Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 8/26/25

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the latest off-season NHL news with Sportsnet hockey writer Luke Fox, they look at the Canucks prospects pipeline and where it ranks around the league, plus the boys rank youth sports from a parenting perspective. 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 3-2 on the win of Cal, swinging a ball, deep to left field, headed to the upper deck, stay fair, Outperked at goodbye baseball number 50 for Cal Raleigh. First pitch, and Annanis jumps on it, and he sends this one on a rocket to right field. It's gone.

Solo shot for Mr. Bumblehead. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It's Halford. It is rough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Ada, good morning to you. Good morning. And Liddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks.

Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are coming live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in Step. Got a lot to get into on the program today on a Tuesday. Guest list today begins at 630. Hannah Kaiser is going to join the program. Freelance baseball writer with a recent piece for the New York Times titled How Fast Should Your 12-year-old Throw? And the answer is 78.

At a minimum, you loser. Why are you not at 80 yet? This is actually kind of a dovetail off the conversation we've had, not just yesterday, but a lot because we're both involved in youth sports. It's a baseball story that Hannah wrote, but it's also a parenting story. We don't go back to a simpler time in youth sports anymore. Everything's about more training and more coaching and more specialization and more money. I'm making the money sign with my hands.

And that's kind of what this entire article is about. She spent a lot of time writing it for the New York Times. So I'm excited to talk to her at 6.30 this morning. And it's about the risk of pushing your kid to throw harder and harder in baseball and the injuries that are associated with it. But I think, like Halford says, this is almost a story about, All of youth sports these days because a lot of the reasons that these kids are throwing harder and harder is because they've got private coaches telling them how to do it and pushing them and the coaches are aware that there are injury risks. But in a lot of the cases, the kids just want to throw harder because it's cool.

And honestly, there's a social media contingent to it too, right? Like, I'm going to put my numbers out there and compare them to others. So we're going to talk to Han at 6.30 about her most recent piece in the New York Times. And then at 7.30, we're going to probably have a larger scale of conversation about one of our favorite subjects. And that's youth sports as they currently exist. 7 o'clock this morning, Luke Fox is going to join the program. NHL writer from SportsNet. There's still six RFAs out.

They're twisting in the wind, still unsigned. The two big ones, obviously, both have connections to the Vancouver Canucks. Luke Hughes in New Jersey, Mason McTavish in Anaheim. And we can also talk to Luke about what's gone on lately with the Toronto Maple Leafs. A lot of people and his former teammates of Mitch Marner reminiscing about his time in Toronto. So we'll talk to Luke about all that at 7 o'clock. At 8 o'clock, Giulio Caravetta is going to join the program. He, of course, is one half of the BC Lions' play-by-play team with the Moj.

Even more breakdown of the Lions' 52 to 34 loss in Toronto. Over the weekend, we'll look ahead to what lies for the Lions into their biweek before they come out with back-to-back games against Ottawa. So working in reverse on that guest list. 8 o'clock, it's Julio Carabetta. 7 o'clock, it's Luke Fox, 630, Hannah Kaiser for a little baseball talk and use sports talk. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happens.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it?

You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by? The BC Construction. Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online at B-C-C-S-A.com.C-S-A.com. So Laddie started off the intro with some big dumper highlights. And then as we were talking, I realized that we're going to start with baseball, but not with the Toronto Blue Jays. We're going to start with the Seattle Mariners. And people say, you know, we're married to our corporate overlords. Uh-uh. You know, we're making the executive. decision to go with the Seattle Mariners because of what happened.

We've just lost the radio feed, by the way. We've just completely cut out. Not on the air anymore. Is that Green Day? What's going on here? Cal Rally hit his major league leading 50th home run yesterday. Jorge Polanco drove in for the Mariners be one of the best teams in the National League, the San Diego Padres, 9 to 6 on Monday night in Seattle. Now, this is what Lattie, this was the important thing that you did, is you told me we're not

going to play the call that I sent along. You instead found the Rick Riz call on the radio last night. Love Rick Riz. Cal Rally's historic home run. Here's what it sounded like last night. The big dumper goes yard for his MLB leading 50th home run of the year. The three to other win of Cal. Swinging a well hit ball. Deep to left field. Head into the upper deck. Stay fair. Upper deck. Goodbye baseball. Number 50 for Cal Raleigh. He becomes one of all. Only 33 members of the 50 home run club. And he reaches the upper deck like he did with home run number 48 yesterday.

49. He crushed off the out of town scoreboard. And the magical season just continues for Cal Raleigh. Holy smokes, what a shot. So we have been... It's going to be sad when Aaron Judge wins the MVP. Okay. So there's a conversation we have. Ladi and I were having this conversation, too.

I looked at a couple of the betting markets this morning. Judge is still the favorite. Judge is still the favorite. And it's interesting because yesterday at MLB.com, they pulled, I think it was about 50 of their riders. And Rally got the quote unquote votes from the writers, but by a narrow margin on MLB.com. So it is a tight race, right? I mean, the odds. It is, it is a tight race.

And I put it this way. I understand why Judge is firmly in the mix and in the betting markets in the lead. He had an unbelievable towards. start to the first half of the season. He still leads the majors in a lot of categories. And as you astutely pointed out, maybe it's the batting average that's going to end up edging him over Cal Rally. Has it ever been an MVP that's hit under 250?

I don't think there has. Yeah, I know. And judges at 323, which is very impressive these days. Now, you suggested earlier that, you know, the catchers traditionally have like never really been MVP candidates for a myriad of reasons. I kind of think that this should be. in his favor going forward this year. Like if you talk to anyone in that Mariner's clubhouse

and I was watching some video last night, the guys say like he plays beat up and banged up all the time. And he's not just playing well in spite of the, you know, physical stress of the position. What he's doing is historic. So right now he and Mickey Mantle, like let's put this in perspective. There's two switch hitters in AL history to have hit 50 home runs. Cal Rally and Mickey Mantle.

That is pretty elite company to be in. And I think he's the only one that's got more than 20 home runs from each side. Yeah. And eighth player in MLV history to get to 50 home runs while the calendar is still in August. So we're talking about a historic season that he's having here. When I put that up against Judge, who's having a great year, I just kind of feel like this might be the year where you have to recognize what he's done. And by the way, I am, you're still not sold.

No, well, I just, I don't think you can lower the standards. just because he's a catcher. You can't put him higher just because of the position that he... Well, listen to me for a second. Yeah, I'm listening. In hockey, if toll on your body was taken into account, would a goalie not be up at the top for MVP every year? I love how you...

I knew you were going that direction. Well, no, but that's the angle you're taking here. I know. And the thing would be is that I think he would end up probably having the lowest batting average of an MVP in MLB history. By quite a wide margin, I would think. He's under 250, right? That's something that you have to consider.

Whatever the case. I am very, very excited at the prospect of a postseason where we've got the Mariners who aren't quite there yet, but they're looking good. And this is a not necessarily a pivotal series in terms of the standings because it's interleague play. But Padreys are a good team. Potters are one of the five 70 plus win teams in the National League.

They've got big bats across the line. We've got a good bullpen. So the Mariners, you know, getting that series off on the right foot and winning that one, that's a big one for them. Is there a potential for a Mariners, Yankees, wildcard series? Yeah, which would be pretty great, right? Having the two MVP candidates going, like, head to head there, that'd be pretty awesome. Judge goes crazy in the series.

Everyone's like, wow, he is good. We should change our votes. Is it too late to go back? So that was the first half of the baseball story yesterday. Mariner's beat up on the Padres and Cal Rally goes for 50. The other one yesterday, obviously, the Toronto Blue Jays. Max Scher goes six, wins his third straight start. Alejandro Kirk and Andreas Jimenez on Jimenez Bobblehead night, both Homer.

Jays beat the twins, 10, 4 on Monday night. Let's hear the call from Dan Shulman on the men as Baumannas bomb, which made it 5-0 and stood up as the game-winning run for the Jays who went on to win 10 to 4. Crouts, and he gets into one, and this ball is gone. Have yourself a night. He got every bit of that, and on his bubblehead night, he hits it out, should make it five to nothing. So Jays are now 132 games played of 162 this year.

They got 30 games left in the season. They're making the playoffs. They're at 99.8 or maybe even 99.9% likelihood to make it right now. Five games up on the Sox for the best record in the ALE East. One game back of Detroit for the best record in the AAL. Five games back in Milwaukee for the best record in baseball. All this adds up to a team where I'm trying to start to look ahead. and see how realistic it is for them to be a legitimate World Series contender.

Because I think a lot of people think this is a good, solid baseball team in the regular season. But I don't know how many people are picking them to be a legitimate World Series contender right now. Laddie, who's your MVP of the Jays? And where would that player rank in the league? Man, it's so tough because you look at the, even like the war leaderboard on the Jays. I think a crappi. Vladdy's up there. Yeah, but it's mainly because of his walks and getting on base and not because of the power.

I don't know if there's a singular person. Springer was, I think, my shot earlier in the season. He was great. He was great. But he wasn't carrying the team. There isn't a single player I think you can point to other than maybe the pitching staff as a whole. They've been pretty good. Everyone's been pretty good.

That's just how it's been this year, right? What would you rather have a team like that or a team? that's carried by a few real stars. You want the one, like, especially in baseball, you want the one player in the moment. Yeah. But I think overall you'd rather have the solid top-to-bottom team. I like the way that they're constructed now

because they play better baseball. Like they make fewer mistakes, they make fewer hours, they play better defense. They do everything at a higher level than they have in years past, where especially when it came down to singular crunch moments in the playoffs,

they'd kind of puke all over themselves, right? Especially the base running against the twins was the one we were talking about yesterday. So, like, yesterday was a good example of what the Jays are kind of about. It was like the Jimenez show, right? Like, I know he went yard, but he also, he had two hits on the night, got a walk, stole a base. Known for his glove, but, yeah, right.

But that's a thing, right? It's like they get different guys stepping up all the time. And while those guys maybe don't have the consistency, the team has that consistency where it's always someone else putting forth one of these really good individual performances. I think it bodes well for the playoffs, but again, I go back to what we were talking about yesterday. You need more of the singular power at bats, I feel, in the playoffs.

And they just don't, they manufacture runs more than they blast runs, if that makes sense. I know I'm putting this down to like the most basic terminology imaginable, but I wonder if that's going to cost them in the postseason. Well, I mean, the most important thing for them right now is to clinch that buy, get past the wild card and let some pretty good teams battle it out. Well, you want home field, too. Well, that's the other. Look at their road record.

It's 500, so they want that home field advantage. You know, I have to say, when I'm watching that big dumper homer yesterday, too many empty seats in Seattle. I know. Jays are playing in front of 41,000 yesterday. It's loud. It's raucous. The twins broadcasts, all they could talk about was how full of Jay's buildings and how amazing

that sounded. In the atmosphere in there. Yeah. Now, that's interesting because another thing to consider is that if you can get home field advantage throughout enough of the plus, like they've won 30 of their last. 39 games at home. And throughout the year, they've shown, like, it's a tough place to play. They do well at home.

The other thing that we should consider is that they've had a really good run of health. Like, injury-wise, this year, I know, like, Varsho and Santanderer missed time, but outside of that, like, the pitching staff has been relatively healthy. That was another point I wanted to make. When you have a team that's built like this, where you have players contributing all through the lineup, it doesn't really matter if one guy goes down. Like, Springer just went down for, you know, a couple weeks. So it didn't even make a blip on how the J.

as we're doing. Vladdy heard his hamstrass. Gladdy's been out the last couple of games. He just got back in there. Okay, I do want to turn our attention now to the National Football League. It was a very busy day yesterday. So today is NFL roster cut down day. So there's going to be a lot of news as well. But yesterday,

I cannot believe the amount of time and effort and energy that the entire world has spent about the third and fourth string quarterback situation in Cleveland. But we're going to do it again. We're going to do it again. So yesterday, the Cleveland Browns traded Kenny Pickett,

to the Las Vegas Raiders. We'll get to the Raiders side of this story in a second, but the bigger story now is what it does to the Cleveland Browns quarterback room, most specifically, Shadur Sanders. So Pickett was supposed to be the number two in Cleveland. He goes to Vegas. What it means is that Joe Flacco is still the starter. Dylan Gabriel is still going to be the number two.

What does it mean for Shadur Sanders? I've got some audio here from Tony Grossi from ESPN in Cleveland, talking about what it means for that number three spot and what it means specifically for Shadirr Sanders. Sanders and that number three spot, which is basically a roster spot at this point. Here's Tony Grosey from ESP and Cleveland on the latest for the Browns quarterback room. Now, what does this mean about QB3? Will the Browns trust Shador Sanders in that role?

Or might they bring back Tyler Huntley? I don't know. But they feel their incompetent hands with Joe Flacco, who's an Iron Man. and Dylan Gabriel, again, who has proven he's advanced enough to start his rookie season as a number two quarterback. Here's how I want this to play out. I'm listening. I want the Browns to be really good, but only if it's Joe Flacco, bawling out a quarterback at 40 years old, keeping both young guys on the sidelines.

how amazing would that be? I would love to see it. Flacco's hilarious. He's so old. He's so old. Even for the standards of the earth, he's old. I mean, he will be for, you know, in January, he will be 41 years old when I know the playoffs will be on and the Browns will probably not be in them, but he'll be 41 years old. And the fact that he's been called off the couch and basically had a retirement to revive his career and all that stuff is great.

I have a really hard time seeing him thrive. Yeah, me too. I have a really hard time. That's why I want to see it. But I also have a really hard time seeing him stay healthy. Yeah. I know that Tony Grossey called him an Iron Man there. And I was like, he played like six games last year for the Colts.

And like, good on him for getting through it. But it is remarkable, though, the amount of time that this is a radio show in Vancouver that has no particular affiliation with the Cleveland Browns, aside from sat liking them. and the amount of time that we've talked about Shudor Sanders, the potential third quarterback on what's going to be one of the worst teams in the NFL, it's remarkable, but it speaks to, one, the ecosystem

in the NFL, but the power that brand, that surname, and what Dion and him built at Colorado and what it has now. And also just how they go about their business, I think. Right. And it's a foregone conclusion that if he makes the roster, he's going to be the third quarterback. So again, we are talking about the three, the QB3 on one of the

worst teams in the NFL. Don't forget, you got the president in the United States involving himself in this discussion as well because Dion is a supporter of him. Right? Yeah. And I think there's just, I mean, there's probably some people in the culture wars that are a little bit confused here. Like, is this a race thing or is this a mega thing? I don't know which direction to go here. I don't know what's going on here. Which side is the woke side? I don't even know anymore. I'm so confused. Okay. So I mentioned that the Las Vegas Raiders had to go out and get a backup quarterback. Do they go to Cracker Barrel? Yeah. Why did they change it? Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I need someone to tell me. So the Raiders yesterday were super busy. They got a new backup quarterback because

Aiden O'Connell has hurt. And I've been paying close attention to this story because they've got such ties to the Seattle Seahawks with Pete Carroll now as their head coach and Gino Smith now as their quarterback. So their number one receiver, Jacoby Myers. I'm going to bang through this as quick as we can here. He wants a trade out of Vegas. Coles notes versions or he's in the last year of his deal. He's their leading receiver. Like so many guys that are coming to the end of their contracts and want to get paid with the risk of getting hurt and no contract certainty, he's like, pay me. I'm your best player. So the Raiders responded by signing free agent wide receiver on Marie Cooper. Now, I don't know if this was to strengthen the wide receiving group or whether

it was a panic move to make sure that they were, you know, not going to have any good receivers if Myers was eventually to get his trade requests filled. Whatever the case, it's not great for Pete Carroll going into his first year on the job with the Raiders. They've got Gino Smith, who say what you will about his ability to, like, lead a team to real title contention, which I don't think he's capable of. He still puts up really good numbers in the regular season, right? He's good for about...

What would you say the big weaknesses with Gino, just the big mistake? Yeah. Make some dumb plays. He does. I mean, his red zone decisions were tough. There was a lot of blame. Whenever the offense didn't go right, it always felt like it was a Gino issue. Even though the offensive line was horrific and he was running for his life half the time.

And they went through offensive coordinators with pretty good regularity. And D.K. Metcalf was clearly an issue, both on the field and then with his attitude. So I think when history. is kind of retold later. I do wonder if we're going to look back on that time. He's like, you know, Gino was actually a way better quarterback than everyone giving credit for his time in Seattle. And the other two deals yesterday they got done in the NFL.

Trey Hendrickson, one of the best pass rushers in football. He got an extension. So his hold in, that's a very NFL term. That's where you show up and you go through all the work, but you don't really do it all that hard. It's kind of like what we do every morning. Right, yeah, yeah. We've been holdings for a lot.

Yeah, that sounds super familiar. Yeah. Holding in for years here. We have not, however, gotten any sort of pay raise. Trey Hendrickson got $14 million for it. So he is now back and good on the Bengals for getting all of these contractual situations that kind of hung over them for the majority of the preseason and the exhibition campaigns done with. They're a really interesting team.

I went and looked today. And speaking of quarterbacks that are getting old, Joe Burrow is going to turn 30 this season. Yeah. He's going to turn 30 in December. His body will turn 48. That's, I mean, you look at a guy who has had a really tough go at the start of an NFL career that was late getting bloom because he spent so long in college.

He's in a conference where you've got Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen, all to get through if you want to get to a Super Bowl. He has done that and gotten to a Super Bowl. But if you look at it now, like the window, even though Joe Burrow is not that old and hasn't been in the NFL that long, It does feel like it's shrinking a little bit. So it was important. Doesn't it also feel like he has taken so much punishment?

A lot of... Some of it, some of it, his fault holding onto the ball, but a lot of it is just past protection. Offensive line issues and them not investing around the franchise icon and like the best player that they've got. Now, all due respect to Jamar Chase and everything. But God, I hope the Seahawks offensive line is improved this season. I've been reading a lot about...

People are optimistic. I've been reading a lot about the Seahawks offense. sent you that article last night that they've got like a specific run package designed for jalen milro the guy they drafted out of alabama like i'm very curious to see how this works because it feels like between mcdonald and kubiak they know that they don't have like a lot of talent on offense and it knows as coaches it's almost going to force them to get really creative to create offense because i don't think they're going to score a lot though yeah and here's the thing they don't really have great at any position you could say that smith and jiggins

was maybe getting to that level, but he's not there yet. Everyone else is in the Hall of Good. And that can get you like... Not even very good in a lot of cases. They're fine. And fine. The Hall of Fine. They got a lot of Hall of Fine guys. And their offensive line is going to be better, but it's not great.

So I'll be very curious to see if they're able to really like manufacture things out of nothing like trick plays, really like advanced design stuff on offense to try and get points on the board. Well, if their offensive line is good, then I'm not sure they'll have to resort to that too much. Just run the ball and let the defense carry it. We'll see. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 7.03 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Alfred and Brow of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80%. With no more interest, visit them online at Sands-trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Luke Fox, NHL writer for Sportsnet, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brats by Jason Hamanuk at Jason.orgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit them online at Jason, Dow Mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Let's go now to the Power West Industries hotline. Our next guest, as mentioned, NHL writer for Sportsnet. Luke Fox joins us here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Martin Luke, how are you? Pretty good. How's your summer going, guys? Good. We're back in the saddle after a few weeks off in August.

Not much has happened in August. We didn't miss a whole awful lot while we were away. So we were waiting and waiting and waiting. And so too are a few key restrictive free agents across the NHL, who I thought would have been done by this point, but still aren't. Let's start with a couple of them. We'll begin, you know, actually a couple of guys that have ties either directly or indirectly. to the Vancouver Canucks.

Quinn Hughes, brother, Luke Hughes in New Jersey. What's the latest? What's the status of Hughes, the RFA defenseman, with the Devils? Well, it seems every year we get one of these situations where the fan base is starting to get a little nervous because training camp is just around the corner. And Luke Hughes, who is, you know, young, top four defensemen should be a piece of New Jersey's core for years and years

to come. Of course, his brother, Jack, is already locked up there at one of the best contracts, probably in the whole NHL. And he's still unsigned. And because he didn't have arbitration rights, there wasn't that pressure point that comes in early August of salary arbitration. So it's the classic game of chicken, you know, the player and his agent are holding out for a bigger dollar figure and the team is is trying to low ball them and the next real pressure point becomes training camp does he show up on day one can they sort things out much like minnesota sorted things out with marco rossi a few days ago can they sort it out before camp and avoid the the circus that accompanies uh you know you don't want to say hold out because

he's not under contract, but a standoff for sure. And we saw last year it was Jeremy Swayman in Boston, and that definitely had a negative effect, both on Swayman and the Bruin season. And when the Devils are a team that probably took a step back last year, wants to be back in the conversation of contending in the Metro, they need a guy like Luke Hughes locked up, so it would serve the player and the team best to get this sorted,

and not have a distraction before camp, but we're still weeks away, so this could linger a little bit. Does Luke want to go long-term like both his brothers did? Because the good part of going long is you get a lot of money and total money, and, you know, you have to worry less about getting injured. But on the other hand,

some of the guys that signed bridge deals after their ELC is they can really cash in on a third comment. contract. And you kind of don't want to be known as the guy who's playing on one of the best contracts in the NHL like Jack and Quinn are. Yeah. And like imagine the conversations Jack and Luke have had, right? Like Jack is in for $8 million, which at the time someone offers you, you know, stability and $8 million a year. It's like, it's hard to say no. But does Jack have regrets signing that deal, which is one of the more team-friendly deals now that the cap is spiking and and it's supposed to take these great leaps every summer going forward.

Now that we're out of the flat cap era, Jack's going to be underpaid. And he's probably had conversations at the dinner table with Luke. Like, man, maybe you'd be best to take a bridge deal. Now, my understanding is Tom Fitzgerald wants to lock Luke up long term, which makes total sense. I mean, look what we saw in Chicago. Frank Nizar last week. The guy has, I think, 50-some games of NHL experience,

and he signed for seven years, 40-some million. Like, GMs are trying to get ahead of this spiking cap by getting guys long-term, whereas, you know, players, if they're smart and bet on themselves, they might be wise to go shorter term, wait for the cap to rise, and then negotiate the percentage of the cap when you have even more leverage. This kid's only 21 years old. He's a top four defenseman already. ready. Like, it might serve him well to go short term. And I think that's probably where the

sticking point is. Not only can they not agree on dollars, but they probably is a difference in term as well. Okay, let's turn our attention to Anaheim here. What's going on with Mason McTavish and the ducks? Yeah. Well, I think the big thing here is that Pavarbeek draws a pretty hard line. He's a really tough negotiator. We saw it with Trevor Ziegress. We saw it with Troy Terry in the past. He sees the front office is having leverage in these RFA situations, especially when there's no Arbites. And he likes to press. He likes to wait them out. And, you know, there's certainly been some phone calls probably from your city saying, is this guy available?

We need a young center. Centers are just not on the market. But I can't see Burbik trading McTavish. I could eat my words, but I just don't see it making sense. He's a young, up-and-coming center in a league that prioritizes that position. He fits the timeline of the ducks trying to take a step. I think this is just a case of a GM playing hardball with the player because this is when he has the most leverage.

I would be shocked if they don't eventually get a deal done here. I remember Troy Terry got his deal done at the player media tour, right before the player media tour in September that's right around the corner so I think maybe in the next two weeks we see something here with Wittavish and the Ducks Yeah I'm kind of with you and to be honest with you

my eyes have just kind of glazed over anytime someone has mentioned Mason McTavich's name and connected it to the Canucks I'm like well why would the Ducks do that and what could the Canucks possibly come up with in order to make that trade? We're talking about a 22 year old who's a third overall pick

in the draft who's been, you know, has he been amazing as a young player? No, but he's been pretty good. And the ducks are a team that I think is on the rise. Like, why would they trade these guys? So I guess my question for you is, are any of these RFAs that you're talking about likely trade candidates? Because I don't think the devils are going to trade Luke Q's either. No, I don't think they are either.

The only one I wonder about is, and he's a bit lower down my list, is Luke Evangelista, just because there seems to be, you know, I mean, right now the sides are apart. And I think they see that they can't agree on term. Barry Trots, wants to go longer term. Kind of similar situation we mentioned with Luke Hughes. It's like, I think the front offices are like, we see a player we like, we want to go long term. Evangelista's rep by Judd Moldaver, who kind of broke the mold in the Austin Matthews' RFA contract, you know, a bunch of years ago when he went shorter term. And that effort is to try and do the double dip.

Of course, Evangelise is not on Matthews level, but I think it's a similar theory. The cap is spiking. Let's push for shorter term. And maybe then we get paid a second time. in three years down the road, say. And then Trots just has just has a track record of making lots of changes. The predators are coming off a horrific season. They might be a little bit more into shaking things up.

Again, you know, I would still say that he probably resigns. I don't, I think most, I think trade season has kind of passed us, to be quite honest. But if I had to single out one guy that is more likely, it's probably him. Did trade season ever really even start, though? Yeah, there wasn't much. There wasn't much, was there? How disappointing was that in large? Because not only did a lot of the general managers not get what they wanted to do in free agency.

They all seemed like they were talking up the prospect of all these great trades that were going to materialize after the draft went by without much incident. And after free agency without much incident, it was a general managers themselves that were talking this up. I remember getting all those reports out of the combine saying that every general manager, there was saying, oh, you know, this is the summer of the hockey trade. We've all got caps based and we all want to do things. And then it almost seemed like collectively none of them did a thing. No, it was the same with free agency. Like, I think the greatest example is Brock Bessor.

It's like everyone thought he was going to sign someone else and he just stayed put. Everyone kind of just stayed so many guys just ended up staying put. You know, Marco Rossi, I thought for sure was going to get moved. there was so much chatter back in June about, you know, he doesn't fit the mold of what Minnesota likes and, you know, young up-and-coming center, how many teams would want to get in the bidding for a guy like that. He ends up resigning for three years. And, yeah, there's certainly a lack of trade activity.

And the other thing was it was supposed to be the summer of the offer sheet, right? Like there was a little bit of buzz about Doug Armstrong, breaking the mold and, oh, now that he, you know, an old school guy like him did the double offer sheet. with the oilers are we going to see more offer sheets but with the spiking cap i think teams are just like we have more money to play with just to match and just to keep our guys so uh it's funny because you know i i write for the website and anything to do with player movement trades trade rumors uh you know offer sheet rumors that stuff um draws the most fan interest and fan eyeballs but the NHL as a league

seems to have the least amount of actual player movement. It just seems to be a lot of talk. Well, there was one big player who moved this offseason and that is Mitch Marner who left the Toronto Maple Leafs. Did Leifes fans expect more when it came to replacing Mitch Marner? Yes. I think they were hopeful that Bradford Living would go out and get a top six forward. I think Tray Living was hopeful he'd go out and get a top six forward.

Number one on his list was Brad Marshon. And when he decided to stay in Florida, he's like that kind of ship sailed. And there just weren't that many available. The Leafs have next to no trade ships. They have a young up and coming forward, East and Cowan, who the team has been loads to trade. You know, they had an opportunity to trade them at the trade deadline. They parted with

Brazer-Minton instead. They're betting instead that Cowan can take a step. He's cheap, but he still has to prove it at the NHL level. He still has to make the team out of the training camp, quite frankly. But they're giving him a chance, because

outside of that, it was three-agency or bus because they have no trade chips. They spent all their draft fix. They spent most of their top prospect chasing the cup in years past and the cup are getting pretty bare. So free agency was the play. Marshawn was number one on the list. When he stayed, they didn't want to go for Nick Eilers and I'm not sure Nick Eilers wanted to sign with another

Canadian team and then the options just dried up. So bands in Toronto feel like Tray Living did okay with the hand he was dealt, you know, they're happy with Dakota Joshua, but again, they got some third liners. You know, Nick, Nick Waugh out of Vegas, you know, Joshua, they take a flyer on Matthias Michelli, but there's no bona fide top six forward. And there's still time. I would expect trade living to explore that market before the next trade deadline if the leaps are still in the running and they should do.

Who's the focus going to be on this season in Toronto? Because it was obviously Mitch Marner last season. Who gets the spotlight now? Yeah, unquestionably, Austin Matthews. This past spring was the first time in my memory where the view of Matthews began to turn a little bit more. I think part of that is him taking the captaincy from John Tavares. So the spotlight goes on him a little bit more.

He was battling injury. His goal total fell way off from his usual standard. He wasn't in the running for the Rock of Richard. And some of that can be blamed on health. But now with Marner gone, he's got to drive that line by himself. He doesn't have his number one setup man that he's had his whole career. So I think the focus will be firmly on Austin more than ever. this year, both in terms of how healthy is he?

