration numbers are through the roof. There's a million kids playing soccer. The expansion that the sport at the professional level has had in terms of visibility and accessibility and how many matches you can watch now is at an all-time high. It's no longer 7 a.m. Graham Leggett soccer Saturday. So what's gone wrong here? And I do wonder if it's just as simple as winning.

And winning is often the best antidote across all sports because marketing can only get you so far. Star power can only get you so far. You have to be able to win and play meaningful games. Look at the difference with the Vancouver Canucks in terms of engagement this year, as opposed to the last, right? Look at the bump with the Vancouver Canucks in terms of engagement this year as opposed to the last, right? Yeah. Look at the bump and the boost that playoff hockey brought.

What a boost. Thank you. Winning a round, that's another big part of this, right? Advancing further, understanding that you got to the playoffs and you did something when you got there. Because the Whitecaps have gone to the playoffs. They played three playoff matches since Brian White joined the team and became the leading goal scorer in franchise history and they've lost all three yeah and the season came to a very uh like abbreviated truncated bang it's over and

then there's no more whitecaps so i do wonder if it just comes down to sometimes like the good old fashion winning will solve everything i will will say this though. Attendance this year has dramatically spiked in part because of the now infamous messy match and all the tickets sold. But even at that St. Louis match on the weekend, there's 24,000 there. So if people are paying attention, it's now up to the white caps, I think, to start winning matches and have a further run. The attendance has always been decent for the white caps. I used to be a season ticket holder. I haven't been for a few years now, like it was always a great event to go to it's just never then translated

to that kind of outside of the match engagement right or watching them the watching the away games on tv right it's been hard for them to kind of bridge that gap and by the way you threw it out there like who comes to mind for vancouver white caps a couple people texting in one david ustad yeah great keeper remember him still still living locally he's running an academy now another one Vancouver Whitecaps. A couple people texting in. One, David Oostad, Grand Keeper. Remember him? Still living locally. He's running an academy now. Another one, Carl Valentine. Just going back a ways.

Kind of illustrates what we're talking about here. He is connected to the Whitecaps. He is. He did not play in the Whitecaps MLS era, but it is a good exercise to do. We can continue this conversation tomorrow, as a matter of fact,

because we're going to have James Sharman on the show to preview what's going to be a huge footy weekend obviously canada taking on venezuela in the cope america quarterfinals tomorrow and then of course you've got all of the euro quarter quarterfinals friday and saturday morning uh so we'll get into all that uh tomorrow right here on sportsnet sportsnet 650 you're listening to the best of halford and brough you're listening to the best of halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. And what we just have to call Thomas Grant's erotica. Thomas Grant's erotica.

Of course. Thomas Grant's Erotica. Expected goals. Thomas Grant's Erotica. Top bottom. Thomas Grant's Erotica. Red Russian. Thomas Grant's Erotica.

PDO. 802 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough. Scratch that dot. Sportsnet 650. This show, the entirety of this show, is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for.

Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Thomas Drance is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 3 of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec,

Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soarfeet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. To the phone lines we go. Thomas Drance joins us now on the Halford & Brough show featuring his good friend Jamie Dodd here on Sportsnet 650. What up, Drancer? I always like to think it must

be a huge relief for the two of you since both of you are in the like agreeable guy who hosts show with far grumpier dude, right? I always think it must be such a relief to work together. The vibes are, how do I say it, immaculate?

Love that. It does feel a bit like a vacation for me. Not because just because I'm getting away from you, Drancer, but of course on our show, I'm the A chair. And then I come and do it with Halford and he's the A chair. And I just get to like kick back, put my feet up, and he has to deal with all the reads and stuff. It's great.

It's like I'm doing half the job. It's amazing. It's a good gig. Hey, Drancer, you know know i was thinking like okay what are we going to do here because you know the the acquisitions on july 1 have been analyzed and talked to death and looked up and down i think maybe as a retrospective we can look back compared to the other off seasons in july 1s that the 31 other nhl teams have had how does the business the business to the Vancouver Canucks completed stack up as opposed to the rest of the league using those other teams as a backdrop or as a guide? How do you feel like if you want to put a number on it or put a grade on it or

whatever the entirety, now that the dust has settled and we had a few days to take about and sit back and look at it. How do you grade? I'll say that the canucks did on july 1 yeah that's an interesting question you know there's teams that i think are coming out of july 1st more obviously improved right in terms of uh like like i think nashville i think short term anyway right n? Nashville took on more risk, certainly, than Vancouver did, given the age of some of the players they signed to four or five-year terms. So, you know, I don't know that I'd say I liked the Predators' work on balance

more than I liked Vancouver's work on balance, but I think they improved more than the Canucks did in terms of what they'll look like on the ice next season. We saw Nashville struggle mightily to finish in that series against the Vancouver Canucks and, you know, adding Stamkos and Marcheseau, I mean, that'll help, right? Those are really high-end one-shot scorers for that Predators lineup. You know, I think Edmonton, look, we look at Edmonton's forward group and that looks sick. So Edmonton, I think, would be one of those teams, too, that comes out a little bit more obviously improved. Maybe Washington.

I think if you put it all together, too, so it's not just July 1, but we're talking about sort of the full gamut of two weeks during the summer. You know, Pierre-Luc Dubois is a huge swing for them but i also really struggle to imagine that pierre luke dubois sucks as much as he sucked last year uh given what we've seen from him for most of his career given the fact that he's in his mid-20s uh given the fact that there's no like evident injury that would have caused last year to happen i just sort of wonder if it was one of those uh square peg hole situations, which we do occasionally see. Anyway, when you look at the Chikorin deal, that was a steal for them.

I think they added a lot of intriguing pieces. So those would sort of be my three teams on a short list of clubs that I'd say improved the most around the league, not sort of factoring in the like conservative moves or like they avoided landmines like maybe they didn't they definitely took on a lot more long-term risk than the Vancouver Canucks did but I would look at those as sort of the three teams in the league who improved the most just from a like really simple answer to that question perspective but I think where Vancouver did really well right like where

Vancouver did as well as anybody is when I think you consider sort of what this summer was for the Vancouver Canucks and and the cap we know sort of comes for your depth, right? It puts you in a situation where as your team performs well, your players tend to get more expensive because other teams around the league see that they're part of a successful team. And that's especially true as your players age because they age out of their ELCs and sometimes they age out of their second or bridge contracts

and then they get paid big third contracts and that creates pressure that effectively hoses your ability to have the same level of success you once had. And the Canucks kind of quietly dealt with one of those sorts of off-seasons this year, right? You factor in over $10 million 10 and a half million in raises solely for Dakota Joshua Elias Pettersson and Phillip Ronick right so when you have to contend with that it's pretty hard like one thing we were saying Jamie and I anyway on our program in the lead up to the last

two weeks was it's going to be hard for this team to simply be as good as they were last season. Right. And, and what we were talking about was, you know, you've got this Patterson 11.6 to factor in the ironic deal to get done. The club would prefer to go long-term,

you know, back then it was like, will they have to trade him? Right. Like that was the conversation. They were able to get that done early. They were able to reallocate some of McKay's money. You know, they avoided the big, huge deals for zadorov and lindholm even though i think they're gonna miss

uh especially zadorov maybe a little bit more than we've been prepared to sort of really like plant our flag on i i do believe that just in terms of the personality and kind of the guts that this team had come playoff time. And how Zdorov felt pretty representative of that in a lot of ways. But you sort of look at the full gamut and I think you at least come out of sort of this, the meat of the Canucks offseason, look at their last two weeks and say, OK, you know, you can argue shades better or shades worse if you prefer but i think the consensus would be you know that this team is at least close to as good as it was

last year or at least has given itself a chance to be as good as it was last year um you know maybe a little worse at center maybe a little worse on a third pair but they addressed their biggest need which was you know a bunch of better wingers than they had. It's like, okay, that's pretty good. To accomplish that, to even accomplish maintenance, given some of the inflationary internal pressures on the Canucks' salaries to a couple core players a couple of core players, and then a really key glue guy piece in,

in Dakota Joshua. I think that's really good work. Even if I don't know that I'd sort of stump for them as being among the league's most improved teams. I did want to kind of ask you about Florida a little bit, because there's certain things that happen in around the end of the season. And oftentimes you see that the Stanley Cup winner, because it's such a quick turnaround and it's a good team that people often,

you know, start picking at the carcass and start taking some pieces away. So they're now going to be without Montour, Ekman, Larson, Stolarz, Lombard. And then yesterday it was Tarasenko. So there's some significant departures there. Is this just sort of the course of action? Like this is how business goes when you win a cup and your guys have that profile you're going to lose some talent and it becomes that much more difficult to try and retain as you have your title defense yeah yeah a hundred percent and i'm really curious to see what happens i know there were some

rumblings about aaron eckblad um yeah right a right. They've got a bunch of players in Eckblad, Verhege, and Bennett, all of whom are entering the last year of their deals, like became extension eligible. They were able to keep Reinhardt on a sweetheart ticket, which I think matters probably more than their departures in terms of setting them up, not just for next season, but long-term, right? Like that would have been the departure that would have been a body blow,

I think, to the Panthers, given his chemistry with Barkov, given his defensive chops, given his 50-plus goals and the Stanley Cup winning goal. So that, I think, I don't think the Panthers are, like, bleeding out by any means, but I do think they, you know, lost some key guys and are probably going to lose some more, if not this summer, then certainly over the next 12 months. Because you can't keep everybody. And sort of what I'm most interested to see here is exactly how this plays out.

