Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 9/3/25

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they boys discuss Quinn Hughes' future with the Canucks. 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. Get out of here, bro. A scouring flyball to left center, and can you believe it? George Springer is on a heater. George Springer has done it again. I really just want to help us win. I'm glad I could.

High-fly ball. Al-Tube back on the track. Looking up, see ya. A grand slam for Grisham. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is rough.

It is SportsNet 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adag. to you. Good morning. Lattie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough

the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are coming to live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear, and orthotics working together with you and step. Big show ahead on a Wednesday

at the three-guester here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650 as we are now just one day away from the start of the National Football League campaign. We're going to start today, though, with some National Hockey League news. Our ESPN NHL Insider and good buddy, Greg Wischinski is going to join the program at

630. Big news from yesterday. The NHL and the PA have agreed to expedite a playoff salary cap and changes to LTIR for the upcoming season. They're fast-track in that part of the CBA. What does it all mean? How it all work?

What other changes are going to be implemented? We'll get into all that and more with Greg at 630. We'll do a bit of it in what happen as well. Seven o'clock, James Sharman is going to join the show for a little footy talk. He, of course, the host of the Footy Prime podcast, also a sports net soccer contributor. His most recent piece, how the World Cup influenced a very, very busy transfer window for the Canadian men's team. Lots of transfers went down prior to Monday's deadline. Of note, Canada does play friendlies this weekend. They got a Friday game in Romania, and then next Tuesday they've got a

match in Wales, so we'll talk to James about all that as well. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com in goal magazine. Jason, did you know that it's NHL goalie week? What? It's NHL goalie week. Every week should be goalie week. Every week should be goalie week. But this week is NHL goalie week.

That's good. It's not during the season. It's a celebration of goaltending. Just get it out of the way early. From September 2nd to 7th, reveling in the uniqueness. an artistry of puck stoppers through the decades. So, what better time to get Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingole magazine on the show?

We'll also do a bunch of Canucks talk with Kev as well. And around 7.30, we'll dive deep into some other stuff. Drancer has a new piece up at the athletic. We'll get him on later in the week, but we'll talk about his stuff today. So working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Kevin Woodley, 7 o'clock, it's James Sharon. 6.30, it's Greg Wushinsky. 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. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCCSA.ca. We will begin with the Toronto Blue Jays. Another wild one.

All the Blue Jays do. is play wild games. There were 14 combined runs in the first two innings of that game yesterday in Cincinnati. Jays ultimately win 12-9, thanks to a pair of George Springer Jacks, like you heard in the intro. Let's hear it again. Let's hear Buck cheer that ball out of the yard. George Springer goes twice yard yesterday. Jays win 12-9.

Here's what it sounded like. And the Blue Jays have two of the five American League hitters. Get out of here, ball. Powering fly ball to left center, and can you believe it? George Springer has done it again. I can believe it, Mr. Shulman. I can believe it. He's the MVP, right? Of the team, Springer? Yeah.

Had the crazy start, maybe cooled off a little bit, but he's back now with Boba Chet, and they're carrying this team offensively, for sure, and the way the bullpen has been performing, and frankly, some of the other pitchers um they've needed it and this is the thing that we we did mention yesterday about the jays in that yeah they've got major pitching issues with the bullpen let i don't i don't think anyone has to you know do any mental gymnastics to to figure that out i know Hoffman got a done yesterday 23 blown sakes

but Hoffman got his 30th and he only allowed one hit Yeah like he looked good He looked good yesterday But there are issues in the bullpen But the thing is They're not falling apart You know they

I mentioned this yesterday You know four series ago They won two of three against Miami And then they went And hosted Minnesota And did have a blown bad save in that series but they won two of three. They lost two of three to Milwaukee,

but they got one win against a really good team. And now, despite, you know, losing that first one to Cincinnati in shocking form, really, wild form. They get the win in the second one. So they're not falling apart, and they're not really in any huge jeopardy, unlike the team a few hours south from us. As we'll turn our attention to the Mariners here in a second, but it's a good point to bring up. The Js aren't going to miss the playoffs, right?

The Mariners might, the Jays won't. The concern with the bullpen is entirely about the postseason. Yes, yes, yes. The Jays have the best record in the American League right now. They're a half game ahead of the Tigers with that win last night. There's only two teams of the American League that are on 80 wins, and it's the Jays and the Tigers. The issues aren't a regular season issue.

The issue is when you get to the postseason, and all of a sudden that save opportunity could be the difference between moving on to the next round and falling apart and having your season end, are you going to hand the ball to Hoffman and be like, go get it done? They have to at this point because there's not really, I don't even think there's another way

that they could tweak the algorithm to move the closers around or try and give someone a different shot. Hoffman's gotten to 30 saves this year, and I think that he's going to be the guy come hell or high water when the playoffs start. I did want to mention one. Springer has been a revelation this year,

not just because he's putting up some of the best numbers he's ever had in his career Blue Jays or otherwise back in his Houston days, but doing it at an advanced stage. Can we play the audio from Arden and from Ben yesterday? Because they were full of praise in a game where a lot of guys went off offensively.

You know, Bichet had another great night at the plate. Dalton Varsha went in yard for the second straight game. But it was George Springer, old man George, summer of George, putting another epic performance forth as the Jay's win in Cincinnati. Here's Arden Zwelling and Ben Nicholson Smith

following last night's win. We are into September, but the summer of George continues. Springer has two homers here. He's now hitting over 300 with nearly a 400 on base and a 550 slug on the season. It is just remarkable what he's doing. It really is. Now, 26 home runs on the season. That's the most he's ever hit as a Blue Jay here in the fifth year of that six-year contract, a point by which, you know, any fair observer probably would have expected him to be declining, not posting the best numbers of his Blue Jay's career, and his OPS Plus is the highest of his career, period, even going back to the Houston Astros. So this is a perfect time for George Springer to be having this kind of career season, certainly the best of his Blue Jay's career, because they needed it. And at a time that Jose Barrillos really didn't have it, they needed that offense to go off four home runs and Springer with two of them just looking at his best. We don't even need to mention that Barrio start. Don't worry about that.

We'll just gloss right over that because Beaver's going tonight. Please know. Please no. Please let's knock out of it. We do need to talk about the Seattle Mariners though. This is a team in trouble. Another loss to the Tampa Bay raise and Laddie came in the studio this morning and was griping not just about the M's losing but not being able to take

care of the race. Who are now check this record, and 69 on the year, Greg. They're the nicest team in the league. They're hanging around that wild card. They're a plucky little team, and they've got the J's two series down the stretch, if I'm not mistaken, right?

At least one. Yeah. So the bigger story, though, the Mariners lose again. Now, they got some help yesterday because the Rangers lost as well. So there isn't any closing of the gap. They really got some help because the Rangers did,

they looked like they might be winning that one, and then Arizona came back to win it. Yeah. So they got a little bit. bit of help. Things do not look great, but they still got enough of a cushion to the point where their playoff percentage chances are somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 still. But this is a team that with everything that they did at the deadline, with the pitching staff that they had last year, where we had Softie Mahler on the show yesterday, he was talking about the best ERA in the entire

league, still not making the postseason. There's a lot of pressure to get the job done here. And Cal Raleigh, I know he had his 51st home run of the year last year, but he was talking about the best ERA in he's been in, especially in terms of batting average, he's been in a slump the last little bit. Unlike the J's, where the offense has managed to bail them out of a few bad starts, especially last night in Cincinnati, Seattle hasn't had the same bit of luck,

and that's part of the reason why that their lead in the wild card is whittled down to what it has. Okay, two of the semifinalists are set at the U.S. Open. Felix plays today. Yeah, so we got Jokovic and Alcaraz going a toe-to-to-to on Friday in the semifinals. Yokevich had a bit of a test yesterday

against the American Taylor Fritz Tuesday at the U.S. Open. Alcraz had no such problems in his straight set victory. Alcraz has not dropped a set at the open. I mean, if you look at it right now, and I know that there's a lot of really cool storylines out there, for

those of you that are Novak, Jokovic fans, 38 years old, still doing the business, is now tied for the most semi-final appearances in U.S. Open history. he's got a tough road ahead because he's going up against Alcraz

on the other side of the draw I mean this really does look like like another sinner Alcaraz final but hopefully Felix can throw a wrench into that somehow and Felix still needs to get the job done on the quarterfinals to get past Diminar who by the way I said

was Spanish yesterday that's way wrong he's Australian but that's going to be the test they're close geographically they're on the other side of the planet a hop skip and a jump right I will be watching this one intently today because this is a real opportunity for Felix not just in the quarters but you're looking ahead to taking on sinner who has been almost perfect I will say as

I mentioned yesterday that Chappo managed to take a set off him earlier in the tournament and that's really been the only blip for him if some of these if the semifinals can play out like I think that they're going to play out one's obviously already set with Yokevich and Alcaraz if we can get an Oje aliasim sinner semi I think that's a dream matchup from storyline perspective. For sure. And you know what? The interesting thing was yesterday. I mean, obviously because Taylor Fritz is American, they were giving

Djokovic a tough ride yesterday. Despite the fact that being the grandpa of the draw, he usually gets the crowd behind him, but wasn't the case yesterday. I'll be interested to see how that crowd plays when he takes on Alcoraz. And then I think should Felix get to that

match against Sinner? And again, I'm already kind of pushing Sinner through. He plays a countryman. I forget the other Italians name, by the way, in the quarters. I think that Felix will very much have the U.S. open crowd on his side in large part because he'll be such a decided underdog and that crowd always loves an underdog so he could, but he's got to get past Deminard today and it's not going to be an easy task, although he does have a pretty good career record against Dimanar.

Okay, we've got to unpack some of the CVA stuff. The National Hockey League yesterday, according to multiple sources, has agreed in conjunction with the NHLPA to expedite the playoff salary cap and make changes to LTIR for the upcoming season. So the entirety of the CBA was not supposed to come into effect until 2026, 2027. But a bunch of these rules are going to be fast-tracked. And the big one, of course, Jason, is the playoff salary cap. I want, Adog, are you awake and ready to go?

I'm here. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to read just one paragraph from, from Greg Wischinski's piece on the new playoff salary cap rules. And then you tell me how easy it is to understand. Like you got it, right? Okay.

So the first sentence is actually pretty easy, okay? By 3 p.m. local time or five hours before a playoff game, whatever is earlier, teams will submit a roster of 18 players and two goalies to NHL Central Registry. That's just for the playoff salary cap. Makes sense. There will be a playoff playing roster, averaged club salary calculated for that roster that must be under the upper limit of the salary cap for that team.

The average club salary is the sum of the face value averaged amounts of the player's salary and bonuses for that season for each player on the roster and all amounts charged to the team's salary cap. Ah, yes. I see. It is why we all got into sports. Yeah, that's, nothing complicated about that.

So when the news came down, I'm like, okay. It's like, what does expedite mean? Is it faster or slower? So when the news came down that they were going to implement a playoff salary cap for this season, I was like, oh, great. Then I realized it was not as cut and dry as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be very straightforward. So one player agent explained it thusly to ESPN.

You can have 130 million and 70. salaries on your roster once the playoffs start, but the 18 players and two goalies that are on the ice must be cap compliant. Now, all that mumbo jumbo that you threw out there is how they go about with regards to average salaries and everything coming to that cap compliance. But the big question for a lot of teams moving forward is, will there be any way to manipulate the system now with regards to LTIR

and cap and cap accrual, Jason, one of our favorite things from last year? Because at first blush, a lot of people are suggesting that cap accrual might be useless now because you can't stash a player on LTIR and then activate them for the playoffs when there's no salary cap. But I don't know. That doesn't make sense to me because wouldn't saving money during the season on the salary cap at least help you get players in the door at the trade deadline? Yes. I guess the question would be is, are you a.

to ice a team with a bunch of players that you would have accumulated and acquired over the season and be able to have like a quote unquote full lineup in the playoffs here's a question yes what if you've got a player that is not playing very well but he's healthy can you bury him in the playoffs do you the new rule states that um if you put a team if you put a guy on lTIR and then you exceed the cap that player can't return in the postseason like he's ruled out entirely there's no bringing him back for the postseason so it would have to be something along the lines of this guy's playing bad he all of a sudden has a hip injury and that hip injury is going to keep him out for the remainder of the year like he's not going to be an option for you it seems as though they've

closed every loophole here so that there's always there's always a loophole and that's what I'm wondering what the smart team that's going to be to figure it out now the problem is then you have to go through the CBA how many GMs are just like uh I don't understand this. Apparently there's a general manager's meeting this week where they're going to be informed that these changes are coming and they're on the horizon. I'm going to read one more paragraph.

Yes, let's do it. This is from Wish's Peace. Okay? Along with that postseason salary cap, the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to expedite changes to long-term injury reserve rules for the upcoming season. The total salary and bonuses for a player or players that have replaced a player on LTIR

may not exceed the amount of total salary and bonuses of the player they are replacing the new LTIR rule also states that the average amounts of such replacement players may not exceed the prior season's average league salary. Again, this is why we got into sports. I remember when I was a little kid.

I was like, one day, I'll be able to read the CBA. And ask A-Dog about it. Yeah. Yeah, that's not at all confusing. Oh, by the way, there is an exception to the LTIR rule changes. teams can exceed these average amounts but the injured player would be ineligible return that season or in the postseason.

That's what I was talking about. That exception needs approval from both the NHL and the NHLPA. I think we just need someone to just be able to be like can you do that? No. Well, here's the question. Is any of this going to matter to the Vancouver Canucks this year?

Because this rule is designed for teams that have playoff aspirations, not ones that are going to miss the postseason. This is entirely about what we've seen Florida do, Vegas do, Tampa Bay, probably most famously, because Nikita Kutrov wore a shirt about it in the aftermath of winning a Stanley Cup.

This is what the contending teams in the National Hockey League have done with regularity over the last five, ten years is they've exploited this loophole to which I've never had a problem with. I don't know if you're of the same mind on this, but I've never had an issue with teams using the tools that were available to them

in the way that, especially last year with Florida, where Matthew Kachuk sits out and Aaron Eckblatt under different circumstances sit out for the remainder of the regular season. The Florida Panthers go out and make big moves and they put together one of the more dominant teams that we've seen in recent memory

over the course of those two seasons. The NHL should encourage loophole exploitation. They should just be like, you know what? We applaud you if you're able to get past this nonsense. Okay. Okay, quick counterpoint. It's essentially cheating. Yeah.

You're being cheating and trying. And obviously there were, were enough teams to um that were frustrated with it and the or and maybe the league in league itself because we look like fools the they changed in the cb a and in fact didn't even wait for the new cb a to comment now speaking of loopholes guys there is there is a story breaking in the NBA right now and uh it's funny to us because we've actually kind of joked about this scenario maybe one day playing out.

Pablo Torre finds out who has been finding out about a lot of stuff. That's his podcast title. Pablo Torre finds out. Is alleging in an exclusive that Kawhi Leonard signed a $28 million endorsement deal for a no-show

job with a fraudulent tree planting company funded by $50 million from Clippers owner Steve Balmer. And a source says that it was to circumvent the salary cap. So here's, we've, we've clipped this, uh, this anonymous, one of the anonymous sources. And there are many sources that. that were used in this in this story but one of them agreed to go in a disguised interview

and this is a few more mask chin putty had some funny glasses on it was like if you see it it's like electronically disguised and here's how that played out I didn't so much as discover it as I was told about it

what was your reaction what were you told my reaction was what the and I was told like oh these are the major contracts and the major players you really need to be aware of and we went through a litany of you know really really top tier name contracts

and then oh by the way we also have a marketing deal with Kauai Leonard a $28 million organic marketing sponsorship deal with Kauai and that if I had any questions about it essentially don't because it was to circumvent the salary cap, L.O.L. There was lots of LOL when things were shared.

Did you ever see proof of Kauai Leonard marketing or endorsing aspiration in any way? Never not once. The single largest payment to an individual for marketing that aspiration ever made has completely evaded all press. It's honestly incredible. Nothing. He didn't have to do anything. In other words, Kauai Leonard got from Aspiration

a $28 million no-show job. Yeah, it's amazing. I'm honestly so jealous. So I'm going to put you on the spot here. Great. What do you remember about the Clippers signing Kauai? They signed him to a four-year, 176.3 million dollar contract,

which raised a bunch of eyebrows at the time because a lot of people said that Kauai like so many other NBA starts could have either opted or opted for some sort of Supermax. It was less. money than what he probably could have gotten at the time. It now dovetails nicely into, oh, getting $28 million from a company, which also had several other A-list celebrities on their marketing payroll, including, if I'm not

mistaken, Leonardo DiCaprio. But I think the big difference was with the other celebrities that were paid to endorse is that they actually endorsed the company. Yeah, that was a big key. Yeah, whereas Kauai Leonard seemingly had no interest nor public announcement that he was the face, or one of the faces of this tree planting company. And it would have been dicey if he had put himself out there as an endorser of that company. Yes. Don't you think?

Well, I believe they since gone bankrupt. Well, that's how it was all discovered. Yes. Because Kauai Leonard was a creditor. And Steve Ballmer had invested 50 million of his own money into the company, if I'm not mistaken. So if this story proves to be accurate in any way, shape, or form, this is going to go right to the front of Commissioner Silver's priority chart because this would be salary cap dodging of the highest order for one of the marquee teams in the NBA since Ballmer has taken over with the brand new stadium that they are playing in and all of the amenities that have come with it. the fact that he has tried to build a team with his financial

clout and the star players that he's been able to attract that would somehow wrestle some of the spotlight away from the Lakers in Los Angeles. It's a pretty big story that happened this morning. Brough sent this to me at like 5.15 this morning. So this is something that is happening right now in the moment. So we'll be keeping tabs on it

throughout the show because I got a feeling that there will be some statement from the National Basketball Association at some point today, at least to acknowledge that this is something that they have to investigate. If they get the clippers dead to rights on this they are going to

hammer that team and every commissioner of the major leagues is going to be calling the NBA and going you have to hammer the clippers on this because you can't circumvent

the salary cap unless you're in the Stanley Cup playoffs you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough you're listening to the best of Halford and Brough Crossby Rust and that's broken up by Patterson

back comes Quinn Hughes Into the Pittsburgh zone Hughes drags left Nice move, shoots he scores 40 seconds in the third a solo dash by Quinn Hughes

732 on a Wednesday Happy Wednesday everybody Halford Brough SportsNet 650 Halford and Brother of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com.

We're an hour two of the program. What's more? We're at the midway point of the show. Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Homonock at Jason. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. I am joking, of course. Let him do exactly that. Visit him online at Jason. Dow mortgage. So, loving the tunes is more.

Should we go through a few more Quinn Hughes quotes and try and parse his words? Oh, sure, why not? Let's twist his words to fit our narrative. Wait, what? So we already talked about Hughes basically saying, like, I haven't decided on my future

and I'm just going to stay present. He did talk about last year being a challenge and he said every year brings its different challenges to my best buddies and he's talking about Garland and Besser

just signed in Vancouver long term I will say last year was not fun it just wasn't but I'm a really competitive guy last year was a failure so I'm trying to bring my best try to be a great leader and help my team get in the playoffs who knows what we can do

and who knows how I'll be feeling this time next year. It's still a year away. Maybe that's the key quote. Who knows how I'll be feeling this time next year? A lot to be decided. I think we've laid it out fairly thoroughly over the course of this summer

in the dearth of actual news that was presented to us that this season is profoundly important for the future of the future of this organization. Yes, this year is profoundly important to get back into the playoffs,

but that's more of an immediacy thing. This year, you do have, thanks to the contract and the length of it, you do have an opportunity to write the wrongs from last year. You do, especially when it comes to Hughes. And let's be honest, priorities this season, priority one,

it's making the playoffs, and then 1A is probably making sure that Quinn Hughes is happy and that he's having a better time. time than he did last year, where he admitted on the record, it was not fun. That's the big takeaway for me. Well, look,

I just think if that, you know, Pee can have a bounce back and the team can stay healthy. That's all it needs. I did give Lattie a bit of a heads up. Don't tell you. I was ready. I was ready. You didn't need the heads up. Don't tell them how the sausage

is made. It's a secret. Worst case scenario if he misses it, I can just go I got a backup right here Yeah I can test you guys though I'll be like oh We're listening You're gonna like whisper it in the microphone

I didn't hear it That's a little thing we were doing yesterday in case you have no idea What just happened But you know Everyone pointing out the fact That if Elias Pedersen Can bounce back

And the team can stay healthy They've got a chance At making the playoffs speaking of Elias Pederson yes he said you know I've been

PD's biggest supporter throughout everything when I was a rookie and he was a sophomore we were kind of similar guys in that we were both on the quiet side reserved but we both loved hockey

and we were both smaller guys growing up and we had to find a way to be good and I think that was through our hockey sense in the way we saw the game. As far as PD, I mean we need him. You don't get to the level PD was at without having extreme dedication and focus and some things inside you. I've seen it from him and I think he's going to be great. I think he's happy. Think he's had a great summer and I'm looking forward to seeing him. Do I think he's going to have a better year? Yeah, because he's a really good player. But

it's going to be up to him about how good a year he has. So there is some real positivity. Sure. And some and a show of support from Quinn Hughes, but also an acknowledgement that we can't do it for him. Yeah. It's just the approach. And the approach is fundamentally different than the,

oh, I don't know, J.T. Miller approach. And part of this has to do with the fact that Hughes and Pedersen are friends. they like each other on a personal level where I don't, I mean, straight honest, I don't think Miller and Patterson liked each other. Yeah. And I think that's pretty obvious.

They didn't vibe. We weren't best friends. Yeah. Weren't even friends. Never mind best. This is also another big part of Hughes's future though. Because he knows that whatever happens in Vancouver is going to be immediately tied

to the Pedersen trajectory. And there is a common theme throughout this interview with IMAQ where he talks about the guys that he has in Vancouver, not just being his teammates, but being his friends. Garland, Besser, Pedersen. Everyone understands

what the draw of another market, specifically his brothers in New Jersey holds. But there is something to be said for what Vancouver presents him in terms of guys that he's come up with in the National Hockey League, guys that he's familiar with, guys that he knows what they can

do, how they play, how he plays with them. And there's some value to that. But the biggest issue is what they're going to be able to do this year to prove if last year was a blip or last year was the first and a cascade downward. And no one has a really great predictor on that right now. We talked about it a lot yesterday. We have ideas of what we think might happen with the dramatic chipmunk music and everything. There's two big issues hanging in the balance. One is Pedersen and one is the health of the team. People are going to get real sick of that real quick.

Starting to feel it myself. Mission accomplished. But the added thing now is that the stakes aren't just getting back to the postseason. It's setting the table so that your captain and best player doesn't want to further entertain the idea of leaving. Now, the big question, people have texted this in. as well to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at 650-650 is if you were to put Hughes's feet to the fire right now and maybe in a off camera off the record quiet moment

ask him what are you going to do has he already made his mind up great question don't know I love in the article how he kept being like oh man last year was so stressful yeah it's so obvious that just completely wore him out like I have to expect him to be like yeah I took smoking at one point pack a day pretty much like it just seems like if it's like traumatized those 14 games that I didn't play last year I was doing other things

there's a lot that's riding on that there's a lot that's riding on that and he's he's gonna here's the other one prediction I can I think I can safely have is that the can is going to be kicked down the road the entire season when he says I can handle the noise

that's the interesting one to me because this is a very important year. In terms of dealing with questions, the natural ones from the local media, when you go out on the road, you've got the road questions. You've also got an Olympic year. And you've got a hugely important,

this isn't just your regular run-of-the-mill Olympic team. NHLers haven't been back in a long time. There's going to be a ton of focus on this. The amount of think pieces and articles that came out of the summer camps where they basically just kind of met and, you know, shot the breeze, there's a lot there as well.

Is Quinn the American's best player? He's in the running, man. Yep. He's in the running. And he missed four nations. And you didn't get to play in four nations. And you know that all those guys are holding that. The guys that didn't get to play have a special yearning to get into it.

And the guys that did, they already have the yearning because they lost in the final. I mean, so that is going to be a big driving force of the season. If things aren't going great with Vancouver, is that going to impact things? If it is going to go into the Olympics on a hike? this be a year where he has great success? I'm selling like a soccer punt in here, but with both club and country. And he's like, all right. Like I'm at a good place. I'm in a happy place in my career. I want to keep it together. All these things are on the table. I think on the other hand, if the Canucks aren't in a playoff position by the trade deadline, that's when the talk can start.

because that way you could offer a team two years guaranteed of Hughes in the postseason which could juice the return pretty significantly if you have to get to the point where you have to trade them but let's cross that bridge when we get to it if we get to it hopefully we don't the quote that stood out to me was who knows what we can do and who knows what we can do

and who knows how I'll be feeling this time next year It's still a year away Because it's just pretty much And being like Look, if we missed the playoffs and we're off and we have another year Like we did last year Yeah, I might want to try a different team But if we make them

We'd all be like, yeah We understand We would too Yeah, but if we can't But if the team makes the playoffs And they have a decent run Then he might be like, you know what? I believe in this squad, I want to stay

So like obviously It totally makes sense that he would like punt on that Because it's like, I just want to see how this year goes Because like last year was so traumatizing Clearly for him And I don't want another one of those years. So it's up to the team collectively to come together and help me decide that I want to stay. Well, it's not dissimilar to what Connor

McDavid is looking at in Edmonton. Totally. You know, except that Conn McDavid doesn't have two brothers playing on another NHL team. And he's had a lot more success. His brother's just a guy. Yeah. Works at a paving company somewhere, I think. I don't know. No, but you know, I think you're you're looking at okay, well, one of my signing up for not just staying this season or the next season, you're looking at a commitment through your prime years. Yep. And even if that's in McDavid's case, or I guess in Quinn Hughes case,

even if you're not going for the full eight years, even if it's just three or four, oh, we've seen that, and I'm talking about Edmonton here, when a team gets old and they can't replace those players, it gets real hard, real quick. Sure. You need a, if you're appealing to a superstar player, I think you do need to show the entire arsenal

of what you've got as an organization, not just at the NHL level, but even below. But what could the Oilers say to McDavid that would convince them that they've, we got it. We're good here because they haven't been able to solve the goaltending thing for two years and they still haven't solved it.

I don't think that they can. And I think that's why. they're in the situation that they're in where this thing continues. It's now September, and he's not signed. You know what the Canucks could do for Hughes, though? Speaking of young players in the pipeline, maybe, just maybe, they could get Braden Coots in the mix this year. Yeah, that's a, that's a, I was reading Drance's piece in the athletic

where he's talking about the 23 men roster for the Canucks and who's a lock, who might challenge, and the final category was, the dark horse and Braden Coots was that because he's got pedigree he's I mean he's a first round draft pick

and he skates well he's a center and he's a right shot center they don't have a right shot center so I do think that Coots is going to be a story at training camp

I think he's a long shot to make the team but I could see maybe if the roster allows it like waivers doesn't put anyone at risk do they give him a bit of a run because you could play nine games

and then get sent back to the dub I really do wonder about that the right shot center thing is interesting because even though he's right shot like how is he going to be it at face offs at the NHL level. Do you know what I mean? Yep. And like a lot of the times

if you're putting out a guy and you're like, okay, well, we really need a faceoff win here. You know, it's a defensive zone faceoff. Usually it's an important one. Are you going to put Brandon Coots out for that? Probably not. Probably not. Unless he shows an affinity or an adeptness for it. I think the bigger...

He ticks all the boxes except for like age and experience. Yeah, he's incredibly young. And it would be asking a lot. Now, I've had this conversation before. with the big picture NHL stuff, with the league expanding and the need for more players

and high-end players, will there be a slow acknowledgement across the league that you are going to have to fast track more of these first-round picks? We'll never get to the point of the National Football League where you're getting a first-round pick is a day-one starter throughout the first round. I don't think we'll ever get there.

You think the NHL players are drafted too young and there's just the maturing physically that needs to happen. That won't happen. That being said, if you're in the situation that the Canucks around, I do think you have to at least explore it,

in part because you've got such a lack of depth at center. And you may as well see what you've got. I know that people are going to say, Vertan and McCann, they're going to throw it out there. And there's validity to it because it was a bad decision and history has suggested that

it was not the right move, but it was also almost a decade ago and a few things have changed. I think the league has changed. This is not those prospects. It's a different player entirely. Everyone's got a different maturity level at that age too.

We don't really know much about Braden Coots. But everything suggests that he is a leader. Someone texted and said, if Coots makes the team, they have a problem. Well, they already do have a problem. Yeah. Like their problem is their depth down the middle. If Coots makes the team, it accentuates the problem

or highlights it for the rest of the league. But maybe he's part of the solution. Well, you would know. Maybe, maybe, like, it, okay. Max Sasson, Ty Mueller, Braden, Cootts, Nils Amon.

Mm-hmm. Like, isn't it, isn't it not crazy to suggest that Coots might be able to beat out Max Sasson, Nils Amon, or Ty Mueller?

The only thing, the only thing that's holding it back. I don't think that's insane to suggest that. There is an element of the industry's collective think on this, which is you don't rush these guys. And I know Philadelphia tried it with Jet Lechenko and gave me a handful of games. And I think that's a very different circumstance

because Philadelphia was not a good team and they were bad all last year. And you couldn't really properly insulate the guy. Desperate times do call for desperate measures. and I don't know if this would qualify as capital D desperate, but it would certainly be outside the norm because the general school of thought is with a first round pick, a mid-round pick, we're not talking one, two, or three overall.

You send that player back for more seasoning and more time at whatever level. That being said, it is intriguing because, well, and part of this has to do with the fact that I don't think anyone anticipated the connection where we're going to make that pick at 15, right? Going into the draft, we had all just naturally assumed that that pick was going to be packaged with something to address the roster problems. I want to talk a little bit about what Quinn Hughes had to say about Adam Foote because it's actually kind of funny. And IMAQ notes, and we all know this, soon after Adam Foote was hired, he met with Hughes, Pedersen and Demko in Detroit. The golf trip.