How is he driving that top line without Marner, who's been his running mate, his whole NHL career? And can he get back to being that frightening sniper that he was two seasons ago? How healthy is he, do you think? He says he's fine. So, you know, you take him out his word. The suspicion is it may be a back. He's never confirmed that.

And I'm sure the rest of not playing contact hockey for months has made him feel fine. But let's see how he is after a month of battle drills and, you know, go through October in two weeks of the NHL grind. And someone's giving you a little cross check here or there. A guy takes a run at you or gives you an extra whack. How are you then? So I think it's a little bit of wait and see. But by all accounts, you know, the rest of it.

has served them well. But the pressure is really going to be on the captain this year. Do you think the Leafs might be a team that some of the teams who missed the playoffs last season in the East, they look at and go, well, maybe there's a spot if the Leafs fall off for us, or is that, I mean, they did finish with 108 points. They were clearly a playoff team. They won their division. But I'm just one, I'm just, I'm just, I mean, I'm just wondering where momentum is headed with this team. Yeah, and it's a tough division, especially at the top, and no one in the division is, you know, claiming rebuild.

Montreal is trying to take a step. Ottawa feels encouraged after making the playoffs for the first time and forever. Boston feels like, you know, last year was a bit of an aberration, and that they seem determined maybe not to make the playoffs, but at least be a bit more relevant than they were last year. I think Buffalo and Detroit are still, you know, a ways away. But Tampa isn't willing to go away. Florida basically kept their whole championship team and is already talking three-peat.

It's going to be tough. And, you know, you subtract Marner and you wonder if the Leafs are that team that maybe takes a step back. I wouldn't necessarily pick them to win the division. But their defense is mature and reliable. Their coach, I think, has got the team to buy in, and they play a pretty safe, predictable system that wins a lot of close games. I'm not predicting them to fall out of the playoff pitcher.

But if you're Ottawa or you're Montreal, for sure, you're saying this team's lost its engine, its leading score in Mitch Marner. Maybe they're ripe for a takedown. And the other thing with the Leafs, the question mark is the health of the goalies. They got a great tandem in, and Joseph Wolle and Anthony Stolars, but they need to stay healthy.

Both battled health issues last season. Luckily, they kind of spelled each other off, and they both weren't hurt at the same time. But that's an area that, you know, if they don't get the goalie health, that could hurt them big time. Luke, this was great, bud. Thanks for doing it. We really appreciate it.

All right. Keep filling that content to August. Thanks, buddy. You went a long way in helping us today. Luke Fox, NHL writer for sports that here on this. the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet, 650. Speaking of filling content, the athletic is doing its NHL pipeline rankings, Corey Pranman. So that is essentially ranking the prospect systems.

The tubes. The pipes and tubes. The pipes and tubes. And the Canucks, Corey Promen just published us today, the Canucks rank number 22. Nice. In the NHL. up from number 28. There's only one way to go.

In 2024. Now, of course, the Kinecks have been competing for a lot of Stanley Cups over the last few years because, so of course, their pipeline has been depleted. That's the correlation.

Right? You know, when you're making the playoffs year after year. Year after year and going on these deep runs and, you know, buying at the trade deadline. You get a gift to get. That's what they say. We are, of course, being sarcastic.

We are? Yep. 22's not bad. I mean, it's not 32. It's right. It's not great for what the Canucks have done over the last few years. But here's the ranking that Corey came up with. I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with some of this

because that's what people do on the internet. Their most recent pick, the first rounder, Braden Kootz, the center is their number one prospect, according to Pranman. Then it goes Willander, Lecker-Macki, Atto-Ratoo, And this is one all the way down at five, which I might disagree with, Elias Pedersen, the defenseman, because I think the Canucks really hold DPD in high regard. It would be higher than five. Yeah, like I would put him, I would put him above Ratu.

Number two, number one, even. I'm surprised Coots jumped right to the top of the line there. I guess he's the new kid on the block. He's shiny. Yeah. And I mean, that's, you know what, as a top five prospect group, that's all right. That's all right. I can see why they came in at number 22

A couple of those guys could be real wild cards this year Tom Willander I think the connects expect him to make the team and then Lecker-O-Macky I don't know if he's going to start with the team but he could be an ad halfway through the season

it'd be nice to see someone kick down the door a young guy unexpectedly kicked down the door and really make an impression maybe overachieve or punch out of their weight class for what's expected of them I know it's tough for young players in the National Hockey League. But every now and again, you have seen in different NHL markets a prospect that was, I mean, not completely out of nowhere, but came in with some regard or highly regarded.

Just come in and say, wow, this is better than expected. Those are the kind of hits that you really need when you're a middling franchise. I think it's fair to call them a middling franchise at this point. He's not even on the list, to be honest with you. That's really surprising. Yeah, I think that's probably a miss by by Bronman because, you know, there's basically a top six prospect. Number six is Sawyer Minio and I'd probably put Mancini

ahead of him. Yeah, Mancini looked like he fit fine. Yeah. Like he looked like he belonged. It could actually have good depth on D for sure. Carol Kudriyatsev. Could be Mancini be too old for the list? Because he's 23. Possibly. I haven't looked into

all the details of that. Maybe that maybe the cutoffs like 22. Yeah, it could be a technicality or something. But I'd agree with you on that too. Okay, so we were having a conversation earlier in the show with Hannah Kaiser, who is a baseball writer. And she wrote a story about youth baseball and some of the risks and dangers of basically trying to throw the ball too hard at a young age. Sure.

So it made me think, what would be the best sport to want your kid to commit himself or herself to? So I came out with my three worst ones. Okay. Okay. Football for safety reasons. Okay. That's fair. A lot of injuries in football.

Swimming. Uh, because it's boring. There it is. There it is. And I hate indoor pools. Like, I hate the smell of indoor pools. I don't like, I just don't like being. Do you have like a traumatic incident at a pool?

Yeah, swimming lessons. It's called swimming lessons. The smell of chlorine, I'm like, bleh. I mean, part of the issue with swimming lessons is there's so many people crammed into a small... It's loud. There's all the parents watching, right? It's cavernous echo the entire time. And then figure skating for nerves.

I think that would be the worst one to watch your kid in. Don't fall. Don't fall. Well, it's also 99.9% practicing. There's very little payoff. Figure skating. Like, you're on the ice a lot. Skating with your friends and learning, not actually competing in tournament. Funny figure skating story, not really, but somewhat relatable to this conversation.

I went at the 2010 Olympics to watch the figure skating, the long program. And having only previously seen it on television, I was unaware how many actual competitors there are. They never show you the bad ones on TV. But when you go live, you get to see the ones that finish like 19th in the field of 21. I want to see the Olympic low lights. It was, yeah. And like where you're there and you don't know a lot about figure skating, but you can

still tell they're not very good at it. You're like, she's not great. She's probably not going to finish the top 15. They can't do that. And I guess it's, that's the, the experiences to get there. But I mean, when you see figure skating at the highest level, you really only see the elite of the elite. Right, right. This was also at the 2010 Olympics. Who was the Russian male figure skater? Was it Plushenko? I think it was. I think so. So we went to the Russia house at Science World. And it was kind of a big deal because they were going to host the next Winter Olympics at Sochi. So they had the sort of like inheritance of the 2010 game.

So it was a big to do their, their Olympic health. If Jenny Plushenko. He was a rock star, man. He had more aura. I'm speaking like the kid now. But he had more aura than all of the hockey players combined. When he walked through science world, there was like a hush tone.

Everyone kind of stopped and watched. Yeah, it was like he was about to like throw off his cape. Yeah. And yell at. someone. Yes, it was almost like a Vegas show. I'm like, what's he going to do next? Yeah, where are your tigers? The answer was nothing. He was just walking to go skate. But it was, it was interesting watching him. Like, there was a handful of athletes that had that kind of swag and aura, and he had it more so than, that was like a Russian Olympic hockey team with Ovechkin, Kovilchuk,

I'm trying to think of something. Yeah, like they had big time stars. And they were even in awe of Plushenko. Have you been using ORA a lot? No, just right now. Well, I'm because I was trying to come up with the right word. But that's what he had. Is that the most aura you've ever seen in person? No. Who have you seen? Mike Madano.

Damn, Nchi O'clocking into a room. It's like, damn, the room just went silent. Yeah, no one could say anything. No, Mike Madano. Really? Mike Madano had, yeah, we were at, I don't even know if it exists anymore. We were at the Granville Room.

Okay. And Mike Madano emptied out the Granville Room. when he got up to leave. Oh, people were just like, all right, well, it's about time to go. Yeah, it's like, and people just followed him out. He was a handsome dude, Madonna, right? And, like, everyone knew who he was. Like, he couldn't have been in a better city for it.

He's in Vancouver. Like, everyone knew who Mike Madano was. I've seen my sport come up, by the way. Sorry to cut you out. Which sport? That I would want my kid to be in. Slow pitch softball? No.

Oh, lacrosse? Surfing. Surfing. Explain. Hang out about the beach. It's fun. You can make some money. You can go to the Olympics.

Really? I would be terrified to watch my kid surfing. Have you ever seen surfing in Hawaii some of those big waves? Yeah, but it's fun. Drowning is fun? Sharks? The shark thing is over blow, and there's no sharks.

A dog is always worried about Animal attacks. I rank every sport based of the probability of animal attacks. Just because there's a movie. That's why I like hockey plays hockey's like, let's close the boards here, guys. That's why I like hockey so much. There's no animal attacks and ice rakes, one of the odds. You see the condor?

It attacked the hockey plays. Okay, but that's really rare. You don't usually get wild animals inside hockey rinks. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.