Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 9/15/25

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, plus they discuss the results of the 2025 Canucks Prospects Showcase with Canucks Talk host & The Athletic Vancouver's Thomas Drance. 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 stretch of the pitch of the cow, swinging to drive, deep into the gap in left center field. And goodbye baseball. There it is. You got some company. Walker's going to get the toss.

He's going left side. He's got some blocking. He turns up, Philly's down inside the five. Touchdown! Cheahawks! And then the cross comes back in the box. He's got into a hot trick for Thomas Sputter. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Monday.

Happy Monday, everybody. It is Alfred. It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. Gladdy, 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 reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are in Hour 1. Hour uno of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit the Middle of 170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech, Studio Kintech footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. We have so much to get into on a Monday show. The entire first hour will be all what happened and all Halford and Brough.

The guest list today begins at 7 o'clock. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone is going to join us. Check this, Jason. Breaking news inside of what's happening. ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting this morning that Bengals QB Joe Burrow will indeed need toe surgery that's going to sideline him for a minimum of three months. He's got turf toe. He's got turf toe.

I saw this podcast yesterday saying that we need to come up with a new diagnosis and phrase and medical terminology for turf toe. It sounds soft. It does sound soft. I think it's the toe part because it's not really a hyper extended big toe. It's basically a broken foot is what it is. That's how painful it is for Joe. Turf Toe.

Right. So Joe Burrow, with a severed foot, is going to miss three months for the Bengals. So we'll talk to Mike Tanier about that when he comes on the show at 7 o'clock. Also, all the big news from yesterday. Also, looking ahead to a Monday night football double header, Texans bucks at 4, followed by Raiders, Chargers at 7. Lots of NFL talk with Mike Tanier at 7 o'clock this morning. 7.30, Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk right here on Sportsnet 650

is going to join the program. Drancer took in the Canucks Crack and Prospects games Plural from Everett What's the name of the rank down there? Is it Angel of the Winds? It's so harmonious. It's just a beautiful... There it is.

That's what plays when you walk into the rink. There was no play-by-play, so it was just Andy and Jason doing that the entire game. It's like Gregorian chant going the entire time. It was very distracting. We'll get Drans's thoughts on what went down in the prospect games, plural, who stood out, and an injury update on first round pick,

Braden Coots doesn't sound that serious for the Cooter. We'll also preview training camp, which begins later this week. Thursday, training camp begins, and then your first taste of preseason hockey just six days away. It's going to be next Sunday against the Cracken. My favorite day is the medicals. I think they do that Wednesday, actually.

So really, training camp starts Wednesday. I just imagine one guy with one of those, you know, like the doctor hammers that you just kind of like poke the knee at. And you're like, you're good. And then the knee kick, and the foot kicks out. That's the one. That's a good one. I don't know what else they really do.

Because you assume that everyone's probably fine coming in the train. They're like, are you smoking? Yeah. No. I have bad news. You have mono. No, like I don't. Anyway, I also want to point out that Wednesday, in addition to medicals,

is also the day that they have to do all of the green screens and they have to do the media car wash and do all of their reeds for the upcoming season. Oh, yeah, they love that. Right. So it's like, I'm Tyler. Myers and you're listening to Sportsnet 650 for some reason or another. So Drance is going to join us at 7.30 to talk about all of that. 8 o'clock Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Ingoal magazine is going to join

the program. Lots of hockey talk with Kev Canucks and otherwise goalie talk with Kev as well. There was a goalie trade. There was. So that was Columbus acquires Ivan Fedatoff. He's like 6'7, is he not? Big dude. Big, slow dude. Talk it must be looking at his goalies and like Because he used to have 6'7 Ivan Fedatov

Now he's gone Has a trade of a gold tender A Russian goaltender specifically From the Flyers to the Blue Jackets Ever worked out before? I was thinking of that. As soon as I saw that It's never happened

I remember thinking of that trade too I was like oh like that's going to solve things Bovroski Who's been terrible in Philly Throw Ian Clark into the mix And that changes everything I haven't heard that name for a little while So we'll talk to Kev about that

We can talk to him about the Dustin Wolf story in Calgary, it's a few days old, but Kev was all over that for NHL.com and Ingole magazine as well. Working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock Kevin Woodley, 7.30 Thomas Durant, 7 o'clock Mike Tanier. That's what's happening on the program today.

Laddy, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? 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 or resources and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. We're going to go rapid fire here for the first hour of the program since we are now fully back in the swing of sports. And we have a lot of things to get into. We will begin with the aforementioned Vancouver Canucks Seattle Crack and Prospects games in Everett, Washington.

The Canucks kicked off the little mini two game tournament with a loss, 5-3 on Saturday night. After that initial disappointment, the prospect Canucks bounced back with a 3-2 win in the second game on Sunday afternoon. Both of them played in Everett. The biggest news of the weekend probably had nothing to do with goals and assists

and wins and losses. However, the big news was the injury status of first-round pick, Braden Coots, who left Saturday's prospect's game against the Cracken with an undisclosed ailment. It sounds as though it's not going to be too serious. He was held out of Sunday's game for precautionary measures. And according to Thomas Drance, who we'll have on the show later,

he is expected to join the team at training camp this week. One of the discussions I want to have on the other side, so we'll give people time to wake up a little bit and text in to the Dunbar Lumber. Text line at 650 650 is, how do you

expect the Canucks defense to look in terms of personnel to start the season? Because down at the prospect's tourney, there are two defensemen playing, that the Canucks and the fans are hopeful debut with the Canucks this season, but they could also start down in Abbotsford, and that is D.P.D. Elias Petterson

and Tom Willander, the first round pig, who just left college. Yep. And look, we're not going to sit here and make a big deal out of a prospect tournament, but I did. Well, I am. Yeah. We did read a couple of reviews that Tom Willender, struggled a little bit and I've always felt like it's going to be a big ask for him to jump right into the NHL out of college but I'd like to hear people's thoughts on just their expectations for the Canucks defense do you expect a guy like Tom Willander to start in the

NHL or do you think he would be better off down in the HL play a few games down there maybe half a season and then be in position to get called up because right now you would say I don't know, like the odds on favorites to be the six comprising the defense. If everybody stays healthy and everything goes according to plan, would be obviously Hughes and Heronick on a pair, assuming that sticks together and who knows, we can have that conversation when we talk about the defense as well. Pedersen and Myers is the three four.

And then four board and I would say based on his body of work last year, DPD has a shot at that number six job, which means we'll lander right now, at least from my opinion anyway, and feel free to share, like Jason said, Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. that Willander, probably the right thing, too, would be starting on the outside looking in

and go get some professional games at the American League level. Yeah. It's a good program down there. Your white caps, buddy. Let's go there right now. And let's start with the elongated audio, our belated happy birthday to Thomas Mueller, who scored a hat trick on his birthday in a,

that's right, 7-0 victory over MLS leading Philadelphia on Saturday night at BC Place. Here's what it sounded like as Mueller completed the hatty. And then the cross comes back at the box. And then there's Mueller. And it's a hatching for Thomas Muller. What a night.

Seventh heaven for the Whitecaps. And the birthday boy has his sixth career club Patrick. White caps were up 4-0 after the 40, first minute. It was remarkable. It'd be funny if every time he scored, they played happy birthday. But like in full.

In the German version. It was one of the most remarkable matches, MLS, white caps, or otherwise that I've ever seen. Because as I mentioned, almost as a footnote there, Philadelphia is the leading team in all of MLS. They are the number. They are the number one. So they've got this show on Apple on Saturdays

when MLS has like 14. plus games called MLS 360. It's their version of a whip around show where they go to all the different places. Yeah, yeah, you're the only guy that watches it. There's not a huge viewership. I can guarantee you that. They were almost in like pinch me territory.

They were looking at each other and the producer to double check to make sure that what they were receiving the information was correct out of Vancouver. Like, are we getting the right score? Is it not 7-0 for Philadelphia? How is it running? How are they running away like this? And also, Mueller had a pair of penalties within a 15,

minute span. Neither of which he earned. Right. But now it is funny as soon as they get a penalty, there's no conversation anymore about who takes them. There used to be a debate. It's like, well, let's try and get Daniel Rios off the Schneider. Maybe Brian White can take them and Ryan Gold's pretty good at, no, that's all done.

They're all Mullers now. And he scores them all. He's three for three so far. He's earned those. He's earned though. He has maybe not in the game, but he's earned them with his career. So the other thing I want to point out here is that the white caps also did this on the weekend. without their former captain and possibly best player,

not named Thomas Mueller and Ryan Gould, who's been gone for forever. Brian White, also, their leading goal score, did not play. This was a short-handed team that went out and beat the best team in MLS and beat the wheels off them, 7-0. In front of the third straight sellout crowd of BC plays, too, I'll add. White Caps only have six games left in the regular season for MLS,

and then we'll start their most important playoffs ever in franchise history. just with the expectations and the season that they've had and, you know, this 7-0-0 win, I'm sure is going to be referenced as they start the postseason. But they've also got the Canadian championship, which they're trying to win again, boring. But, you know, we win that. That's what we do here. We win Canadian titles.

And it could be a local derby in the championship, but they've got to get past the forge. Just forge. Just forge. They got to get past forge. Get it right. Just for it. Right. Are they from Hamilton?

They are from Hamilton. They are the pride of Hamilton. They are the pride of Hamilton. They're very good. And the white caps are, they're tied, 2-2, right? That's correct. So they've got to win this one. There's all to play for this week at BC Place.

Thomas Mueller was asked about it because he's obviously quite familiar with the Canadian Professional League. He's like, we're playing the Ford. Premier League, sorry. Just Forge, Thomas. It's just Forge. It is going to be interesting. I would imagine that Forge probably saw that 7-0.

victory against the best team in MLS on the weekend. Again, at a place now, BC Place where the crowd has a new level of energy and a new level of attendance, which they haven't really achieved. Okay. Speaking of that, the crowd for the other game at BC Place. Yeah, Friday night was not good for the BC Lions, but the BC Lions got the win. And that's the most important thing over the Ottawa red blacks. I know the crowd was announced at around 20,000 watching it on TV. A bunch of them were sick, I guess. But who can blame? Who can blame? First of all, Ottawa is not much of a draw, a draw, but also the lines haven't played well. On the other hand, the offense has been pretty unbelievable in terms of point production

which is the job of the offense put points on the board and I guess the defense all you can say about the defense is they didn't blow a massive lead this time so that's good and they got a key they made a key play when they needed to

27 points you're happy with that we kind of set this out over the previous five weeks saying that if you can hold your opponent to under 30, you're going to win a football game because the Lions' offense with regularity now, and this is another game on the weekend, a 38 to 27 win over Ottawa, where the offense went out and put 30 plus points on the board. In a regular football season, if you're scoring 30 in six straight weeks, you should have a much better record than the Lions do right now at 6 and 7. But the defense has been that poor. It was fine on Friday night. But the story, and I think you're right, is that another terrific game by Nathan Rorke, and if you want to talk

about something else that the BC Lions defense has hurt this year. It's the exposure and the attention that Rourke should be getting from what's been a terrific, terrific year. 300 plus yards on Friday night, 308 and a touchdown. James Butler, you know, not a huge game on the ground, but more than enough to get the 38 points on the board. I think Sean White, who had five for five on field goals as well, but they had another really solid offensive performance. It begs a question, can you get the defense to a point where they can keep you in games and not play you out of them

because that's really what's happened during this stretch where they were... I mean, another reason you're talking about the poor attendance on Friday. You're talking about a team that was looking to avoid a three-game losing streak and not against the powerhouses in the CFL either. You know, one of the losses was back last weekend in Ottawa,

a very disappointing loss. So, you know, the shine is off the team a little bit despite the fact that it's crazy because they're marquee player and best player, Nathan Rourke is having a very, very good season. I was reading J.C. Abbott's column at Three Down Nation after the win, and get a load of this. Friday marked the six-straight game that the Lions were able to surpass the 30-point threshold as a team. A feat that they achieved just four minutes into the third quarter.

For context. So six straight games with 30 points. The last time that happened was an eight-game. run with Doug Flutie at the helm. Don't do that. In 1991, 6 years, J.C. noted that was six years before I was born and Rourke was asked about it afterwards. He was like, it's pretty cool. Obviously, Doug Flutie's a pretty good player. Yeah, he was young too. But J.C. notes that the difference between that stretch with Doug Flutie and this one with Nathan Rourke is that the Lions went six and two during that run in 91 and the win against the red blacks brought

BC back to 500 for their current run because they've blown three multi uh double digit leads yeah on three occasions so like what the offense is doing is remarkable but the defense is kind of blowing it yeah we talked to moj about this on Friday as well and they've got to get this right because you can't waste opportunities like this we played audio from mike awa early last week where he said, like, we're in a league where it's tough to make the playoffs despite the fact that a lot of teams get in, and you can't just throw away wins at the end of games,

and we've done it three or four times this year, and the defense just hasn't done a good enough job, and when it does start to take away from the offensive exploits that haven't been done since the flutie era, you know that the defense isn't doing a good job. Okay, speaking of throwing away wins, Sam Darnold couldn't do it. He couldn't throw away a win despite two interceptions,

and that's credit to a lot of the, things on the Seahawks and Sam Darnold made some plays for sure. But the Steelers aren't good. No. And the biggest play of yesterday, for those that missed it, was little known special teamer George Hollani, a heads-up recovery of a kickoff by his teammate. Seattle's Jason Meyer for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter really swung the gates on this one, gave the Seahawks a 10-point lead that they never relinquished in a 31 to 17 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday. I want to play

the TV call of this because nobody had any idea what was going on with this bizarre kickoff play that resulted in a touchdown for the Seahawks. Let's roll it now. Seahawks win 31 to 17 over the Steelers on a very weird play on special teams.

Oh, bad balance goes through the hands of Caleb Johnson. He may have touched that ball. That would be a live ball. Let's see what the rule. ruling is here it is a touchdown it's a touchdown oh seattle gets to score ruling on the field the ball hit in the landing zone on a kickoff somebody's got to cover it for the receiving team it was recovered by the kicking team i have too much audio going uh Mike that was an auto play from ESPN so Caleb Johnson the rookie kick returner for the

Steelers who got absolutely eviscerated by Mike Tomlin after the game. If you missed it, Jason and I were debating it because we were out at AJ's yesterday after the game having some celebratory pizza and beers. I initially thought that it hit his hands and that's why it was live. But the announcer mentioned it during the clip there that with the new

rules, if you kick it into that zone and it lands, no matter where the ball rolls to, it's a live football. And George... It's actually a moot point whether he touched or not. That's right. Yeah, touch or no, it's a live ball. And apparently, Holani was asked about it after the game and he said that they practiced that on Friday

that, you know, get your, you know what, down the field because anything that drops in that zone in his live, there's a chance that you might be able to recover it. It kind of reminded me of watching a CFL game where an American comes up to the league and doesn't really understand the rules or, you know, some sort, whatever the rule is that, because there have been these massive changes

to the kickoffs. I've still watched that. I'm like, what's, what's going on here? I felt a bit of empathy for Caleb Johnson because I sometimes don't know the rules either. And I was watching them and I'm like, well, the broadcasters didn't. The broadcasters in that one and the one on TV, they weren't like, oh, every ball is alive.

They didn't know. They thought it was a touch. Yeah, they thought, did he touch it? And in any rate, despite that, I still felt even if the Seahawks hadn't gotten that break, they were the better team. Yeah. They controlled the ball.

They just looked like the better team, frankly, on both sides of the ball. And Aaron Rogers, you know, yeah, he made a few throws, but he old. He old. Okay, let's get into this a little bit because I got a few things that I wanted to touch on here. I know we were going to go rapid fire. We can push some of this stuff after the break. You mentioned the darnald turnovers. Not good.

in the slightest, especially the one on fourth and one where, you know, they decided that they were going to get cute with it and run play action and run a boot out of the backfield. And of course, it ends in an interception. Outside of that, I thought there were some pretty positive developments in the passing game. They discovered that they had other receivers than Jackson Smith and Jigba. They got other guys involved, including Horton and Cup. And he threw for $2.95. So at the very least, you can say from game one to game two,

there was improvements in the passing game, which you needed to see. other big improvement Kenneth Walker the third 105 yards on the ground including a 19 yard touchdown you saw yesterday why he's got the higher ceiling than Charbonnet

like it's just it's Charbonnet is a very he's a hardworking runner he's a straightforward runner yeah and he's a no nonsense guy he's a meat and potatoes runner but you know Kenneth Walker the third

gives you the breakaway explosive stuff and he can bust it to the outside 19 yard touchdown was a nice little run he finishes with 105 the Steelers had a tough time figuring out the Seahawks defense and that's the second week in a row where I've walked away being fairly impressed with the collective of the Seahawks defense.

There's still those flashpoint moments and we saw it a couple times, you know, Rieck Wullen had another tough one. Although Wollin did make that tackle on Jalen Warren on the 65-yard catch and scamper, kept them short of the end zone. How many missed tackles were on that play? made a tackle at the end that mattered though, right? But there

were like five or six of his tackles. Because he kept him out of the end zone, it forced the Steelers to try and get it in, and that's when Rogers threw that very costly interception, right? Very good point. So Woolen did a good job there. The defense for two weeks now, I've been pretty impressed. Outside of that one big run from Warren, where

they missed a bunch of tackles, they've done a good job limiting the run and they did a decent job against McCaffrey last week. There's still a couple of issues in the secondary, but the fact that they played without Witherspooh and Emin Worry in that secondary and got the job done.

17 points holding that offense to at home is nothing to sneeze at the good performance from the Seahawks. Can we talk about the weird home road record? Yeah. That was the Seahawks' seventh straight road victory. I don't know what to say about it. And yet they can't win at home. They better win at home next week because they've got New Orleans.

Yeah, New Orleans pushed the Niners a little bit yesterday. Yeah, but the Niners are so depleted. No George Kittle, no Brock Purdy. Mack Jones went in and got the win for the Niners in New Orleans. But, yeah, New Orleans goes on the road. I'd be curious to see if the line's already on that one, how much the Seahawks are going to be favored by. We can keep it in Seattle here.

We can play the audio again. Big Day for Seattle Sports. Not only did the Seahawks get the win, but Cal Raleigh, the big dumper, put himself in baseball immortality, alongside one of the biggest names in the history of the sport with his 54th home run yesterday, as the Mariners swept another series

and have now won nine straight to take over sole possession of first place in the ALW. Mariners and the Jay's out 11 runs yesterday. Yeah, it was pretty good day. I mean, it was not that long ago, like just about 10 days ago where you and I were really worried about where the Mariners were at

because they were flounder. Well, nine in a row. Can we play the break where his call before we go to break or did you want to say something here? Let's go out with that. Just a couple of notes. The Seahawks, seven and a half point favorites over the Saints

that's right now and they play Sunday Lumenfield in Seattle that's the line right now seven and a half so they better win that game a few people suggested that we kind of glossed over Braden Coots injury

we're going to talk about it more with Thomas Drance he was there in Everett at Angel of the Winds Arena so we'll talk to him about that. It's also not expected to keep him out of... I think I did a decent job of covering it. He got hurt. They held him out of Sunday's

game for precautionary reasons and he's going to participate in training camp. Yeah. Don't be scared. There's lots to be scared about this connect season, but not that. Don't be scared about that. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. What we just have to call

Thomas Dran's erotica. Thomas France Erotica Coorsy Thomas Transerotica Expecting goals Thomas Transerotica Top Bottom Thomas Transerotica

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Happy Monday everybody Halford Brough of Sportsnet 650 Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at Sands.

dash trustee.com. You don't get to Drance music on a Monday very often. Special times, though. We are in our two of the program, by the way. We're at the midway point of the show. Drance is going to join us in just a moment here, as the music suggests. Hour two of this program is bradded by Jason hominock

at jason.orgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason. To the Power West Industries hotline we go, Thomas Drans, from the Athletic Vancouver. and Canucks Talk joins us here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

What up, Drancer? Good morning, gentlemen. Let's start with the guy that lit up Mani Malhotra's face over the two games against these crack and prospects in Everett. Was it you? Was it you? No, it was it? It was absolutely not. Spoiler alert.

It was D.P.D. Tell us about the other Elias Pedersen, Dranser? Yeah, I thought he was the most impressive Canucks skater on the weekend. man, he was throwing big hits in that environment. He took a stinger on one shift and, you know, kept competing, kept communicating with his teammates working on a defensive zone sequence. He didn't leave the game, which honestly, I mean, but you're probably making an NHL lineup in the next three weeks.

Like, it's okay. You can take the rest of the third period of a prospects game off. He didn't, right? There is not wired that way. As Malho said, he only has. one speed, right? Like he mashes guys in practice. I mean, you could see the heavy

cross checks in front of the net. Like, he's not just boxing guys out. He's punishing in front of the net. And he plays that way while also being pretty savvy about jumping into the play. It's all stationary in zone stuff. He doesn't lead the rush. He's not going to be aggressive

seizing fourth man's ice. But man, this guy is, you know, he's not a prospect. He's a young NHL player. And he's going to be a young NHL player. for this team and he looked like it he looked the part of a guy who you know at at this level anyway was able to dictate the game was too good for this level and that's what you want to see in these sort of scrambly prospect camp competitive environments and yeah he passed that test i think uh i think

connects fans should be excited this is a really good young defenseman uh with a pretty rare like a throwback skill set right uh the sort of player we don't see come into the league all that often these days, but a hugely valuable one potentially for this team. So I was really impressed. I thought he was, yeah, Vancouver's best skater and a guy that, you know, I'll be very surprised at this point if he's not on this team and in this lineup, this Canucks lineup game one of the season. Do you see him pairing with a guy like Derek Forbort, third pair, or do you think he could play even further up? I mean, I think he's going to play third pair one way or another, just because, you know, they've got Marcus Pedersen, who's a bona fide top

pair caliber guy, and they've got Quinn Hughes, who's an all-universe guy. So, you know, that's third pair, lefty. You know, they played them on the right a bit last season. So I could see them opening the year with Forbert and Elias Pedersen sort of as their third pair. I could also see Vlander. Like, I think they really want Vlander to make the team. We will talk about that in a bit. I'm a little bit skeptical that he's ready. But yeah, I mean, so if the lander's on the team, you know, you could see something like he starts with Tyler Myers maybe, right? And then at the end of the night, Tyler Myers, Marcus Patterson, Horonick, and Quinn Hughes are top four and connects ice time, but that's not how they take line rushes, right? Like one of Myers or or Marcus

Patterson looks like they're on the third pair when they take line rushes, but in fact, they're playing top four minutes. So I could see in a line that like that as well. But, yeah, I mean, he might start the year on the right side. He might start the year with Derek Forbert, but, man, I really struggle to imagine that this guy is not, not just an NHL player now, but potentially a pretty impactful one. Let's talk about Tom Willander. Yeah. I mean, I thought he, so he struggled in the first game, but a lot of the Canucks struggled in the first game. He was better in the second game.

looked to be a little bit more aggressive trying to jump into the rush, but no real dynamic plays came of it. Like, that's not the strength of his game. You know, he used to speed pretty well defensively, especially in the zone, those wall plays. Like if the puck rings around the end boards, right? If the puck's put down low, he's really good at using his quick acceleration to sort of getting guys' way, beat them to pucks.