Because the Panthers have been pretty ruthless about doing something that I talk about a lot, which is buying and being willing to pay for their own core's 20s and then jettisoning them without having to pay for their 30s. We saw that with Huberto and Uyghur for Kachuk. We've seen this time and time again, that the Panthers are very conscious, it seems, of the age cliff. And I think that's sort of the biggest challenge of that ethos or of that theory because, yeah, they paid for Forsling's 30s now, right? They've paid for Reinhardt's 30s now, but at wildly team-friendly clips, right? What does it look like as they get into extension talks with bennett verhage

ekblad and is there a deal or two that they have to consider you know along the hubert o'weager line to sort of continue building this team and because if there is first of all i mean those are major major pieces and secondly i think those are highly marketable pieces from like a what would their trade value perspective be, right? Like those would be huge deals. Whoppers, if they end up going down that road, you know, whether it's later this summer or next season. So I'm almost more curious to watch what's next for the Panthers. It just feels like there's more shoes to drop. But, you know,

I do think they obviously had to deal with a fair bit pretty quickly, right? Like four-day turnaround after winning the Cup. You're radically altering your team in the offseason. Didn't love that for them. Not a lot of time to sit in it, which, you know, you feel for them. But

we'll see. There's just so much more work it feels like they have to do okay here's one for you if you were tasked with trying to explain the steve eiserman eiser plan and what's going on in detroit how would you explain it oh boy um yeah i i've lost the plot there like I've really lost it you know what Tarasenko and Kane so I guess that's is he filling the gaps in elite talent

that he hasn't been able to produce at the draft table partly because of who they've selected and partly because they've had a pretty rough run of lottery luck um you know i the defense i mean i have no idea like i have no idea i guess they have some young defenders coming so you want some like big-bodied veterans around them um you know steve eiserman's lightning always had like they traded for the Jason Garrison contract. Right. They had like Matt Carl. Right. Like the the defense on the lightning was always kind of like big and stodgy, too, and usually included like a vet acquisition.

We forget this now because Sergeyev McDonough Hedman became such a monstrous thing sort of in the latter stages of his Lightning tenure. But the way that those Lightning defenses looked for years, you know, Mark Strait late in his career and on and on, like they had a lot of similar-ish types, just like defense only big bodied guys. So I feel like it's kind of like a worse version of of that a version of that but without victor headman i'm not very interested in that right like it's like man this this shallow defense would look an awful lot better with prime victor headman isn't exactly a hot take right but it kind of feels like that It kind of feels like some of the worst versions of those mid-teens

lightning blue lines, but without the top-end guy to sort of hold it down and make it work. Yeah, I don't know. The Cam Talbot deal was one of my least favorite fits in free agency. You know, I mean, I

watched Cam Talbot play behind LA and it seemed like a talbot play behind la and seemed like um seemed like a pretty cushy gig seemed like sitting in the beach air and i've also watched detroit play defense and they do not play defense the way that the l.a kings played defense last year so i'm pretty nervous about that cam talbot deal especially on a two-year agreement um especially when they have like alex lyon and Didn't they bring in James Reimer? No, that was Buffalo. But they have Alex Lyon and they have...

They have four goalies. They have Jusso, Talbot, Lyon, and Jack Campbell under contract. Jack Campbell. Oh, that was the name. I was like, didn't they bring in Reimer? It was Jack Campbell. Good luck to Jack Campbell.

Hope it works. So, you know, I just sort of... I don't know that there's a single thing about this roster that I like. Yeah, there's not a single thing about this lineup that I like, period. And, you know, they don't even have really top end prospects coming. Right. Like it would certainly help if they'd like picked, know zach benson last year right like if they had at least a straightforward path like an 18 year old who scored 30 points in the nhl last year would be a nice thing for detroit to have right now they don't even have that like i i don't know i i can't i can't make heads or tails of it and that atlantic division is looking nasty right i mean all of those teams even buffalo and ottawa i think you can make really credible upside cases for we know what toronto is you know tampa bay added gensel

i mean it's a tough tough spot to be in trance do you see an equivalent this summer of pew suitor last year right talented guy who was on the market way longer than we expected and eventually the canucks were able to get him on a bargain deal is there anyone out there that piques your interest maybe not to pew suitor levels because we all know how much you love pew suitor but is there anyone out there in that mold still get in your eyes yeah and michael amadio signed in um um ottawa that's right and uh and i guess he for sure would sign day one too right so all my guys um got picked up this year uh no you know what there isn't really i would have said like if uh if jack roslovich hadn't signed in carolina i would have said hey that's an

interesting one to me um but he signed in carolina yesterday like a lot of the business that i thought should be transacted got transacted yesterday. I guess Justin Schultz is still available. I still think Justin Schultz is good. I have no idea why when he hits the open market, there never seems to be much interest. Feels kind of Dan Heinen-esque, where it's like every time Justin Schultz is in the playoffs, he makes a huge difference for his team.

Like he's maybe not as fast as he once was was but he's still really effective running a power play really smart he's not the defensive liability that he was earlier in his career and then we see him go nuke every time he gets to the postseason and it's like who wouldn't want a right-handed defender that matches that description right like that seems to me to be a no brainer for somebody at 3 million. And when you look around the league and see some of the contracts that did get handed out to blue liners, I find it deeply confusing that Schultz seems not to have steady employment. So he'd be sort of one of the standout names for me at this point,

but there aren't many. I feel like it's been a pretty efficient market. I feel like there's certainly no huge gaps the way there was last summer with Dan Heinen waiting until, or sorry, Dan Heinen waited until October, but Pew Suter waiting until mid to late August to get a deal. Trancer, this is great, bud. Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it.

Enjoy the rest of the week. I think we're doing this again next week. I'm not too sure, but thanks again. We appreciate it. Yeah, cheers. See you, boys. Bye.

Adnan, sorry, what? What did you say in my ear there? We're not doing it next week. I should have probably known that. Thomas Trance from the Athletic Vancouver with his last hit on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

Probably should have given him a better goodbye. I was going to say, what a send-off. Maybe we'll talk next week. Bye! And then arbitrarily saying Adnan Virk's name in the middle of it. Ah! Classic Mike Halford. Classic Halford. And every time I think I'm the Michael Jordan of broadcasting, I get brought

back down to earth rather quickly. Let's do some What We Learns here. You're Michael, alright. Your own special kind of Michael. We have the same name. I do want to pass Michael. We have the same name. I do want to pass on. We mentioned the Seattle Kraken earlier talking about how they haven't really made much noise in terms of market saturation and being a big thing in Seattle. And then of course the rivalry with the Vancouver Canucks.

We should mention that Jessica Campbell was named the new assistant coach at the Seattle Kraken. And kudos to her for becoming the first ever female assistant coach in NHL history. We had heard about this because she had worked with Dan Bilesma previously for their AHL affiliate.

And then the Kraken made the news available yesterday that she would be making the jump along with Dan Bilesma up to the NHL next level. So, or next year. So congratulations to her on the gig and that is my what we learned i don't like moo cowing something like that but it's what we do here on the show but it's a it's a celebratory one the worst is when you have to moo cow like uh r.i.p to this legend who passed away yesterday

that's tough yeah death moo cows are tough generally we don't we've done that before death yeah stay away from that i don't think it's i don't think there's anything wrong with moo cowing a positive story trailblazing iconic moment for jessica campbell and we're like here's the sound effect yeah you know what though do it again just a hammer at home uh okay i have a what we learned we talked a little bit with adnan verck about uh about the blue jays and the awful awful loss they suffered against the houston astros yesterday and part of that was that jay's reliever jose cuis had one of the worst pitching performances you will ever see in major league baseball for the jays so he came in immediately

they intentionally walked jordan alvarez then and his next pitch gives up a two-run single then with his next pitch hits the next batter then if his next pitch hits the next batter and then john schneider was like okay this is ridiculous you cannot be in the game any longer this is truly awful so on the in the score, he goes down as responsible for four runners reaching base. But because of the new intentional walk rules, it doesn't count as a pitch thrown. So he threw three pitches, but allowed four guys to get on base. So his final line, three runs allowed, three walks, one hit, and no outs on just three pitches. That's really impressive. Incredible efficiency. Hard to do all no outs on just three pitches. On three pitches. That's really impressive.

Incredible efficiency. Hard to do. To do all of that in just three pitches. First pitcher since 2001 to record two hit-by-pitches on three pitches thrown in a single outing. Congratulations. Congratulations. So many trailblazers in our what we learned today. You have to mook out it.

That definitely is mook out. Sean, this was great as always thank you very much for doing this day jamie's tap hold on i have a question sorry we didn't communicate somebody somebody text no it's a very important question somebody texted in please ask sean about dr pepper passing pepsi as the number two soda in america are you are Are you a Dr. Pepper loyalist? I'm a Pepsi hater. All right. That's what the question is. Is Pepsi okay?

No, it's not. That's the classic answer at restaurants. It's a big deal, man. I'm a massive Dr. Pepper fan, so I was thrilled when I saw that. I was like, you know the, what is it from Starship Troopers, the I'm doing my part meme? That was me. I was like, I'm doing my part. I'm boosting those Dr. Pepper sales.

I'm getting them to number two. Jamie, when it comes to the weird strawberries and cream flavor variants, do you have a favorite? Of Dr. Pepper? Yeah. No, straight. Maybe cherry, but no.

Dr. Pepper, just perfect as is why change it why change anything i don't need any other flavors in there i knew i liked you brother that's right okay now you can let him go mike we had to get that in no that was very important i'm glad we did that sean thank you very much for doing this today bud you're the best enjoy some time off this summer we'll do this again when the season starts back up. Yeah, I'll drink a few Miller Lights here on Independence Day in your guys' honor, for sure. America! Love it. Thanks, Sean. See you guys.

Sean Gentile from The Athletic in Pittsburgh, again, joining us on the 4th of July, taking time out of his Independence Day to join us. Now I want a cool, refreshing Dr. Pepper. Right? Now that he's said that. I know it's early, but... Yeah, I can go for one too, actually. Have you ever heard

that... Brev has a story where he was golfing with his dad, and his dad at the turn ordered a Mr. Pepper? He lost his doctor license? He's no longer able to practice. He made some bad mistakes in surgery, and now he's just Mr. it'll cost you can't call

me that anymore please just call me pepper mr pepper mr pepper yeah um it's his son who never amounted to anything yeah that's mr pepper there's all those off-brand ones too well there's mr peb yeah which i guess is what he was in between there's dr skipper buzz but there's dr buzz yeah dr what dr skipper really yeah if i'm not mistaken iipper. Dr. Buzz. But there's Dr. Buzz, yeah. Dr. what? Dr. Skipper. Really? Yeah, if I'm not mistaken. I've never heard of Dr. Skipper. There's a lot of varieties because it's-

Halverd just made up a new soda. No, I'm almost positive. Now I gotta look it up. I love all the off-brand fake- Yeah, there it is. Dr. Skipper. Dr. Skipper, yeah. There's about 9,000 off-brand Dr. Peppers

because it's, as you pointed out, a fairly iconic taste. It's so good. The original, right? Nobody can match it, though. So there's a, now that we're really down the rabbit hole on this one, there's a sparkling water

that I think Western Family does. Someone can correct me because I know you're going to know which one I'm talking about. It's black cherry vanilla. And the only reason they call it that is I think it's legally, they can't call it Dr. Pepper

Water. That's exactly what it is. It tastes exactly like Dr. Pepper Water. And it doesn't taste like black cherry vanilla. It tastes like Dr. Pepper Water. It is quite refreshing. They got to call it something. Yeah, you got to give it a new name.

By the way, although this is from Wikipedia, although Dr. Pepper has similarities to cola, the American Food and Drug Administration has ruled that Dr. Pepper is not a cola, nor a root beer, nor a fruit-flavored soft drink. What is it? Rather, Dr. Pepper is said to be in a category of its own kind called pepper soda. Wow. It invented its own thing. Wow. The fact you didn't save this for what we learned at AA.

I didn't know that. We can rehash it. Mind-boggling. Mind-boggling. We can rehash it. We can revisit this conversation later. One text is saying it's because in England, surgeons are called Mr. instead of doctor. Yeah, right.

Dr. Pepper has his origins in London. No, no, for Mr. Pibb, I mean. Mr. Pibb is also a surgeon. Well, Mr. Pibb is like the British surgeon. The British version of Dr. Pepper? Yeah, so they call him Mr. instead of Dr. Hello, Mr. Pibb. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, we're losing focus here badly. But again, it's the 4th of July. All the Americans are out shooting out fireworks and roasting hot dogs. And we're here trying to provide entertainment to you, the listeners of the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.