To have dinner and play golf and talk about the team and leadership. And by the way, when that happened, I think everyone should have known that, like, Dempco was staying. He wasn't getting traded. And then quite famously, I suppose, Pedersen flew over from Sweden for that talk. And the organization was really happy that Pedersen was willing to do that. IMAQ notes that there were subsequent Zoom meetings, love Zoom meetings, I love a good zoom. Between Foote and the Canucks larger leadership group.

And he said, he wrote, Foot has been so eager to grow relationships with players that Hughes, needing to decompress, had to tell his new head coach at one point that he wouldn't be answering the phone for a couple of weeks. And then Hughes is quoted as saying, if I didn't tell him that, he'd have been on the phone with me every four or five days.

He's been really great at communicating and no one's more excited for the season than him. You're coming on a little strong. You have 96 missed voice bills from Adam Foote. I was one of the takeaways. When we had foot on the show, when we had foot on the show, that was one of the big takeaways.

How many times did he mention the importance that he felt? Team building, camaraderie, dinners, family gatherings, all this stuff really mattered to him. So it's not surprising that he, you know, and it's his first job. You know, first coaching job. You know, you all remember when you got your first big job. Right? Maybe you go a little overboard.

Maybe you start asking people to go for lunch that don't want to go for lunch with you. But you ask. You're trying to be a good guy around the office. This is quite a quote too. This is from Quinn Hughes. And he's talking about how Adam Foote is trying to make the Canucks a better team, which is good because he's the coach

and that's the main job. But Hughes said, let's be honest. We're not going to be the most skilled team. But we can have the hardest working team. we can have a team I mean you look at Florida and they have a ton of talent but they're a team

and that's something we can be that is actually somewhat reminiscent of... We could definitely be a hockey team Who is the who's the senator's guy It's like what is one Dorian? Yeah I know what is one thing that you can say that you know gives the fans

some hope he's like we're a team well we will definitely be a hockey team this year touche pierre but look look, we all know what he's saying and we all know what happened last season when they weren't a team. They weren't all getting along. I keep coming back to the power play last season

and I just wonder what some of those power play meetings were like. And there were times, I was watching the power play and I'm like, I don't think that guy wants to pass the puck to that. guy what guys are you possibly talking about it was just it was so weird and then at one point talk it split them up pd and jt and he said these guys need a break from each other and like if you have those sorts of situations playing out in your team like that's that's you're not a team and and and you're you're right to bring up what what adam foot said

in our talk with him when he was like so excited about doing some team building activities, even if that is just having dinner and making sure that everyone's invited to dinner and making sure that there aren't any, as he put it, any young guys having dinner alone on the road. Right. Right. And a lot of that comes back to leadership. And it is a tough job for a guy like Quinn Hughes to be like, is everyone happy? Like I know I've got to do a lot of things too.

but when you are the captain of the team, you are also responsible for the players on it. That's why you're the captain, the captain. Well, Foote got this job in part. And Rutherford explained this, you know, quite thoroughly. He got this job because he was on site and on scene to see everything that went wrong last year.

And if you're able to experience what went wrong, theoretically you're going to have an upper hand on making it right as opposed to maybe I don't know mani mahotra who wasn't there to see everything exactly as it deteriorated last year he probably heard about it but he wasn't there in the room foot was there so for him to put that at the forefront of his

you know early days in coaching isn't a huge surprise he's going to have other things that he's going to need to do that aren't about the rah rah and the camaraderie in the chemistry where it's actual exes and nose and everything else. But right now, it certainly seems, and again, this is a, this is an organizational narrative and mandate from last year that so much of what went wrong last year had to do with chemistry or a lack thereof, that that seems to be priority number one. And I think the, the ricochet here is that that's going to help Hughes as well in terms

of where his mentals are at and where he believes in this group, because you're going to need to turn the season around in terms of getting more wins and getting more points, but you're also need to get to turn this season around in terms of being a cohesive unit where everyone likes each other again and they actually feel like they want to play for each other. They did not have that at times last year. And I think that goes a long way with the fans. For sure.

Even if you fail, as long as you know that the guys are getting along and they're trying hard and they're trying to sacrifice for each other and they're doing... It sounds so silly. Like, are you doing your best? Are you doing your best? Are you all care as much

about the Vancouver Canoe? as we, for whatever reason, do. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.