He stopped a lot of cycle plays. that way and that that's really good to see you you like that a lot um offensively very much a work in progress um you know i i i don't think he like i think he has to still look down to make plays which is really tough once once you're sort of working on retrievals and trying to feel pressure against nchl forwards um you know i think that can get you lit up in the in the NHL, to be totally honest, and we'll see if sort of that plays out in preseason and stuff. But just

he's got the tools, but I don't know that he's a really natural puck mover. The sort of way that I think about it is like feel for pressure, and it goes beyond speed, right? It's because he's an incredibly good

skater, but there's a difference between skating fast, which he can do, and playing fast, which I think is a different toolkit. And, not something that he's, you know, arrived fully developed with. Yeah. And you see this in two different ways with him. The first is that, you know, and you'll see this like,

Geordie Ben was really good on her trifles, even though he wasn't the fastest mover, where there was like this collection of sort of like head fakes. You know, I almost think about it like a quarterback in the pocket, right? That's exactly like that. Yeah, and you see guys like Justin Fields versus Patrick Mahomes, like Fields, like Fields is faster than Patrick Mahomes, but Patrick Holmes has feel for pressure, right?

He sort of has a sense of where it's coming from. He has answers for it. He has a way of dealing with it, you know, whether it's with deception or weird side angles, whatever. And so you'll see defenders like, Jordy Ben had that. Honestly, Jordy Ben had that. Ian Cole had that. Those guys aren't fast, right?

By any means. But whether it's head fakes, whether it's just a little bit of deception with how they come out of the corner, they've got it when they go back and pick up a, a puck with, you know, defenders bearing down on them. And I think that's something that, you know,

is going to be a work in progress for a player like Philander, even though he's going to get back to the puck, you know, maybe even a full 90 seconds faster than a more stationary defensive defensive defense, and then the other one, and there was a play where, again, he's trying to be aggressive, seizing that fourth man's ice and leading the rush. But it's a partial change.

So his teammates are changing up in front of, of him. And he's skating fast through the neutral zone, but he's not playing fast because all the forwards have to stop. And so by the time he gains the line with the puck, no one else is moving, right? The momentum of the team has slowed in terms of getting into the zone, right? And there's just a few moments like that where there's going to need to be sort of some work. I just think the puck control is a little bit of a limiting factor here. and we'll see how it plays out when we get into main camp and when we get into the preseason.

But I sort of, I think the team is very optimistic that he can play in the NHL right away. I think they're hopeful that he'll come in and win a job. I sort of come out of this weekend's game skeptical that he's ready. Okay, we've talked about a couple of Swedish defensemen. Let's talk about a couple of Swedish forwards now. you choose where to start with Leckermacki and Vilmer

Alrickson Well why Do you have a song for Wilmer Ulrichs already? It's like the Wilma from the Flintstone The Wilma Like if Wilmer

You know Uses the credit cards too much I don't think anyone's making a Wilma joke to this guy on the ice though Right Like he is a giant He's and he's mean Right

Like he's He's not one of those big guys That you have to poke and prod And cajole To sort of play that way Right like he uses his size he doesn't need to be told he does it consistently does it in all three zones um yeah i'm i'm in i'm buying stock on bill merrill rickson um maybe belatedly but but i can see it

the um yeah i mean the first game right so the first game they played in everett uh they had a three nothing lead that was one of those hockey leads you see sometimes where you're like how do they have the lead they haven't had the puck um Berkeley cat and just absolutely fed the Canucks in that first game. Like he had a goal and an assist. He hit a post on a breakaway. And it was one of those games where you walk out of the rank being like, that guy could have five points.

I mean, he was, every shift he was dictating. And he was doing it mostly against the sort of Coutes, Le Caramackie, Allrickson line. And I think because that line never had the puck, Alrickson was Vancouver standout skater in that Saturday game, which is one of those like good for him not great for the team things

but nonetheless I think it gave him an opportunity anyway to show like he's pretty conscientious defensively he uses his size really well to sort of like bull rush defenders trying to pinch and maintain possession and they don't often do it

because he's so big you know he protects the puck his puck protection thing is where things are a little bit interesting for me because you can see it on his goal highlight. I don't know if people saw. He scored the opening goal in the Friday game and he's just got a defender in his back pocket

and it's like a building having a defender in their back pocket, right? Like there's just no chance that the defender's reaching in to disrupt what he wants to do. And so in those moments, his puck control looks dynamic. But then there's a lot of other ones, especially off the rush, where the puck is very easily poked away from him, right? And that's like a puck management issue that, you know, he's going to have to improve on. So there's still some inconsistency there.

I still think this is very much a project. Maybe he gets an NHL game in like a fourth line role down, you know, at some point this season. But I think this guy is still a project, still has some work or some distance to travel in terms of honing some of his skills. But he uses his size well in all three zones. He's pretty diligent defensively. he works hard to make an impact with his size physically like he's a presence all three zones naturally

looks like a worker I mean has some dog in him I'm in like this is a lot of fun and I'm really curious to see where this goes now that he's on the precipice of turning pro the major junior production still wasn't there so I don't think we're talking about like an Alexi Protis type profile here

but but maybe like an Alexei Torpchenko but meaner. Like an Alexi Torpchenko who drops the gloves sometimes like yeah, that sounds awesome. I think that's the sort of thing that the Canucks might have on their hands and on a project basis with Allerickson

and that's pretty fun. Okay, very different type of player we'll discuss now. I had a few concerns about Lechromacki just not it's not his fault but his offseason was short because the Abbotsford team

went all the way and won it. And I was kind of like, ah, that's less time to get bigger and stronger over the off-season. You know, you don't have to talk about that angle, but how did he look at the Prospects tournament? Because to me, like, this is the guy that's, but this is a guy that should be at this prospect's tournament.

I mean, you mentioned Berkeley Caton, who, you know, the Cracken need this guy to be a star because they need some sort of buzz about their team. But like, Leckermack should be. Yeah, Lekra-Macki should be dominating a tournament like this or really showing up. Yeah, and so he's still 21, right? And it's not like he was a top 10 draft pick the way Caton was, right?

So I get what you're saying. I don't think it's a concern that he was like somewhat quieter or didn't, you know, like absolutely pick his teeth with the competition the way Caton did in the one game he played. pretty bullish too when you dominate to that extent and then your team pulls you from the second game of the series. I think that speaks volumes in terms of his short-term NHL outlook, talking Katten. Yeah, I mean, you talk about the strength, and for me, that's the ball game,

because I do think it applies to his speed too, right? This is a guy whose core strength just needs to develop a bit because he's fast. He's a good technical skater, but he's just not NHL fast, right? And at his size, he's going to need to be NHL fast. And that's a different thing. Additionally, and you can see it, again, I'm grateful that we get to watch Garland and Hoaglander all the time because this makes what I'm about to say really easy to explain to fans, right?

The core strength required to cut back and protect the puck as a smaller, a shorter player or a smaller player at the NHL level, like, it's really significant. Those guys are absolute fire hydrants, even though in Garland's case, you know, you're talking about a guy who's, what, five foot eight and five foot seven maybe and then a buck 70 soaking wet, you know, he's impossible to get the puck off of in the corner. And it's because of how he uses those edges and uses those cutbacks to protect the buck against larger defenders. Like that's, that's something that LeCarramacky doesn't yet have in his game. And I think he's going to need if he's going to be playing big minutes. and I think his skill set dictates that he's probably going to have to play big minutes, right? He's not going to be a guy you're going to have on your third line.

So, yeah, I sort of look at that and think, yeah, you know, the speed, like it didn't look to me like he was materially faster. It didn't look to me like, you know, he'd had that transformative sort of offseason where he comes in and looks like a totally different guy, which isn't to say he had a bad off season by any means. It's just the sort of quantum leap forward. You know, I didn't see that in evidence across those two games. I still really like the player. He scored obviously a lovely goal. You know, he had his, like, the thing I like about Le Caramackie's game

and that stands out to me, and it especially stood out to me on Saturday when they went down, sort of coughed up that 3-0 lead and were trailing with, you know, four or five minutes to play in the third period, you can just see the hunger like he's not a guy who's like oh no right like he wants the puck he wants to make the difference he believes he can make the difference he has that you know you call a killer instinct

call it uh call it natural self-confidence but I think you can see that on the power play in Vancouver last year like he wanted the puck and felt very comfortable but you're not on the power play all the time in the NHL and to your point he's going to need to learn how to fight for puck

win pucks and protect pucks. Yeah, his power play work, and then that's another thing, is we didn't get to see it, right? Like he, not a lot anyway and not with the sorts of players that he'll be playing with if he makes it. I mean, the way that he operates in a stationary attacking situation on the 5 on 4 at the age 20 last year. I mean, he turned 21 this summer. Man, that's like legitimately precocious. He's incredibly nuanced and good in that. So, you know, look, I still think there's a lot of attributes here,

especially the shooters shoot confidence that he has that gives him an opportunity to be special. But I do think there's still some work in progress physical package, right, that he's still going to have to be adding to here before he's, you know, and again, the bar he has to jump over is he's not going to be an energy line winger, right? Like he has to be a top of the lineup guy. I buy that he has the upside and the talent level to get there. I'm not, you know, picking him to break camp with this team over the course of the next three weeks, though.

The goaltending, finally. I was watching the media that Malhotra did after the Sunday game, and he was asked about both the duo of Medvedev and Koskenvo. I think I'm getting that one, right? Koskenvo, yeah. Not just about those two, but I guess collectively, the goaltending depth that they've got in the organization. Now, what were your thoughts on the guys between the pipes?

Yeah, I mean, this team has a lot of good goalies, a lot of interesting young goalies. Medvedev looked great. I mean, that game could have been, that game could have had a crooked scoreline, right? That game could have been 8-2, even more off-sided than that. And instead, the Canucks really had a chance to win it with seven minutes to go, despite, you know, what Katten was doing on a shift-to-shift basis. And even the goals that beat him, right? It was like, he stops both rebounds.

and the third one gets by him, right? It was like a constant flow of that. And a lot of the times, he, you know, the Canucks were able to earn the clear with him just having stood on his head and caught bullets in his teeth. It was a wildly impressive showing.

And then Koskenboe, yeah, especially in that third period. And on the, Elias Patterson took a late power penalty. So they were short-handed holding this one-goal lead. yeah, he was excellent. I mean, really, really good rebound control in that third period. There was very little that didn't stick to him.

Seemed to seem to be seen through traffic ably, looked really big in the net. I mean, I'm not a Kevin Woodley goalie expert or whatever, but, you know, I'd say he looked like he was tracking pucks really comfortably and looked really good. Now, I don't know that there's going to be a spot in the American League for him this year, right? He's probably going down to the ECHL. They're going to go with Tolopilo and Tai-E. at least that's plan A

at the American League level and Yuri Patera is still in the mix here and is probably the third goalie on the depth chart in terms of giving them NHL games if required given his level of experience. So it's pretty crowded for a player like Koskenboe but I mean, you know,

he didn't have standout, save percentage stats at Harvard the last couple years but looked pretty interesting to me honestly with a stellar performance on the Saturday and yeah, sorry, on the Sunday. And then Medved Dev, you know, I think people were surprised. Canucks fans were surprised.

I think the public scouting lists were a little bit lower on him. He was the backup for a stacked London Knights team didn't get into a playoff game. So his profile was a little bit low, but, you know, there was no way he was lasting to the third round. Like, no chance. There were team teams were in on him for a variety of reasons. I think some teams were considering him earlier, like in the top 40 at the NHL. draft. The industry was way higher on him than your average sort of public scout. And I mean, looked apart, like looked athletic, looked calm technically. I mean, you really liked what you

saw from both of those goalies. So yeah, I mean, two guys signed long term at the NHL level, two guys that I'd still consider real prospects likely to be your platoon at the American League level. And then Medvedev and Koskenboe behind that. Yeah, this is an area. of real surplus now for the prospect pipeline. Sorry about Justin Fields. Oh, yeah. I mean, it is what it is. I know what the Justin Fields experience is going to look like, you know?

He's in the protocol. I wonder how long will be in there for. That's tough. Yeah, I'd imagine I'd imagine I'm not getting a start from him next week. Yeah, I would imagine. Yeah, okay. Thanks for doing this, buddy. We appreciate it.

Enjoy the rest of the week. We'll do this again. Are we going to do this again later this week as well? We're going to double up on the Drans? A double drance this week? Wow, a double drance. So excited. The next one from Connect's training camp.

I guess one last thing. I'm excited to go to Penticton because I missed the Young Stars tournament this weekend, right? This used to be the Young Stars tournament. But I will say a two-game tournament, get to go down to Seattle. Yeah, pretty good. Pretty good. I grabbed some dicks on the way back. It was awesome.

I mean, love to be in Seattle. It's a fast food joint, everybody. It's quite good. too, I might add. Yeah. It's one of those old-school... Yeah, there's no other way you can say it. It's called Dix.

That's it. I know, but you don't have to say I grabbed some. Well, he did. Well, I was going to say, I grabbed a bag. I grabbed a bag of dick on my way home. You just did. That was way better. Thanks, Rans, sir.

See, I thought it was a sporting goods store. That's Dix's sporting goods. Isn't there a lumber store, too? Dicks' lumber. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dix is like... It'd be funny if it was the same guy that owned all them. He's like, I'm just going to keep doing this.

It's like an old-school. car hop place you have to go up to the counter the guys are wearing like the white it's white paper hats not the pointy ones you know what I'm talking about I know what yeah I just I can't believe Durant said that

what did he grab some dicks a bag of them yeah well yeah you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough