Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/13/24

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

Guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports, plus they  talk the latest hockey news with Sportsnet senior NHL writer Ryan Dixon 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. The 0-2 pitch. And Jimenez gives it a pretty good ride to center field. It's back at the wall. And it's gone. Here's Neal and Rapai. It does stay in the zone.

And across. Matthews. Strong. And that's a beauty. Austin Matthews. And back on the board. When Houston was going through that downturn, did the Mariners not put them away?

I think it was 10 games. Isn't that put away for most of it? I don't think you can put a team like this away. They'll put themselves away. Good morning. It is Halpern Brough here on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd and Josh Elliott-Wolfe still filling in for the guys. Josh, how's it going, man?

Good morning. How are you? I'm doing good. I'm doing fantastic. Adog, good morning. Good morning. Basketball Ben, good morning. Good morning. And I gotta say, Ben, I admire you dug deep to fill out the intro because we are in the full on post Olympic pre NFL regular season, pre NHL training camp. Lull. It was a light, light sports calendar last night.

I was driving in today and I was like, what am I going to do? Dude was like, oh, Leo Jimenez home run, baby. Good thing the Jays hit a home run. Some Astros and Mariners stuff. I'm like, that's going to work too. That's perfect. Here we go. What everyone's talking about. To a degree, it is.

We are, however abrupt brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by

thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that is what you're waiting for. 650-650, of course, the Dunbar Lumber text line. Never too early to send a What We Learned our way. We've already got a couple in the inbox,

so of course we'll do those at 8.30. You can get your submissions in now. Hashtag WWL've already got a couple in the inbox. So, of course, we'll do those at 830. You can get your submissions in now. Hashtag WWL. What you learned in the last 24 hours in sports. And as I mentioned, we'll read them at 830. Big guest list today coming up at seven. So we've got a full hour before our first guest to really dive in to everything that's happening.

Really tackle the hot topics of the day we needed all that time to get to everything uh that's going on right now ryan dixon from sports net will join us at seven we booked ryan really before there was any news in the hockey world we were just going to kind of shoot the breeze with him maybe look ahead to the four nations uh tournament coming up in february but then of course as we'll get to the Four Nations tournament coming up in February. But then, of course, as we'll get to, the Leafs made it. Well, I haven't made the announcement yet, but they're going to make an announcement today. So we'll talk to Ryan about that. 730, Mike Lefkoe, Seattle Sports Radio.

He does the Mariners pre and post game show for Seattle Sports Radio. We'll talk about Seattle, the race with the Houston Astros with him at 730 at 8 o'clock. BC Lions wide out. Aiden Eberhardt joins the show. Get his thoughts on the three-game losing streak the team is in right now, what they need to change to get out of it, and also just a little bit about his career, his path to the CFL. So, of course, working in reverse, 8 o'clock, Aiden Eberhardt, BC Lions wide receiver. 7.30,

Mike Lefkoe from the Seattle Sports Radio does the Mariners pre- and post-game. 7 o'clock, Ryan Dixon from Sportsnet.ca will join the show. Before we do any of that, however, let's get into 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? 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 bccsa.ca. So in terms of what happened in actual sports, in actual contests between teams last night, not much. I guess we'll go to Major League Baseball where the Mariners were idle, but the Astros won. So now the Astros have a half-game lead, and the AL West continues to be very, very close. I believe that's a six-game win streak as well for the Houston Astros. So Mariners will have their chance to continue their winning streak again

tonight as well. But the Jays did play. They beat the Angels 4-2. They're out West, win game one of that series. Vladdy starts a new hit streak. He goes two for four with a double. Probably the bigger news from a Jays perspective, though, of course, this season is a wash. It's over.

They're really just playing out the string. But one of the things that fans will be monitoring is the performance of some of their young players and especially the crop of players they acquired in the big sell off at the trade deadline. And the news before the game last night was that they had called up infielder Will Wagner, one of the players they got from Houston in the Yusei Kikuchi deal. And Will Wagner steps up, hits a double in his first plate appearance, then follows that up with a couple of more hits.

So he's three for three in his first three at-bats. He ends the night three for four. And it's a really feel-good story, right, for a number i mean it's a guy making his major league debut he's 26 so he's done his time in the minors he was kind of blocked in houston right with you know bregman at third altuve at second there was not a clear path to him really making it uh to the major leagues i also love this his uh his dad is billy wagner former closer. He already has more hits in his career now. I was even surprised that a closer had two hits, to be perfectly honest. They don't get a lot of plate appearances.

Even when you're like, obviously pitchers don't hit anymore, but when they were hitting, it's like, man, you weren't. You don't leave your relievers in for at-bats a lot. Yes, yeah. But anyways, Billy Wagner. He got two hits. He had two hits in his career. Will Wagner now has three, so he's out out hit his dad in his major league career.

So it is a really good story, but it's also the kind of thing, you know, I think a lot of sports fans have been through this process, right? Where it's a it's a lost season, but you've still got a big chunk of the schedule left. You're a hardcore fan. So you're looking for reasons to tune in. You're looking for things to get excited about. And you're trying to look for optimism down the stretch right and going into next season and one of the things that can do that is performances from young players and i think the jays fans jays fans now are firmly in that mode i'm excited excited for wagner you know who knows he's got some interesting triple a numbers he is pretty old for a prospect. Maybe he goes

on to be a meaningful contributor for the Jays for the next few years. But watching Wagner, the Joey Loprafito guy that they got at the deadline as well, that's nice to see them in the majors, and Loprafito hasn't been very good.

Maybe he turns it around. But caring about their stat lines, it reminds me more than anything of like when Canucks fans were trying to talk themselves into Nikolai Goldobin. It's a sign. It is no disrespect to those players. It's not saying that they can't be good, that they can't play a role in the major leagues or anything like that.

But it's just, it's a bad sign for you as a fan when you're in that position, when you're really like squinting at kind of marginal prospects or guys with really obvious flaws and trying to see how trying to be okay now that he's with our team he's going to figure things out he's got this opportunity he never had and oh wow i think there's a lot more ceiling than we expected i get it it's what sports fans do i'm i definitely have been guilty of it in the past but it's also a tough spot to be in and the reason you're doing it is because there's not a lot going right for your team yeah and with the jays like it's it's you basically described it there's no there's nothing else to hold on to right now and there's no vladi or bo bichette coming that you can be like okay this guy's

legitimate true stud the true like needle moving guy and going to make an impact and you can actually put some stock into what they're gonna do and maybe they do call up someone who can do that later in the season but odds are it's probably gonna be a lot of these guys for a while and honestly for the whole season for the jays it's kind of been that like davis schneider for me is in that that camp where i'm like he could be fine but why are we putting this much stock into davis schneider or whoever it is so yeah it definitely it's it's hard to kind of like find something to hold on to from the season if you're a jays fan and in baseball it's kind of like unique in that way too because man there's a game every day they play so much and it's just it's so hard

to go through the slog of like okay who's in the lineup today hope i can get pumped about this guy and hopefully he makes an impact the one thing i will say about baseball though is sometimes a guy just kind of comes out of nowhere and does just show up late in the season and then all of a sudden next year he's an impact player too so maybe they are like auditioning guys you find someone who does end up being that i brought up davis schneider he kind of was that last season for the jays and turned into something a little bit more this season but for the most part it's it's these are just guys yeah and that's okay and again that's a you know i know they uh they have the phrase on this show right hearkening back to some of the dark days for the Canucks,

the Sea of Gremlins, right? And that's kind of what it feels like. It's like if you're trying to differentiate between these guys and really get hyped for one, you're kind of missing the forest for the trees. The big picture is, as you said, guys at the level of Bo and Vladdy, who they don't have coming up in the system.

It reminds me a little bit. You go back a few years to the 2019 Jays when they were giving a ton of at-bats to guys like you know like brandon drury right and billy mckinney he's like oh he's this athletic you know if he put if he figures out his hit tool a little bit more he's gonna be really good and it's like these guys are nothing why are we giving so many at-bats why are we watching this so much and again harken back to some of the the darker days for the canucks and it's like why are we giving so much so many at-bats. Why are we watching this so much? And again, harken back to some of the darker days for the Canucks, and it's like, why are we giving so many minutes to Marcus Gremlin? What's happening here?

Remember Josh Levo? Yeah, exactly. Dude, I thought Josh Levo was going to hit. Well, you were just excited about Josh on the team. He had a good name. Josh Levo, also known as The Answer. Yeah, exactly. Ben Hutton, too.

The Franchise. Josh the Franchise Levo?vo yeah i believe that was his nickname um is there you're a jays fan as well so i'll put it to you is there anything that could happen in the remainder of the season for the jays that would like meaningfully change what you think about the team going into next season? Not on the field. Like, it would have to be an extension for Vlade. The Shatter Vlade. And even then, I'd just be like, well, they're on the team next year. And I don't have to spend the winter

wondering if they're going to move them or what's going to happen with them. So, I don't know. There isn't really anything I look at. Even if a guy goes on a major run to end the season here, it's going to be hard to put stock into it especially when teams like it's it's harder in baseball to take a team lightly but it can still happen um it's yeah it's it's gonna be hard yeah I'm trying to like think

of something that would uh get me excited but and it's tough because we've seen it with the Canucks we've seen both you know the late season surge that doesn't mean anything it doesn't carry it all over to next year and then obviously we've seen the opposite with Rick Talkett right where they did make the change and that had a you know a major impact impact on how they started the next season

the Canucks aren't hiring the baseball equivalent of Rick Talkett right they've declined to do that so that's kind of goes to your point if they had made some sort of big off field change maybe then you have a reason to kind of rethink what you're expecting going into next season but as it is it's like okay vladdy had a great year that's kind of in the books right now boba shett's injured there's probably nothing he can do even if he comes back to really change what we think about his season and yeah those are the guys those are the guys that matter more than anybody else on this team.

650, 650. I also wanted to throw this out there. Since we're talking about, you know, Goldobin and everything, who are the guys that you spent way too long believing in? Way too long trying to talk yourself into, you know what? I think if he just gets the right opportunity, he's really going to be something for this team. I think Nikolai Goldobin is the answer for a lot of fans here in Vancouver.

Another guy that comes up immediately to mind, Jack Rathbone. Yeah. People for a long time were like, man, if you just played some games. Yeah, that's a good answer. Jack Rathbone is exactly what we're talking about. This level of player where it's like, again, nothing against the guy. Can he contribute in an NHL organization? Maybe in the perfect circumstances, yes.

But it's just the hype and the interest was driven by the lack of quality around him more than the actual excitement generated by his play in particular. That's a good shout. Pod Colson's kind of getting to that point. Oh, Ben, spicy. You're right, though. Last week. um pod colson's kind of getting to that point bad and spicy yeah you're right last week just like he's kind of flirting with it where it's like are you actually going to be part of this team moving forward where do you fit in you know the exact wording you said there jamie like oh if you play

some games and get some experience like that's going to help him like that that name really jumps forward for as someone on this team who kind of fits that It's a good shout because you look at what they've done, and especially when they signed Daniel Sprung, it's really easy to put a 12-forward lineup together that does not include Vasily Podkolzin. It may be easier to have him out of it. He's going to have to beat out established NHL veterans to get into the lineup, and if you're being completely fair,

he hasn't necessarily shown a lot that that that he's capable of doing that i still like pod coles and game i do think that again i'm i'm like doing the process i'm just talking about but i just got some time but i do think there is a path to him being a contributing nhl player not a star but a contributing nhl player but ben's right like at a certain point you get to this age you get to this you get to this long past your draft season, and the clock starts ticking pretty loudly. I do think Pod Colson's into that stage. Somebody text in Hunter Shankaric.

That's absolutely one for me. And the guy who was traded for is Sven Berchi. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, Sven Berchi. I wasn't as big on him. To be honest. And he was older, so it was harder.

It's not the same, right? That whole run of drafts from Jordan Schrader, who I think was 09, I want to say, or 08, 09. I think he was the one after Hodson through like Brendan Gauntz, Nick Jensen, and then, yeah, Hunter Shankaric. There was a lot of hope for those guys, and it just never, ever panned out. Brendan Gauntz. For any of them. Yeah, Brendan Gauntz, exactly. 650, 650. You can text in. lot of hope for those guys and it just never ever panned out brendan for any of them yeah brendan gantz exactly um 650 650 you can text in who did who did you try to talk yourself into for way too long as a prospect or a young player um okay moving on to the nhl and i mean josh i can't

believe we didn't start the show with this really some of the most momentous earth shattering meaningful news i stopped what i was doing yesterday when i heard this the biggest news in hockey history dropped yesterday that's right the toronto maple leafs are changing captains no longer will john tavaris wear the sea for his hometown leafs austin mat Austin Matthews is taken over. The Leafs are going to announce it officially today, but widely reported yesterday. I believe the press conference is going to be at 8 a.m. Pacific time. So this is always interesting, right?

When a team changes captains like this, early reports say that, you know, Tavares fully on board. He consulted with true living, all of that. But stripping a veteran of the sea is always inherently awkward. There is no unawkward way to do it. And especially in this situation where the Leafs have been desperate for a change of some sort. They made the coaching change. They brought in Craig Berube.

But as much as you can talk to Tavares about it and do everything to get him on board and you know where it is, he's going to be there at the press conference. He's going to be symbolically passing it over to Matthews. You're still fundamentally saying to Tavares, your leadership is lacking and it's been holding us back. Like there is no way to avoid that. That is part of the message. Part of what you're telling a very accomplished player who came to your team in free agency. And right now, Tavares can say you know what look Austin Matthews one of the best players in the league

our most important player you know he's matured now of course we have to give him the C but deep down he's got to know that Brad Treliving is saying you're not cutting it as captain you are one of the reasons we have failed over and over and over again and I'm basically publicly making that known now again i don't it doesn't mean it's going to tank their season but that's got to be a tough pill for john tavaris to swallow as well yeah i mean like it's got to be difficult i don't know if it's a like hey we don't trust you situation or like hey you're you're the reason that or one of the big reasons that this isn't working um it doesn't have to be one of the big reasons but it's

there like you don't make this move unless you think to be one of the big reasons, but you don't make this move unless you think it's one of the reasons that they're failing. I think it's maybe you make this move because you're like, Auston Matthews is clearly the main guy in Toronto, and that's why you do it. The thing I would have...

It was weird when they gave Tavares the C to me personally. I would have just waited, and then Auston Matthews was clearly going to be your guy anyway at a certain point so just wait until you're ready to give it to him um so that's kind of the weird part to me I don't know like I I don't think that when you strip a guy of a C it's awkward for sure but I don't know if this is a situation that you look at and you're like oh this is maybe going to cause cause issues with Tavares and the team or anything like that, I think it's just an awkward moment for sure

that might be weird to get through and might be weird to start the season. But I doubt there's going to be any changes within their locker room or how things operate. Well, that's the thing with the SEAL, which is always fascinating, right, is it seems like it's so much of a bigger deal for everyone observing the team than it is inside of the team. And it's almost the kind of thing where it can create awkward situations like this in a way it doesn't in other sports, right?

Because you think about the NFL. Like, okay, your quarterback's a captain. But then does anybody pay any attention? They have, like, 17 captains. If they change, like, the guy who's the special team's captain going into this anybody pay any attention like they change 17 if they change like the guy who's the you know the special teams captains going into this season nobody's like oh wow is there controversy in the dressing room and often most years it's like hey here are this year's captains yes exactly it's not a year-to-year thing where you're guaranteed to be the captain

next year whereas in hockey it is unique that way but i again at least you have like you can have an a on your jersey and it'll be fine. This one, Keith the Water Guy says, You're wrong. The captaincy in the NHL is kind of meaningless these days. It's based on who is the best player on the team at the moment, not the best captain.

That's from Keith the Water Guy. Well, I disagree that teams are rapidly cycling through captains. You still want, ideally, to choose someone who's going to give you a minimum of five years of service as a captain. cycling through captains you still want ideally to choose someone who's going to give you like a minimum of five years of service as a captain i don't think anyone's setting out and saying like oh well hey we'll just change it to the other best player next year no big deal i do take his point that the captaincy thing is kind of overrated yes the well who was the the panthers captain that was like a fourth liner are you thinking of uh wasn't derek dorsett the

captain no it was uh mckenzie was the captain in columbus as he didn't play much right there was somebody in florida who was also a captain i forget who but it was the guy before barkov and it was like well this guy clearly is not going to be the captain for very long because you are a bottom six player so it's weird what like in situations like that. You will see like transitional captains kind of, yeah, where they're kind of taking care of it until the hot young player steps up and is ready for it. But I think that's a different situation.

And look, I'm not trying to rip Tavares here. Yeah, Derek McKenzie in Columbus. I'm not trying to rip Tavares here. And look, I'm sure he is on board to a certain extent as much as it might sting a little bit to have this happen publicly as well i do think though that the the people who deserve the most questioning and criticism here are leafs management because remember you go back to them losing again in the first round against boston and the messaging from brad trill living was very much no more business as usual.

We are not afraid. We are going to really change things up. They made the coaching change, which is the easiest thing to do in hockey, right? I don't think you get a lot of credit at this point for making a coaching change when what 25 of the 32 coaches have less than two years service. Everyone changes their coach all the time. That's not hard to do. I like the Craig Berube hire for them, but still, there's only so much credit you get for making a coaching change.

And instead of taking any big swings on the roster, instead of figuring out a way to make the Mitch Marner move, doing anything that would really change what this team looked like, it's been business as usual. And so now I think they're kind of trying to pretend that transferring the sea from john tovaris to austin matthews counts as a big change right that that's enough to satisfy their own standard of we're not going to do things like we usually have we know things need to change and that's just ridiculous again like i i agree with the people texting in the captaincy is overrated if you're expecting this move to really move the needle for your team, change the outlook of your team going into the season,

it's just not going to happen. And that speaks, I think, to the failure and the lack of creativity from Leafs management more than anything else. I do agree with that. Going into this offseason, it was like, hey, you have to trade one of these four guys. Obviously, something isn't working right now. Taveras was the obvious option because, A,

this would have made this captaincy switch way easier, and B, he's the oldest of their core four, and he only has a year left on his deal. He probably would have had to eat some of the money, or it would have been a difficult trade to pull off. But that being said, you had to to do something and you didn't do something and even with mitch marner right now like you don't have an extension in place for him you're going into this season kind of like oh what's gonna happen with mitch marner and does it even

matter what happens during the regular season because it he obviously hasn't shown up in the playoffs for them so let's see what happens in the postseason. And I don't know. They're a weirdly operated team. Yeah, they are. That feels like they kind of buy into the hype of being the biggest market. So they look at their players and they kind of overvalue those players to an extent as well. And I do think that could be their downfall here though that being said

you look at the the moves they made like you bring in chris tannev you gave him a lot of term and you bring in oliver eckman larson too and though i like have my issues with those contracts i do think they're going to be an overall better team though still i'm not like hey this is a cap or this is a cup favorite team yeah and again it's not changing no one's changing their pre-season projections of the leafs because they made this change right do you imagine i'm like hey you know what all right they're gonna win the cup now guys tavaris he was the problem i will say the the repeated process of running it back in toronto it does really make me appreciate one of the big strengths of Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alvin, which is their willingness to take big swings, right?

Their refusal to just sit on their hands. They are always looking to make that deal, to find that move, which can help their team. And with the Leafs example in particular, I think of the Bo Horvat deal. That's a really tough trade to make. And I know we, you know, we had talked about it a lot. We probably all saw it coming, the circumstances of the team and the way he was scoring, the rejected contract offer, but you still traded your captain mid-season, right? That's a really difficult move to make in a Canadian market. And I think it came from a recognition that sometimes you just have to

shuffle the deck, right? Is it a, was it a perfect trade? I like the trade, but there's always things you can nitpick and say, Oh, well, maybe they could have done this better. Or, you know, they could have set themselves up in a different way. But that doesn't matter, you have to be willing to actually make the move and to change things up. And I think it's especially difficult to do in a Canadian market when there is always going to be so much criticism and so much blowback if things go wrong and i think that's one of the things that has really paralyzed the leafs is they're they're constantly second guessing them second guessing themselves and worried about the worst case scenario in a potential move and you just look at it like when was the last time another canadian team made a move as bold as the horvat deal you could point

to like the matthew kachuk trade in Calgary, but that was driven by him. They didn't choose to do that. He basically said, trade me or I'm going to leave in a year. So I don't really give Trey Living a lot of credit for doing that deal in Calgary. It's tough to find examples of Canadian teams really being willing to take bold swings like they have. The Senators have certainly made a lot of moves that have kind of felt like bold swings,

but obviously haven't worked out, and also have not been nearly to the level of the Boa Horvat train. The Kachuk one is probably the most obvious example, because even then, it still takes guts to move a guy, especially when he's as talented as Matthew Kachuk. And at the time, I think we were all like,

hey, this is a good trade. It worked out. And then it definitely did not work out. But that being said, it still took guts to make that trade. And I would have liked to see, even just from a casual fan's point of view, a big change with the Maple Leafs, just because it would have been fun.

It would have been entertaining. Yeah, like a Mitch Marner trade, I would have wanted to blow up in their face so bad it would have been so fun but here we are it's fine but i feel like that's why they don't do it because they know there's people out there waiting for it to blow up in their face but usually they shouldn't care about that they shouldn't care about us or everyone rooting for them to fail yeah exactly they should be like no screw you guys're going to do the deal and it's going to work. And then you're going to have to deal with it. Instead, they're scared of taking that big swing. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. It's Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd, Josh Elliott-Wolf filling in for Halford & Brough. This week, Halford & Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. This hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste.

Primetime Craft Beer is full flavor without compromise at a liquor store near you. Or visit the brewery to see how it's made we are coming to you live from the kintec studio kintec canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star google reviews sore feet what are you waiting for kintec that is what you're waiting for and all of a sudden what we've been waiting for the nhl isL is awash with news. The Leafs are making a change at captain. The Edmonton Oilers have been targeted by not one but two offer sheets from the

St. Louis Blues. So lots going on with Canadian teams in the NHL all of a sudden and joining us to talk about that from Sportsnet, he is Ryan Dixon. Ryan, thank you for doing this today. How are you? My pleasure. I'm well. How are you guys? We're doing well. We're really, really excited about some actual hockey NHL content here on August 13th. You know, the Olympics were great. Now they're over.

We didn't know what we were going to talk about, so the NHL is doing us a solid. Let's start with the news this morning. The St. Louis Blues making use of the rarely seen double offer sheet, targeting a pair of young players from Edmonton, from the Edmonton Oilers, Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg. What's your kind of instant reaction to this news this morning? Well, yeah, it's like Doug Armstrong wanted to make up for the fact that we always complain about how no one ever dug this and said, you know what?

The hell with it. I'm not doing one. I'm doing two. Here comes the double um it's interesting because i think we often talk about it in the context of going after big stars but you know it's a hefty price to pay if you're going to you know if you're going to offer someone for you know what would come in at a whatever seven eight million deal annually, you do kind of wonder if the better way to flex it is something like this where you target

two guys who are on the fringes of a really good roster, who are young, first-round pedigree, haven't fully found their place on that team, and, oh, by the way, that team has gigantic

cap and contract questions to address this summer and next summer with, you know, the best player in the world and maybe the, you know, whatever, third or fourth best player in the world. That's where you do wonder if you can wedge in there and do something. And obviously the Blues wonder if they can and believe they can. So, I mean, St. Louis is, in the past couple of years, they've really become a team I look at and go, I just, St. Louis is, in the past couple of years,

they've really become a team I look at and go, I just don't really know what they're doing. So I like this. I like that it provides a little direction. I like that it's kind of, you know, in a sense, picking a lane. Neither one of these players are necessarily, you know, if St. Louis was to land, I'm going to completely alter their fate. But I like the bets, that's for sure.

It tells me a little bit that the Blues are you know they're they're obviously still trying to target guys who are can help them now and and believe they can grow with the Blues and that they're trying to climb back into the playoff picture because like I said they just felt like they were quickly slipping into that sort of no man's land for me. And this is a clear, strong move on the part of that organization. And, you know, now Edmonton, who by and large, if you take the, you know, if you take the Leon Dreisaitl potential extension out of the equation, that obviously hasn't happened yet. I mean, I think we've been talking about it in terms of adding players as a pretty successful offseason for the Oilers. You know, not long after going to the final, going to the final game of the final and losing in Game 7,

they had Jeff Skinner and they had Victor Arvidsson, two guys who in different ways and in bigger ways seemed like very good bets for the Oilers in terms of what they paid. And now all of a sudden they've got to deal with this. So, I mean, is it going to break their back if they lose Broberg, if they lose Holloway? Like, you know, you could say not necessarily, but those are important guys for a team that obviously needs to supplement

around the megastars and around the huge contract that has to hand out. So it's spicy. It is. I don't know how many combined NHL games Holloway and Broberg the megastars and around the huge contracts it has to hand out so it's spicy it is for for you know i i don't know how many combined nhl games holloway and and bro we're gonna play probably less than 150 but um even considering that it is uh it's a it's an attention grabbing move and like i said we usually don't see these rfa sheets well look at that man st louis just not only one but doubled down and the the interesting part of all

of this is is how edmonton is going to navigate this and their cap because you look at it and there are routes to maybe matching dylan holloway but matching both of them kind of feels like it would be a difficult task and it's hard to see where you would remove from edmonton's roster to to fit both of these guys in when you look at it is do you think that Edmonton's roster to fit both of these guys in. When you look at it, do you think that Edmonton is going to find a way to get both of these matched, or could you see one or both of them walking to St. Louis? I truthfully haven't really looked hard, hard, hard at the cap situation just yet, but you're right.

When you think of the odds of being able to match both, seem pretty tough. Like, you know, as you said, I think maybe they can do it for Holloway, but when you examine the back end, I just don't know, you know, with Bouchard now on the final year of basically a $4 million cap

that's going to go through the roof next year, Bouchard now on the final year of basically a $4 million cap hit that's going to go through the roof next year. And knowing there's a huge raise, they hope, coming for Dreisaitl next year. I mean, he's got to be in line to be adding, I mean, $5 million to his cap hit. How much is Bouchard going to add from $4 million? I mean, they're going to be adding a huge amount.

So even with the cap going up in the next couple years, my guess is one of these guys, probably Broberg, winds up on the Blues. Yeah, and Broberg, you know, this deal, if they matched it, he would all of a sudden be the third highest paid guy on their blue line behind Darnell Nurse and Matias Eklund, who are also left-shot guys. So, I mean, all of a sudden, you're committing so much money down the left side of your blue line.

I do think you're right that the most challenging part of this, from Edmonton's perspective, it might not be making everything work this year, right? I think if they were really motivated, they could probably find a way to keep everyone together and stay loaded up for another shot at the Stanley Cup for this season. But when you look at what they're going to have to do to pay Leon Dreisaitl, to pay Evan Bouchard next season, you know,

you've still got Darnell Nurse and Ekholm and Evander Kane on the salary cap sheet for next season. It just becomes really, really difficult to see a way for them to keep both guys considering what they're going to have to get done next summer. Yeah, exactly. I mean, we all knew coming into the summer, the biggest question would be, could they hammer out an extension for Dreisaitl? Because you know that is probably a two-for-one as well. Because if Dreisaitl's putting his name on an eight-year extension,

you know that means he's talked to McDavid, and this is something they have sketched out together, and you have to believe it's a strong, strong indication that McDavid would follow suit, maybe at a different number, but would follow suit next summer. But, yeah, I mean, when you look at what a bargain Tricetal has been at 8.5 or whatever it is in that neighborhood, I mean, considering he's probably now going to come in at 13 and a half 14 if this gets done you know that that's a huge spike from there and and again

with with uh bouchard probably looking to add about four or five to his aav again that's right starting 2025 26 we just added about 10 million in cap hit right there to keep those two vital guys and you kind of have to do it because of who they are. But there's going to be a squeeze and the Oilers are used to feeling the squeeze. But, you know, just when they figured out a formula to get enough around the edges to go all the way to the Stanley Cup final, you know, two guys who they probably did, you know, pencil in as players who were going to be able to supplement the core for a while now it's that's that's looking way more tenuous you kind

of mentioned it but the the blues are like a weird team i kind of just don't know what direction they're heading and they they kind of feel like they're just stuck in the middle and i don't really know if this uh even if they they get both Broberg and Holloway I don't know if that changes where they are at can you see them like even being a playoff team this year like when you look at the central I can't see them being better than the Stars or Avalanche Jets and then you can throw the Predators in there who got better too like it's a it's a big uphill battle to make the playoffs in the Western Conference this year and and what do

you think about the Blues and their chances to fit within that picture? Yeah, I definitely think they'd be up against it to crack that top eight. I mean, again, as you noted, the Central, is Nashville a true cup contender? I don't know, but certainly they're a team that you would expect to get back into the playoffs after still making it last year before going out and getting Sam Coase and Marcia Schell. And we'll see how those moves look three, four years down the road. But for now, it looks pretty good. I mean, you just have to play the game of who's coming out, right?

This time of year, you look at teams and you say, oh, I like what they've done. And you just kind of, it's almost a figure of speech to be like, I think they're going to make the playoffs. Well, let's remember, only eight still make it. That's the rules. Only eight make it. And when I look at the eight that made it last year in the Western Conference,

the only two that I look at and think, all right, if they didn't make it, you know, I wouldn't necessarily be surprised. I mean, Winnipeg's had a tough year. Let's be real. They lost the second-line center in Monaghan. That really helped. And I think there's a room for a step back there. Now, granted, they got 110 points last year.

So even a small step back maybe puts you at that 99-100 point range. But Winnipeg is one of the eight teams I look at and think, you know, I can see them battling it out. And then the other one's LA because, you know, I just don't know exactly what that organization has been. Well, I guess I do know what they've been doing. They've been trying to go all in, but it just hasn't been working. They haven't found the goaltending yet. And I'm not convinced they found it with Kemper.

The Dubois move obviously didn't work. They were able to cover their tracks a bit, but still, I mean, haven't found the goaltending yet and i'm not convinced they found it with kemper the dubois move obviously didn't work they were able to cover their tracks a bit but still i mean this is a team that needed to get better and and i don't think it has so maybe especially if kemper can't be the guy la flips out so you know at most you're looking at two spots to climb into could st louis get in there i mean they were within spitting distance last year, but the Minnesota Wilds are probably going to be better. Heck, Utah is probably going to be heard from and

could be pushing into that. I mean, I could see them making a 20-point jump just on vibes alone now that that situation has settled. They have some good players there, and they were in a playoff spot basically until the All-Star break when it just kind of, you know, the reality of reality of the situation i think just hit everyone and the bottom fell out so you know again i will say i think st louis was you know in that danger of not really

picking a lane and and you know not actively trying to to rebuild which i will say that you know it's tough to take a team that is fairly competitive and does have good young players like Kairou and Thompson and say, oh, we're going to tear it down. But also it was hard to see a path to them rising up and being the team we saw three or four years ago and obviously winning the Cup in 19. That was a true contender.

Again, I don't think these guys are true, true, you know, going to change the course of your franchise, but it gives you some indication that, you know, what they're after is young guys who aren't going to help three, four years from now. These are guys they think can help right now. And, you know, I will say when you look at the Blues goaltending combination, I do think, you know, Hoffer's a guy who I wouldn't be surprised

if we're talking about in December, January, oh, this guy's, you know, really taking a leap. Oh, by the way, maybe let's put this guy's name in for the Four Nations Cup for Team Canada because we know that goaltending competition is wide open. You know, he's at that age and has shown enough that I wouldn't be shocked to see him kind of assert himself as a guy who can be a real 1-1A. And obviously Binnington's a veteran there who's been up and down

but was pretty good last year. So they have a bit of a foundation there. But still, I think, yeah, I could see them getting a wild-card spot, but I think it's still an uphill battle. And there's definitely six, seven teams right off the hop that you still have ahead of them in the West. We're talking NHL with Sportsnet's Ryan Dixon here on Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650. And Ryan, the other big news before this morning's offer sheet news and drama from St. Louis and Edmonton, of course, was that reports out there the Leafs are going to make a change.

John Tavares no longer will be captain. Austin Matthews will take over wearing the C for the Leafs. Press conference scheduled to announce that tomorrow. In your opinion, why do you think the Leafs have decided to make this move at this time? I mean, I think it was, if not a long time coming, certainly there was chatter right out of the, you know, right out of the chute in the offseason that this was something that could come.

I mean, it's easy to look at this and say they're phasing out Tavares because he has one year left on his deal and can become a UFA at that point and obviously isn't a player he once was. You know, Toronto obviously has two huge homegrown or or you know hometown boys i guess somewhat air quotes in terms of marner and tavarez who have been fantastic players who are at different points in their careers and who can in theory leave town for nothing next summer and there's been a lot of chatter around both, specifically Marner.

Just keeping the focus on Tavares here, I will be curious to see how things go down the road because he's become a real good example of the conversation you have around Tavares as an $11 million player is way different than you would have if he's someone who's coming in at a cat figure of say half of that. He's still a very good player.

He clearly desperately wants to stay in Toronto and win in Toronto. He is, you know, I think by all rights or all reports, you know, quite willing to graciously step aside and, you know, help sow the seed on the player. Everyone knows is the epicenter of what Toronto does. I'll just be watching close to see if things do go pretty well for Chavarra this year on the ice. You know, the Leafs have had this stream of guys come in

at the end of their career in the last little while and play for quite under-market value deals, or certainly for money. They could have gotten way more of somewhere else, but they wanted to play for the least. They grew up in Ontario or in and around Toronto, and they wanted to try and win here. Well,

Tavares is quickly becoming some version of that. As he hits his mid 30s, it's not going to be Mark Giordano playing on the minimum or Jason Spezza playing on the minimum or close to it, but he's probably a guy who you could look at and say, you know, I think he's 34 right now. Like if Joe Pavelski, who Lord knows, wasn't much of a, of a blazer out there, could still be an effective player with his vision and touch and goal scoring

ability and, and, and playmaking until basically he was 40 like I still think John Devarus could be a really good hockey player for two three maybe four more seasons so will this be the first step in what just kind of redefines his relationship with the Leafs and you know whether it's in season or even next summer like put it this way whereas I feel like we're sort of inching towards a world where it's quite conceivable even next summer like put it this way whereas i feel like we're sort of inching towards a world where it's quite conceivable that mitch marner could leave for nothing next year i still kind of wonder if tavarez he might become a ufa but might wind up becoming a guy who sticks around and is here for the first you know portion of matthews being the captain so um i i know again

the early reports seem to be that Tavares is fully on board. I believe he's going to be at the press conference tomorrow where they sort of do the ceremonial handoff. But it'll be really interesting to see what his future holds in Toronto and, again, how his relationship to the organization will kind of evolve from, you know, the huge free agent, big ticket guy that they brought home, who they then gave the seed to, to lead a younger group. And now as he moves through his 30s, what can he become if, in fact,

there is, you know, a way to extend this relationship with the team he very clearly wants to spend the rest of his career with. From the outside looking in, it felt like there was a lot of pressure on the Leafs to kind of make this big fundamental change and make a big trade, whether it was Mitch Marner or trying to move someone to just shake up what was happening with the Leafs. Did they make enough change over the offseason for you to have a different perception of what they're going to be this season um i don't think you can i mean it's certainly not a night and day um the blue line's better there's no two ways about it and that's been you know an achilles

heel and the goaltending is just a complete x factor because when wall plays he's really good and he's right at the age where you'd expect the goalie to hit 24, 25. I mean, when he's in there, they're, they're a tough team to beat, but he's had trouble staying in there. The Marner move, you know, if they were going to do it, everyone knew they had to do it last summer and they just couldn't get there. And, you know, they had a GM change last year. So maybe that wasn't the time to do it,

but once it flipped to July one and he had no trade protection and now knew that he was 12 months away from being able to go wherever he wanted to should it come to that there just really wasn't going to be a deal to make so I mean if you take you know, if you remove from the equation that there probably never really was, at least this summer, a chance to make that Marner move, unless you were willing to go scorched earth and just make it as absolutely uncomfortable for the player as possible. And I think you can seriously question whether that would have been the right approach like do you truly believe this is a like we have to get a divorce at all costs from this player at the risk of like poisoning our room and alienating other players on the team or do you say we are where we are and the all the leverage lands with the player and and his agent who's you know as as uh sports net elliot friedman was saying uh all along you know this is a guy in Ferris who typically guides his players to the open market. I mean, I just don't think there ever really was a strong, strong possibility, no matter how many fake trades I came up with, that Werner was going to be in a real trade.

So, I mean, I think the Leafs are a better team. They're certainly no sure thing. They're certainly not a tier one contender, but they're still a roster I look at and go, well, would I be shocked if this team made the conference final or the final? I mean, if the goaltending is there, if Wall can stay healthy,

yeah, I absolutely think they can with a little bit more experience and grit on the back end. I mean, again, is the Tanev deal one you look at and go, wow, that's, you know, that's great value. Not necessarily, but it's a good cap hit. And, you know, what kind of player Tanev is going to be four years from now

has been a huge concern for a team that has not been able to get any playoff success of note for now pushing upwards of 10 years. They desperately need it this year, next year. They need it now. And, you know, that Tannett signing was consistent with that. And, you know, it helps. There's no question he's going to help what they have back there. So, I mean, again, I don't see them as a tier one contender.

I don't know how anyone could say that given, you know, the precedent that exists for them not being able to come through when it matters, but there's still a lot of talent there. I also look at the Atlantic and, you know, the Panthers have been to the final two straight years. Like, would you be shocked if they took a little step back? Tampa Bay, I mean, actually, I kind of like what Tampa's done and think you could make a case for them to

bounce back, but, you know, there's obviously like what Tampa's done and think you could make a case for them to bounce back. But, you know, there's obviously not what they once were. I mean, Boston just finds a way to chug along. But, you know, the Leafs have never won this division. I do wonder if maybe this is the year that at least they could win the regular season and get home ice for whatever that's worth and maybe a little bit of positive momentum that way. But, listen, everyone who is calling for bloody murder after they lost again in the first round,

clearly that bloodlust wasn't satisfied. And you could say, you know, this is window dressing to distract from that or what have you. There was no, I really don't think there was a world where they were going to be able to move Tavares or Mitch Marner so they did what they could do on the back end and they're taking a gamble in goal and you know inherent to that is it might work it might blow up in their face like we really don't know but if it plays out in the crease the way they hope I think they're going to be a very very

competitive team that come playoff time should have a chance to, to do some damage, but you know, thus far we have not seen it from this team. And I don't blame anyone for saying, I'll believe it when I see it. Ryan, really appreciate the time today. You know,

when we booked you, we were thinking, I'm going to look ahead to the four nations. And then all of a sudden there's this, there's this torrid of NHL news. So glad we had you on. Thanks for doing this. All right.

Anytime. That is Ryan Dixon from Sportsnet covering the NHL. news so glad we had you on thanks for doing this all right anytime uh that is ryan dixon from sportsnet covering the nhl you're listening to the best of halford and brough