Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/28/24

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Mike and Jason look back at the previous day in sports and talk to Columbus Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch.   The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. Hot shoes burning down the avenue. Might find its way to Attacubi here Danger, big danger There's the opener It hasn't taken long Ryan Gould on target

There's nary an animal alive That can outrun a Grease Scotsman Good morning, Vancouver Six o'clock on a Wednesday Happy Wednesday, everybody It is Halford. It is Bradford. It is Sportsnet 650.

We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. When do the sports start? Not for another week. Lena, good morning to you. Hello. And Adog.

Oh, my God, Adog. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Did you just call me Adog? I did. You are now Adog. Hello, hello. Halford and Bradford, the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are 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, Mike Halford? What? I just ask you, what are you

waiting for? Kintec and only Kintec. You should just go. Why are you constantly waiting around for it? Kintec! I gotta work on the delivery of Kintec, but we'll work on that later. I heard you went on a trail run. How are your feet?

Run is... I can't run at times. So, Hoffer texted me last night. I was in trouble. I was in big trouble. He goes like... No, no. It was on the phone.

He called. You called me. I called you, and you were like out of breath. I'm like, what's going on here? You don't exercise. Are you eating? What did I interrupt? uh he says i'm on some trail and i and i don't really know where i am and all of a sudden i just flash forward to like the 11 o'clock local news is like local man missing on like a

trail or something like that local fat man dies dies on trail. So I went. It's the Burnaby Lake Loop, which I've done parts of it countless times because we used to train there all the time. He's looking at the text and he'll be like, yeah, I take my kids there. Yeah, it's not that hard. I just didn't know.

I'd never done the full loop before. So you got me about a third of the way in. It was more a curious. I was like, I don't know exactly. It was like a journey. It was a journey to self-enlightenment and sore feet. I didn't know where I was more curious. I was like, I don't know exactly. It was like a journey. It was a journey to self-enlightenment and sore feet. I didn't know where I was going. I knew I'd get to the end of it because it's a loop, right?

You just keep going. You'll get around it. So I told Jason, I'm like, I'm on the trail. And I'm only like seven months out of Achilles surgery. So I can't run a ton. I can run some and then I got to stop. And then I run again. But I knew that there would be an ending.

I just didn't know what the ending would be. Okay. How long were you on the trail for? Two hours. Two hours? Yeah. That's not bad. It's all right.

It was fine. Yeah. But I didn't put it this way. I feel like you emerged from that 10K loop with a full beard. My Yelp review of the trail was like, it wasn't glowing. There's some issues. There should be more signs. Some of them should tell you how long it is. But overall, fine so that was my that was my Tuesday night it was okay uh as far

as the Wednesday morning goes we have a big show ahead uh 6 30 Don Waddell's gonna join the program uh we just thought you know what let's see what general manager will join the show he's a friend of the show though he is this is like the third time we've had him on. He used to come on, not with regularity, but he came on a couple times as the general manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, now the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets. I don't know how much of the notes that I did that you read, but I went through his chronology

since taking the job not that long ago. He has some new faces in Columbus. He has been busy. Yeah. I don't want to call it like... His most famous quote too is like losing cannot be acceptable here anymore. Yeah and he's made countless

like every level of the organization he's made changes. Well there's a new GM him. Yes. There's a new coach. Dean Everson. They're saying there's a new number one center. Now they're calling Sean Monaghan that. He is. He's playing with Johnny Gaudreau you

would hope that Fantilli's can surpass him uh anyway we can talk about that uh Patrick Laine and there's no more Patrick Laine yeah so he's made a lot of change and he just took the job in late May so Don Waddell's gonna join the program at 6 30 it's seven o'clock uh Mike Sando who does the yearly and I didn't realize how big of a thing this has become the annual nfl quarterback tears now this is like tier one tier two tier three not the tears that i cry when i get lost on the burnaby lake loop trying to run on a tuesday night mike has been doing a huge media blitz for this thing like if you look up mike sando on social media right now he is doing interviews everywhere.

So he's going to join us at 7 a.m. I won't give out too many spoilers about who are the top tier quarterbacks in the NFL. I'll just say this. There's only three tier one quarterbacks in the NFL right now. And this is a list. I know who they are. Yeah, this is a list. It's got to be, right?

It's got to be Mahomes. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. Mahomes is on it, though. Good spoiler. Josh and Lamar. I got that one wrong?

Yep. I got that one wrong. That was a big talking point in a lot of Mike Sandoz media availabilities. Lamar Jackson. Yeah. So just to be fair, this isn't just one writer's individualized list. You've got NFL scouts, guys that are in coaching positions, various skill positions, some advanced analytics guys, video scouts.

So it's a pretty thorough and encapsulating list, and that's the reason why Mike's going to come on at 7 o'clock to talk some NFL quarterbacking. 730, Arda Okal. Now, normally we have Arda's co-host at ESPN's NHL coverage, including the drop Greg Wyshynski on the show. But we thought, hey, let's get the other half of the drop on. So Arda's going to join us at 7.30.

Arda's a Canadian, Wish. Yeah, that's right. I didn't know he was Canadian prior to doing the research yesterday. He used to work for the Brampton Battalion of all teams. So, yeah, we'll talk to Arda at 7.30. You put together a list of unresolved NHL issues as we get closer and closer to the start of training camp. And number one, of course. Yeah, I don't know if I'd call it a list of unresolved issues.

I'd call it a list of things to look forward to this season since we've kind of talked the Canucks goalie drama to death. That's true. Like that's an unresolved issue. That's an unresolved issue. Eight o'clock. Dan Robson from The Athletic is going to join us. He is the co-author of a new book by Atiba Hutchinson. Atiba Hutchinson is the other author.

It's his memoir. We'll talk about one of the interesting, greatest Canadian players of all time. One of the most underappreciated and unrecognized athletes in his own country. Yet, maybe one of the most famous athletes in Turkey, which is a very interesting dynamic. So we'll talk to Dan Robson about that. Ativa Hutchinson's memoir comes out, I believe, next month, and we'll talk to Dan about co-authoring that with him.

So Working Universe, 8 o'clock. Dan Robson, 7.30, Arda Okal. 7 o'clock, Mike Sandoz, 6.30, Don Waddell. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. 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 them online at bccsa.ca. So, the Vancouver Whitecaps got through to their third consecutive Canadian championship last night with a 1-0 victory. A 1-0 victory over James Merriman's Pacific FC. We had James on the show yesterday to preview the match at BC Place. So they won over on the island.

They won 1-0. Ryan Gould scored. Yes. Last night, 1-0. Who scored? Ryan Gould. So many similarities between the two legs. Ryan Gould celebrating the news earlier yesterday in which he learned that he got a call up to the Scottish national team for the first time in over 10 years.

10 years he had gone between stints. And he still hasn't actually been capped by Scotland because the last time he was up, he didn't get a chance to get on the field. So Ryan Galt celebrated that with the goal. The Vancouver Whitecaps celebrate with going to another Canadian championship. That Canadian championship will be here on September 25th, which is a Saturday. And in classic MLS and Whitecaps fashion, it is crammed right

into the meatiest part of their schedule. They went three weeks without playing a single match and then from September 14th to September 28th, a span of two weeks, they'll play five matches. So just some great, I mean, that's that league in a nutshell, really, is they have so many different competitions and so many different matches and the schedules are all over the place.

Remember, we went to that league's cup match in early August. Yeah, I was so confused. You're like, why is nobody here? And I was like, well, they only found out they were playing it four days ago. I was also, I was like, what is this that I'm watching? Right. And you actually got to see a very good Mexican team in Pumas. I saw a lot of whitecaps blown chances, too.

Yeah, they missed a few. So they managed to score their one goal yesterday. Someone texted early to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. Unsigned text, so it must be from Gary. Gary writes, hashtag WWL. The Whitecaps won last night. It was less than convincing. Absolutely no killer instinct.

It was about as comfortable as a one nil victory can be i never really felt like they scored early and they dominated possession right but they never added to their tally but they didn't really need to um they didn't need the killer instinct against pacific pacific pacific doesn't score goals yeah they just don't not good uh someone and he also just checked in september 25th as a Wednesday. Did I say Saturday? That's my bad if I said that. But anyway, September 25th is when the Canadian Championship will be between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC. So it's a rematch of the Canadian Championship from two years ago.

And I don't know if you remember that one or not, but that was the one that they won in penalties. And then Vanny went tarps off and started chirping the Italian guys and Bob Bradley. You know what I remember? What? It was so damn hot very it was so hot in BC place it was it was it was unseen that's why I thought Vanny took his shirt off right it wasn't for celebration it was just covered in sweat so you know what the Canadian championship sort of is what it is you asked this morning probably the biggest question about it where can you find it on

television the answer is one soccer so that really diminishes the amount of people that have taken in the last two canadian championships that the whitecaps have won and i assume it will probably impact the viewership for the third one on the 25th but i mean this i've been to both the championship games that they've won i have also been been. And it's entertaining. It's fun. It is. You go and, I mean, especially against TFC. Right. John Herdman. I think that is going to be interesting. You want to win that one.

I think that is going to be cool. Like that's, prove me wrong, Whitecaps, in the upcoming MLS Cup playoffs or whatever the hell they call it. But this is what, you know, this is a tradition for the Whitecaps now. Yes. This is the thing that they're doing consistently well. Prove me wrong, kids. Yeah.

Prove me wrong. Is winning the Canadian championship. Damn, man. You can get all your spying. The key, I find, is to have only two teams, not even in your pool to start with, in the MLS, and then all the other teams in a league below you. Right. I find that's the key to their success.

So that does help. And then hosting the final. Did you see, like, I don't know if you know this or not, but Toronto FC on the road to this. Barely got in. But they also, prior to playing a CPL team in the semifinals, in the previous two rounds, they played semi-professional teams, like the league lower than CPL team in the semifinals. In the previous two rounds, they played semi-professional teams, like the league lower than CPL.

Didn't they pump some team like 11 to one? Yes. Well, that was the combined on aggregate. They won three, nothing in eight one, but that was against that. I was against a provincial like tier three team.

I think it was CS St. Laurent or something like that. Yeah. So the first leg TFC wins three, nothing. Yeah. And then they're like, we're going gonna make sure

right that we get through here with an eight one victory so that team that they beat cs lauren was like we're going for it they were going for it it didn't work it did not work anyway there so there's your mls canadian championship recap i am actually pretty excited about i think the john herdman element will make it a lot more entertaining. Yeah, Phoenix texts in, will TFC be using drones? There it is. There it is. I want to make the joke.

Thank you, Phoenix. 6.13 in the morning. Did not take a lot of time. Yeah, they're going to have to close the dome. So they can't fly in. We can still do it from the second row or the second tier, I suppose. RC car. Sorry? RC car, attach a camera to it from the second row or the second tier, I suppose. RC car. Sorry?

RC car, attach a camera to it. You could also do that. That's a little more obvious than the drones, but I like your hustle on that one. That one's good. Okay. Yeah, you could work for John Erdman. Okay. We realize that there's not a lot going on in the world of sports right now.

We realize that we can't just kind of shoehorn in MLB recaps that, quite frankly, nobody cares about. Well, the five-game Jays winning streak came to a crashing halt yesterday. Womp, womp. Yeah. You know, I thought they were going to make a run. I thought they were going to make the playoffs. Hey, this version of the team I like a lot better than the first half

of the season. Yeah, well, you love pressure, right? So does Vladdy, apparently. Yeah, so we want to talk about some NHL stories. The Sidney Crosby thing that we kind of touched on yesterday, I want to talk about that a little bit more. I was reading an article from – he's a columnist in Pittsburgh, Jason Mackey, for the Post-Gazette, and he wrote a column kind in Pittsburgh, Jason Mackey for the Post Gazette.

And he wrote a column kind of on Pittsburgh sports just in general, like what's the future hold for Pittsburgh. But he did touch on the Penguins. What's going on here? What's the future of the Penguins? Especially that Sidney Crosby has not signed a contract extension.

And Dubas has been busy this offseason, but I don't know if he's made a trade where it's like, oh, okay, well, you know, that changes everything. I thought that about the Rutger McGrory trade, but I digress. That changes everything? The kid hasn't even played an NHL game, has he? I just liked his name.

Yeah, he does. It is a cool name. So I'm just going to read a little bit of what Jason wrote, because this is what they're thinking, or at least some people are thinking in Pittsburgh. And he writes, the awkward part, the thing you shouldn't say out loud

is that it could make sense for the Penguins and Crosby to part ways. I don't want to see it. You don't either. It makes me sick to type. But if Crosby truly wants to hoist the Stanley Cup one more time, his best shot of doing that isn't here.

Meanwhile, for an amalgamation of reasons, good word, amalgamation, the Penguins would probably be best to blow it up and start over. I don't expect either of those things to happen, mind you. The point is that we're ignoring probably what makes the most sense for both sides because we're too emotionally invested. He goes on to write, now, could the Penguins make the playoffs in advance? Maybe, if a lot of things break their way. But I don't see how any reasonable person could pick them to make some sort of postseason run.

The longer this goes, the more it worries me that one side doesn't want to dance. It's just hard to decipher which one that would be. Now, I will reiterate what Jason wrote, and here's what Jason says. Two Jasons. Let's face it. If Seb does want to chase another cup, there are better places to go than Pittsburgh.

I know the Pens have made a few off-season moves of note, including their recent trade with Winnipeg. But let me ask you this. Here's a question I've got for you. And I know a lot of our listeners. No NHL roster is even better than us. Which difference-making player in Pittsburgh is right smack in his prime?

In Pittsburgh? Right smack in his prime difference-making player. I don't have one. Is there even one? No. It's a group of aging superstars that's been partially bolstered with some youth, but possibly not youth that's ready for prime time.

And also Lars Eller. Right? Lars Eller is there. That's what you're looking at with the team. I mean, maybe the goaltending could be difference making, but I don't think anyone looks at the goaltending and you're like, wow, you guys are set. No.

And yet, at the same time, I still feel like if you were to say, like, you got to make a pick here, you got to choose what you think is going to happen, I would say that Sid's probably going to resign with Pittsburgh just because of he's already won his cups. I don't know if he wants his legacy to include another team, but you know, Stephen Stamkos left the, left the Bolts. Aaron Rodgers left the Packers.

Like they're, these things do happen. Tom Brady left the Patriots. And just imagine, just imagine if you will, if Sid is available ahead of the trade deadline this season. I honestly don't, again, I'm having trouble, I actually am having trouble imagining it because I always felt like Sid would retire a penguin. But just imagine.

Now, I do wonder if Sid and maybe even Dubas, that's the other thing that Jason hinted at. Maybe Dubas is slow playing this too. Okay. Right? Like maybe he's like, oh, is it the right thing to do? Someone is slow playing it.

Let's put it that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I would bet Sid's slow playing this, but I do wonder if someone just wants to see how things look for a few months of the season before they make the call. Because when you do look at the Penguins lineup, I mean, you see future Hall of Famers there, right?

But they're just not in their primes anymore. And then after that, you're kind of like, well, they don't even have Jake Gensel anymore. And remember, Jake Gensel did get traded at last year's trade deadline, and that was a Kyle Duas move. So there is a precedent there. But Jake Gensel isn't Sid, right? No, but nobody is.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sid is like, I mean, our comparison would be the Sedins, right? Yep. And the Sedins never really want to go to another organization. I don't know how much they even considered going and chasing a cup somewhere else. It didn't seem like they ever did. It was always inherently more difficult for a move

because they were going in tandem. No team was going to be like, we'll pick up Daniel at the deadline. We'll leave Henrik behind. That was never going to happen. I don't know. I will miss you, brother. Yeah, but this has to be done.

I'm going to Chicago. I don't know. I really don't know what the next breaking point in this will be, but the start of training camp is a pretty good one. Like I was reading an article from Josh Yohei from the athletic who has covering this story as closely as anyone. And he says he still steadfastly believes that they will have a contract

extension done by the time training camp starts and training camp starts for the Pittsburgh Penguins on September 18th. So take that into account. And that's one of the reasons why I say I think Sid will probably end up re-signing with the Penguins because if their media think that's what's going to happen, then, you know, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. Right. Another takeaway from the same piece was that Yohei has stated quite

accurately that the Penguins and Sidney Crosby have always stated publicly and insisted that they want to get an extension done in Pittsburgh. But here's the thing. Sidney Crosby, the idea of him going into the final year without a contract extension is just too tantalizing to pass up because Sidney Crosby as a rental, and I don't even know if this world would exist, but if it did,

the possibilities to kickstart a rebuild would be huge. Like they got a lot of assets in return for Gensel, maybe nothing necessarily top drawer or top shelf, but they got a lot in return for Gensel. The idea of it would be huge. Now, the issue that I have with the whole concept of him going in to the season without a contract and playing out the final year

and maybe either going at the deadline or unrestricted free agency, it just doesn't happen with players of his ilk. The last one I can really think of was someone that meant that much to his team that got traded in season was like Marty St. Louis when the Lightning dealt him. Remember that they couldn't come to an agreement

and they flipped him to New York? But that was even different. St. Louis is not Crosby. Nobody is. And a real wild card, I think, in all of this is to remember that Crosby's still playing at a level where there's so much on the table for him personally. And I don't even think it's just winning a Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh.

I think the return of international play might play a factor into some of this. He wants to be at the top level. I guarantee he wants to be a central figure in both Canada's Four Nations faceoff team and the 2026 Olympic team. Right. Well, you're still playing at a very high level. If you look at the penguins scoring last season, it was him with like 94 points. And I think the closest to him had in the sixties.

And that's why a lot of people were disappointed on his behalf, almost that the penguins wasted that season. Cause he was so good. He was incredible. And he had all those points and their power play stunk. Their power play absolutely stunk.

So other guys that are in similar positions to Crosby in that they are heading into the final years of their deals before their UFAs, there's some pretty big names, especially among the forward group. Dreisaitl, we all know. We've talked about that. How are the Edmonton Oilers

with the new GM in Stan Bowman going to manage this? And how is Dreisaitl, is he going to be comfortable putting his name on an extension before he knows 100% that Connor McDavid is going to extend. Could be a tough balancing act for Stan Bowman in Edmonton.

Another guy that actually surprised me a little bit because I was like, wait a minute, he's UofL already? Rantanen in Colorado. Then there's Marner in Toronto. Brad Marchand in Boston. And I'll throw Brock Besser in there too. Sure. Just because that's going to be a big deal for the Vancouver Canucks.

There's a couple other guys like Carter Verhage in Florida. Practically no D-men of note, unless I'm missing a bunch of guys. I don't think I am. Shea Theodore. Do we still consider Brent Burns in that category? I don't. He's pretty old, man. He's old.

I mean, he could be. Again, I expect Carolina to be right back in the thick of playoff contention. I don't see him going anywhere. He'll probably play out the string. I can't see him being readily available or anything. It would be nice if Vegas couldn't afford Theodore. Yeah, that would be. As long as he doesn't go to Edmonton or anything. But it would be nice if Vegas couldn't afford Theodore. Yeah, that would be. As long as he doesn't go to, like, Edmonton or something.

We're up against him for time in the opening segment, but I think Vegas is primed to take a huge step back this year. This year? Yeah. Why this year? Well, they didn't add anything in the offseason. They lost a bunch of pieces in the offseason. I look at them after.

So refresh everyone's memory. Who did they lose? I don't have it on the top of my head, unfortunately. I don't have the notes in front of me, but it was, let's see. It was the entire four lines. Will Carrier. Well, they lost Chenandler Stevenson. Chenandler Stevenson.

Nick Waugh. I'm trying to remember. Logan Thompson. Logan Thompson, yeah. Where did Nick Waugh go? Nick Waugh went to, God, I can't to remember. Logan Thompson. Logan Thompson, yeah. Where did Nick Waugh go? Nick Waugh went to... God, I can't remember now. I'm getting thrown on the spot way too much for an early morning hit here.

I apologize. That's okay. I'll look it up in the break, and we'll come back, and I'll review it very quickly before we go to Don. It's almost like you've been on vacation for a month. I just casually forgot everything about Vegas. Peter says he's still on Vegas. Yeah, okay.

Maybe I got that one wrong. I don't think Jack Eichel's there anymore. I don't know. Mark Stone died. I don't know what happened. We've got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Don Waddell, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets, is going to join us next.

You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. 6.31 on a Eurodance Wednesday here on the Health and Abrupt Show on Sportsnet 650. Jonathan Marcheseau. That's who I was trying to think of. Talking about all the departures From the Vegas Golden Knights During the offseason I'm like oh Will Carrier

That was pretty funny You were like I think Vegas is going to take a big step back They lost a lot of guys And I'm like remind the listeners who they lost I can't think of one I didn't have the list in front of me The list There is a big list.

So it's Marciusso, Stevenson, Carrier, Mantha, Amadio, Martinez, and then the biggest one of all, Yuri Patera, who, of course, is now a member of the Vancouver Canucks. But not Nikwa. Nikwa joined the team. I got it backwards. He didn't join the team. He's been there forever, hasn't he?

He's on the team. Someone texted in and said, Nik't join the team. He's been there forever, hasn't he? He's on the team. Someone texted in and said, Nick Watt joined this. He was a huge part of their Stanley Cup win. He rejoined the team. He's played for them for years and years and years. He's been years and years and years. He never left. He's been there the whole

time. Anyway, you are listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. To the phone lines we go. Very excited to be joined by our next guest.

He is the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He is Don Waddell. He joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Don. How are you? I'm excellent, gentlemen. Thank you for having me. Don, as you might have heard,

we are still in off-season mode, but your off-season has been very, very busy. What's it been like doing all the things you've been doing in Columbus? Not your typical off-season, I imagine? A little different, but a great opportunity. Excited about being here in Columbus. We just took our time with hiring our coach.

We wanted to make sure we got the right coach. When I first got the job, we had the draft and free agency coming up. I knew the NHL was going to feel bad for me and move those. We had to dig into those and you know like I said we were the 32nd team that didn't have every 31 teams had coaches we didn't have a coach I said whoever's there today is going to be there tomorrow so we waited till after that through free agency and that to really dig into it and ended up hiring Dean Everson, which I think is a great hire and the right person for the job that we have in hand here.

So before we talk about Dean and before we talk about guys like Sean Monaghan and the Patrick Lyon A-Trade, you get to Columbus, you start talking to people. What do you learn about the organization and why it has been struggling well yeah i think you know like i always say you know we all coach differently we all manage differently and you know i think there's a lot of acceptance of things were okay here. And, you know, like I said, and I've preached it to everybody here, the employees, that, you know, losing is not acceptable. You know, we're not going to win every night, but we've got to try every night. And if we go out and give the effort that our coach is going to ask for,

you know, we should have more success than not. And the other thing is you want to make sure you hire people and sign players that you get people that want to be in Columbus, not just because it's a job or it's money, people that want to be here. And in Dean's case, every time I talked to him before I brought him in, he certainly had passion to coaching NHL, but he had passion to coach the Columbus Blue Jackets,

and that's what led me to hiring him. So to me, you know, it's a mindset, you know, that we started. You know, we've got to continue to make strides because it doesn't happen overnight. But that, you know, losing it is not acceptable. When I talked to the players when I first got hired, one of the questions I asked every player was, do you want to be part of the process moving forward or do you not want to be?

Because we want, again, people that want to be here and represent the Blue Jackets as best they can. Is that something that Columbus has always kind of struggled with? I mean, I remember the story when Johnny Goudreau chose Columbus. And the story was, Johnny Goudreau chose Columbus? Because the franchise had been mostly known for guys that were good there for a bit and then left, right? And I just wonder if that created a bit of a feeling there and maybe it manifests itself into people wanting out

and possibly that's why you went in there and said, listen, like we can't just accept people that are here for just the money, or we can't accept people like Patrick Laine, who, you know, for whatever reason, want a fresh start somewhere else, we have to make sure that everyone that's here actually wants to be here, not just like, fine, I'll be here, wants to be here. Exactly. You know, you said it well, because, you know, what's happened in the past I can't change and don't really care. You know, we're looking at what we can do to move forward. And, you know, the old expression, which I absolutely hate,

is, well, this is the way we've done things for years. Well, I don't care how you've done things. This is how we're going to do things now. So, you know, Dean and I will put our own stamp on the team. And, you know, there might be some bumps on the road, might have to make some changes as we go along. But, you know, I always look at it, you know, I didn't know anybody when I got here from, you know, from a staff standpoint.

You know, I want to get to know them. And, you know, if we have to make some tough decisions on the road, that's what we get paid for. But the decisions we make is always in the best interest of the hockey team. How do we make our team better? You know, and it's just not the players, it's the staff included. We're speaking to Blue Jackets General Manager Don Waddell here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Don, you're on in Vancouver, and there's a lot of people locally that want to know a little bit more about Kent Johnson.

He signed a contract extension this summer. What are the expectations for Kent Johnson going into this season? Yeah, you know, we've talked a lot about him, watched a lot of the video of all our players, but Kent also, you know, we're got to continue to work on his strength. He was in this summer for a period of time and got to talk to him. You know, the upside is in front of him, and I think that's why his reputation, I agree,

doesn't three-year deal put the contract aside. He doesn't have to worry about that for the next three years. Just prepare yourself as a hockey player to be the best player you can. And, you know, we're at a point of our franchise with a lot of our young players. We need to take that next step with them. Nothing against our veteran players. We've got some great veteran players here. But our young players are what's going to move us forward down the road,

and Kent's going to be a big part of that. I always say it's, you know, we're going to provide the tools and all that, but it's up to the players to take advantage of that. And I believe with his mindset, just speaking to him, he's a pure hockey player. He wants to be the best he can. And so hopefully that heads in the direction that we all want it to go. I think we all saw here in Vancouver with Rick Tockett

how much can change with a hockey team when you bring in the right coach, you have a structure that works for the team, and you raise the bar a little bit. And Rick Tockett ends up winning Coach of the Year. What was it about Dean Evason, when you talked to him, when you interviewed him, made you think, like, this is the right guy for us?

Because there have been some, you know, there was a little bit of coaching drama in Columbus last year. I know you weren't there, but there was some drama. Yeah. Yeah, you know, yeah yeah you know again you know we had a good uh three weeks or so that uh doing homework on all these guys and and we talked to everybody and i was fortunate uh i've written ash here who's going to take a bigger role at the team this year uh he was able to talk to players that played for Dean along with the other guys that we were talking to

and every man to a T loved playing for him. They thought he was very hard, but very fair. And they always knew where they stood. They always knew the structure that he wanted to play. And when you, you know,

I talked to Billy Guerin, obviously. Billy's a friend of mine. He's been involved with USA hockey and everything for years. You know, it was a tough decision, you know, and I talked to Billy Guerin, obviously, Billy's a friend of mine, been involved with USA Hockey and everything for years. You know, it was a tough decision. You know, they came out of the gate after going three years of making the playoffs with Dean and started off slow. And, you know, that's what happens in the coaching world, unfortunately, you know, you have to make a change. But Billy couldn't say enough good things about him also. And so when you talk to people that you trust in this business and hear those things, it makes you say, you know, we got to take this to the next level. And when I brought him in here and we met with them,

every man to a T just said, he's the guy for our franchise. So, you know, this is not a Don Waddell show. It's a Don Waddell and the team show that I'm going to include the people around me that, you know, are capable of making good decisions. And that's how we're going to continue to build this. I remember a few years ago when I wondered how many years left in the NHL does Sean Monaghan have.

In Vancouver, we knew him well in his years in Calgary. Then his game fell off. He went to Montreal. He went to Winnipeg. And now he signed a five-year deal with you guys for $27.5 million. He's almost 30 years old. But I imagine there are more things than just his point totals that you hope that Sean Monaghan is going to bring to the club. Yeah, you know,

we all know Sean as a player in his good years. And then, you know, he had, he struggled through a year and a half with his hips, got those done. Now what a year and a half ago or so, end up playing 83 regular season games last year because of the trade and the playoffs. So, you know, we spent a lot of time in the free agents watching these players and doing background checks and all that. And when I got the opportunity to talk to Sean on free agents, he really wanted to be a Blue Jacket.

The Johnny Gaudreau thing is a plus, but Sean has heard so many good things about Columbus and the city he lives in here. He's got a young family, and that's what you want to hear. You want to hear players that just want to be here. And certainly we think he upgrades our team, gives our chance for our younger players, especially down the middle, to grow at their pace,

not force them into a situation they're not ready for. So we're still very good about signing Sean and how our center position lines up going into the year. What kind of conversations have you had with Johnny Goudreau? Good, all good. He's been frustrated, obviously, the last couple of years of not having success. It came from where he had success. I've got to know Johnny and I knew him through USA Hockey a little bit, too. He's a hockey player and he wants to play hockey. He wants to have success as a player, but he also wants to have team success.

And every conversation has been very good. Dean actually flew in and had lunch with him when Dean got hired. We talked about how important he is to this franchise. So, so far, it's been very, very positive. I know he's coming in town here, I think, today or tomorrow, and ready to get the season off on the right foot. So everything right now is very positive, as I said, and I look forward to getting him going here

and seeing what kind of year he can have. Because I'm sure you knew that there is a narrative out there, and there's true narratives and there's false narratives, that Johnny chose to go to Columbus. He took a big contract, and he went there, and maybe he went there because he didn't want the pressure. Maybe he went there because he didn't really care about winning as much. So I give the floor to you to push back on that.

Yeah, I just, you know, again, I wasn't here when they signed the contract, and, you know, I don't know the whole reasons. I've never asked him why he chose here. Obviously, we all know he's got a big contract and that, you know, but saying that, you know, if you're going to have your top players get the most out of them,

you've got to put them in the right environment and with the right people. And I think we've done that. I think, again, you know, I keep putting a lot of emphasis on Dean, but I think Dean, you know, when I talked to Johnny, it was funny. I talked to him one of the first few days after I got the job, and I asked him who his best coaches were. And, you know, Daryl Sutter was his number one guy. And, you know, Daryl's a hard coach, as we know.

He had lots of success. And the second one was Bob Hartley, who I had for five or six years, and I know how he is. So, you know, it made me say, you know, this player likes to be around structure and the accountability factor. You know, players want to be told what to do, when to do it. You know, successful players and players that want to be successful. You know, we think they're all, you know, grown men and, you know, know how to go about their business.

But, you know, I found over my years, players want to have that structure in place and be told this is what they can do and what they can't do. And I think Johnny, by talking to him and knowing how he spoke about previous coaches, I think, again, I think we're in a good situation moving forward with, you know, with Johnny and having Dean as the bench boss. Is Dean as intense in person as he looks on the bench?

Because he looks terrifying on the bench at times. Yeah, I can say. I actually took him out to the golf course yesterday. He's a big golfer. Oh, yeah. So we spent the day in the golf course yesterday, and he's pretty damn competitive, I can tell you that. Anything he does, he wants to win at. So I think he's very intense.

You know, again, it goes back to what I said. You know, he can be hard on the players when they need to be hard, but he's also very fair with them and, you know, treats them as human beings. You know, the players that we talked to that have played for them, they all echo the same thing, and some of them were top players that we were able to talk to. So, you know, to me, when you've got a guy that, as you said, as intense as he is, he'll be the same way in practice.

He will be as he coaches the games, but at the end of the day, he'll treat the guys with respect and be fair about it. Were there any clubs thrown on the golf course? Not by him. He's a two handicap. And I don't play enough to throw any clubs. So the only thing I can say, this is,

I don't have any Columbus Blue Jackets golf balls yet, so I still had some Carolina Hurricanes. I deposited about five of them in the woods yesterday, so somebody will be finding Hurricanes golf balls on the golf course. We're chatting with Don Waddell, a new president and general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Let's talk a little bit about the Patrick Laine situation. I imagine that one must have been pretty tough for you to stick handle

because, first of all, you haven't really had much experience with Patrick Laine. You didn't really know what went down, or at least you didn't have – you didn't witness it. You have to have empathy for the situation with Patrick Laine, but you also have to do what's best for your hockey team. So how did you approach it? Yeah, you know, again, you know, I got in here, I heard all the stories, did all the research that I could possibly do on it, talked to his representation probably 25 times.

And, you know, with a new GM coming in, a coach, I wanted to know if his position had changed at all. And, you know, they talked about it. And every time they got back to me, they just felt that what happened here in Columbus, that he didn't want to come back there. He wanted to change. And, you know, I've had lots of players over the years say, you know, I want to change.

And sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Because what you said is, I have to look out for the best interests of the Columbus Blue Jackets, keeping in mind what Patrick's wishes are. And no one he went through plays a factor, too. So, you know, we tried for, and Dean reached out to Patrick himself after he got the job. And, you know, it just came away that, you know, if we could find a trading partner that made sense, that it was probably best to move on from him.

Montreal made a ton of sense at the end of the day, if there was going to be a trade. And you must have been pretty happy that you were able to shed his entire contract hit, although you had to throw in a second round pick, I imagine, to help that along. Yeah, you know, we had lots of interest from teams and most teams are cap situations where, you know, I was going to have to hold money and, you know, potentially take back some contracts and some I didn't mind at all, actually. But the other day when Montreal and Kent and I started talking,

they had lots of cap space. And I think for them, I think it's a great fit. He could score. We all know he's a goal scorer playing on that team with some of the centers that they have. I wouldn't be surprised if he puts up 35 or so. So for us, the way I looked at it was the cap space this year wasn't as important because free agency is done.

I am getting some calls from teams now that are a little more cap problems, wondering if it would be interesting, player X or Y. So we're navigating through that. But I think even more important, you know, moving into next summer, knowing that we have that $8.7 million in cap space that we didn't have this year going into the summer, gives us, presents, you know, potentially a very good opportunity. Before we let you go, I did want to ask one Carolina question.

It's actually about the guy that took your old gig there, Eric Tulsky. We all know anecdotally about physics at Harvard and a PhD in chemistry from Berkeley, but what was it like working with Eric and then the situation where

he sort of ascends to the GM gig and then you move on to Columbus? Yeah, well, I worked with Eric the last six years firsthand. As you said, he's probably the smartest person I've ever met. And multiple times I had to tell him, dumb it down for me. You know, he used to do all the analytic side, which is a strength of his abilities. The experience factor will come with the job. I think he's prepared for it.

He had interviewed a few times with a few other teams. He's a quiet guy that you've got to get to know. I know I've had other GMs reach out to me just asking me what's his personality and all that. Knowing how smart he is and what he's got himself around there, particularly with the coach, leaves me to believe that they'll continue on. They had some changes, as we know, in the summertime,

but the core of their team, particularly up front, is back. I mean, I think they're going to continue to roll right along. You must feel pretty good about the work you did in Carolina. I know the Stanley Cup wasn't won, but that's a hard thing to win. Only one team out of 32 wins it every year. But from a business perspective, I know a lot of that was on your plate. And I saw, I don't know all the details, but it sounds like there is a long-term deal to renovate PNC.

And it sounds like from a business perspective, and I know, again, that was on your plate a lot in addition to hockey ops, things are pretty good there. Yeah, no, I feel good about leaving. Usually when you get these jobs, there's multiple things that you have to fix. I think in Carolina, they're heading in the right direction. We had secured $300 million for the building, we're going to make the building,

and then we got probably almost a billion dollars in development plan for the outside of the building. So that franchise, the last six years, I think we've played 12 or 13 playoff rounds. You know, from a business standpoint, it's never been in as good a shape as it's been in, and I don't see any reason why that won't continue. But, you know, you've got a lot of good people there that really are capable of doing their jobs, which leads me to believe

that there's no reason why them to have any setbacks both on and off the ice. Hey Don, really enjoy you when we have the chance to chat with you. We chatted a couple times when you're with Carolina and now you're with Columbus. I know you've done a lot of work. You got a lot of work ahead of you. Let's keep in touch, and best of luck this season. No, I appreciate it. Have enjoyed the past conversations, and I'll look forward to the future ones with you guys. Always like talking to fans of our game,

and it's the greatest game in the world, and very lucky to be part of it. Thanks, Don. We appreciate this. Enjoy the rest of the summer. You got it. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. That's Don Waddell, general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets here

on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. He's got such a huge job ahead of him. Yeah, it doesn't work. He knows it, though, right? It's really just completely resetting the organization. Right. And that must have been a tough situation with Laine because, you know, you do have to be empathetic

to what Laine's been through and what he wants. But at the same time, you're sitting there going like, uh-huh, I'm in charge of the Columbus Blue Jackets and I'm going to do what's best for the Blue Jackets. I think he did a pretty good job. He did a lot of work in a very short period of time. He just inherited such a mess of a team. That's the biggest issue.

But there's potential there. There's potential. A guy like Fantilli has big-time potential. Well, Fantilli, Sillinger, Johnson, Marchenko, they drafted Caden Lindstrom. I mean, he won't be there this year, but the future theoretically should be bright. When you're that bad for that long,

you're able to stockpile talent. Yeah, I hope Kent Johnson finds something this season. I think he's one of those guys where you know the talent is there, but you're not sure if the overall game is, and maybe the, and this isn't my words, but Waddell says he needs to get stronger. Yeah, I mean, that was the first thing that he said. It was the first thing he said.

So, you know, he's not the biggest guy. He's got a lot of talent, but hopefully it works out this season. You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough.