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

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, plus they break down the latest Canucks news with radio commentator Brendan Batchelor. 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. Shotgun to the quarterback. He fakes it to run of himself. Over the right tackle to 10. Got a block at the five. Sideline. Pylon. Touchdown. G. G.C. McCarthy. Naylor, plugs this out to center field, and it short hops the wall. Well, I added six kilos, so you can add up to whatever head. This can't be right. This man has 104% body fat.

Hey, no eating in the tank. Oh, the hell. Good morning, Vancouver, 6-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his breath. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah, good morning to you.

Good morning. Gladdy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought 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-Trustee.com. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling.

North Star! Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle. You get paid. visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. There's one guy that'll be really happy you did that. Sometimes I like to throw it in there. You haven't done it for a while, though.

I've got to keep him guessing. We have this one texter that got very upset when you stopped as well, and I don't think he was joking. He was actually very upset. He's like, I need it every day. We've blocked it. Routine is important. It is.

We're coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech, Footwear, and Orthotics, working together with you in Step. Big show ahead on a Tuesday. It's a three-guester here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. He begins at 7 a.m. Brandon Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join the program. We are officially back into the swing of things when Batch comes on a Tuesday to talk a little Canucks. Batch was at the Milf yesterday, speaking with players and collecting audio for us and for the rest of the station.

Pity, Brock, Misey, Lanks, all your favorites. They all spoke yesterday at the Milt. We'll get into that in the first hour of the program. Then we'll talk to Batch about everything. just from yesterday, but what's coming this week for the Canucks at 7 o'clock this morning. 7.30, Buck Pierce is going to join the program. BC Lions head coach, we will look back on another disappointing loss for the Lions on Friday, 34 to 33 in the nation's capital in Ottawa.

We will then look ahead to this Friday's game at BC Place against those same Ottawa red blacks. It has been a season-long challenge to get things right on the defensive side of the football for the Lions. so we will once again try and ask Buck what are the plans this week to get things sorted how are things going to be different this time when you take on the Red Blacks Buck Pierce is going to join us at 7.30 this morning 8 o'clock Matt Verde Ram's going to join the program

NFL staff writer for Sports Illustrated wasn't the prettiest Monday night football game last night but in the end it was entertaining and it was very interesting the Vikings behind a resurgent J.J. McCarthy rallied to beat the Bears in Chicago last night, despite trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter.

I was out of the hockey rink yesterday. The hockey rink. For the boys' tryouts. And I was talking to some of the dads about that game. And at the time, the bears were winning, and they were like, oh, what's going on there? I was like, well, you know what? After Sunday night, I'm not ready to call this game over.

Still, I was one of the most improbable fourth quarter turnerounds I think I've ever seen. There was no indication that J.J. McCart. he was going to go off for historic totals in the fourth quarter, but he did. So what we can do with Matt when he joins us at eight is we can look back on Monday night football and everything that happened from week one and hey, why not look ahead to week two? Because now we're just two days away from a very tantalizing Thursday nighter between the commanders and the Packers, both one and no starts for those two. That's on Thursday night.

So working in reverse on that guest list, eight o'clock, it's Matt Verde Ram. 7.30, it's Buck Pierce. 7 o'clock. It's Brendan Batchler. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, 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? Miss that? You missed that? What happened?

What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies, the best of tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCS.a.com. We will begin with the Vancouver Canucks, who kicked. off their season at Northview on Monday for the 41st annual Jake Milford charity golf tournament.

Some call it the Jake, some call it the milf. It's now in the books anyway. Elias Pedersen, Brock Besser, Tyler Myers, and Kevin Lankton all spoke about what they did during the summer and how much they were looking forward to the upcoming year. I guess we can run through these real quick. We will go

through some of the audio and have more in-depth conversations about there were a few fairly good storylines coming from yesterday. But Elias Pedersen, Big News there, and I'm not sure which one took the lead. The one that he put on 13 pounds or the one that he got married. Or then I made a joke about it on Twitter and people lost their minds. They weren't happy with you.

Well, some of them were. You made a very classic dad joke. A very, very classic. It was the most innocuous, rated G joke I've made. Do you want to read it or do you want me to paraphrase it? No, I'm going to read it. Okay. I'm going to read it.

Okay. People were not everyone. Like, the thing is when I say, like, so many people, most people are like, yeah, that's a dad joke. And, like, I don't like it because it's a dad joke. Sure. But, okay, so Petey admitted, like, finally conceded. I don't know if admitting's the right word, but go ahead. But he did have to get pushed to say he got married.

Well, he doesn't like to share private information about his life. And that's fine, right? Let's say, let's say Elias Patterson confirmed. reports that he did get married over the summer. Okay. He admitted his marriage. Then he broke down in tears. All I said, this is

what I wrote. I go, getting married and putting on weight is called letting yourself go, isn't it? It's funny. Oh my God. How dare you? How dare you? That was the response from

quite a few people. Now, putting aside the hysteria. and I wanted to work a woke thing in here, but I'm going to leave it alone. I think there is something to be taken from this. I honestly do. Me too. I think that the response and the...

People hate me. That's the takeaway. There's two takeaways. Main takeaway of this whole thing. I think it speaks to the amount of consternation and stress and worry and trepidation there is collectively

about Pedersen in general but specifically how much is hinging and how much is on those extra 13 pounds that he's bringing into camp those shoulders all in the shoulders how much weight he's carrying not just in terms of the extra weight but what he's got what he represents for this team

and there are some people that want none of your foolishness Jason none of your fooling because I'll be very serious about it well all joking I hope the extra weight doesn't slow him down. Right. He's sensitive and he might hear you and not play well and ruin the season and it'll be all your fault. All joking

and sarcasm aside. No, that's actually what some people think. I know that. I think that's like the reason for those responses. A bit of a walking on eggshells situation going on here. Just like, don't jinx it or don't make him unhappy. There's a fragility to the situation in general. There's a fragility to the

situation in general. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that he took a beating both on and off the ice last year. And let's be real, at times, like a pinata for certain teammates, a certain head coach, right? There was, all of this. People feel that he's been picked on. Right.

And there are people that really like Elias Pedersen. Yes. And there's also people that I think that the part that I'll give some credence to, because like, you know, the fan boy, fan girl-ish stuff, I put aside. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there is some, there are some people out there that are like, this guy just needs all the positive vibes imaginable going into this. season like anything that you can try and build up and build in a positive way is what he needs for maybe the mental side of the game more than anything else now I don't want to I kind of think that goes for the team too I would agree the team as a whole I think it was

Scott young was on the on the station yesterday and he's one of the assistant coaches yes and he was talking about how you know one of his jobs is going to be instilling confidence in the group and I don't really know how you do that other than just like looking good today looking confident you're remember hey remember you're a good hockey player well we're going to answer a question later you threw it out there in the notes and we're going to throw it to the listeners

I can throw it out there now so we can get the ball rolling on the conversation what do you think will be different capital D different about Adam foot compared to Rick Talkett and what you were just talking about I think might be one of the things is I think and maybe he'll have to go about it like in a very conscious matter

like I'm going to have to proactively think about being this way. Every little thing Petey does like nice line change PD I do wonder I do wonder if part of it is going to be having a less adversarial relationship

with certain guys because I think I think one thing you know and I'm sure behind closed door there is more publicly talk it did a really good job very rarely blasting players but you know we've heard anecdotally and otherwise that

there were a lot of meetings with individual players and a lot of sit downs with individual players and a lot of talks two, not with, but two individual players what they needed to do, right? And not calling players out publicly is one thing, but what goes on in the sanctity of the meeting rooms and the

dressing room is another. And I wonder if that might end up being one of the big things that's the difference between foot and talk as it pertains to... Well, I think to start the season at the very least it has to be because there is a There is a concern and a valid one of being the coach that throws his arm around everyone and is the good guy. And, you know, never puts anyone's feet to the fire, never holds anyone's to account, is he become a dormant?

And you don't have that voice or that gravitas in the room where you can, you know, pull the choke chain or demand more out of the guys than they'll answer, right? If they think sometimes, sometimes, then it happens in the workplace a lot. If you think your superior is your buddy, you don't treat them as your boss, right? you just treat them as another guy. And that's an issue. Now, I don't know if that's going to be the case. Camberra, he's a monster. And a really great guy.

So anyway, I think that's it for the Pedersen part of things. Well, why don't we play his audio about what? Because I thought, did you notice that he added the classic Pedersen headline line? You know how we? He spun it. Normally he says, I don't want to make a headline. This time he said, you guys can put it in your headline. So it's almost like he was trying to get out in front of it.

And this was in response to putting on. Can we just, can we just admit that it's interesting that he says that every time and possibly telling? Well, it's not even possibly telling. It's very obvious at this point that he pays attention to what's being said about him a lot. Yeah. A lot. And I don't know if he's out there, you know, picking up the newspaper every morning from his local newspaper box and reading headlines. I don't know

But I think he might be more of a news on his phone guy I think that he very much Very much is Always on edge about what's going to be written As opposed to paying attention To what's going to be written if that makes sense Like maybe he's not out there digesting everything That's going on in Connects Media

But he's very, very aware That anything he says Is going to be like parsed Like what we're doing right now So the stock line is always I don't want to make a headline or this is going to make a headline. Let's play the Pedersen audio now.

Greg, how long are we here for this Pedersen? The headline should be just like headline. PDMix headline. Yeah, again. You want the kilos audio? Yeah, let's run through some of it. This was the one that sort of led off the talks, and we actually mentioned this as we were going to break yesterday.

Elias Pedersen talking about what happened this summer, not the wedding, but putting on six kilograms, 13 pounds this off season. Almost one stone, by the way. Thank you very much. Just under one stone. In his quest to get stronger for the upcoming campaign. Here's Elias Pedersen from the Milf yesterday.

Yeah, well, I added six kilos, so you can add that to whatever headline. How do you think that's going to help you? No. Jokes aside, no, I feel good. It's been a long summer, so I just tried to add some muscles and be ready to be myself again out there. and I feel confidence that I will. So some other things as well. He did mention he got married over the summer.

He also spoke about how excited he was when Brock Besser signed his contract extension with the Canucks in the summer. That pivots nicely into one of the other people who talked yesterday and it was Brock Besser. He discussed the stress that went into July 1 and he was on a trip prior to free agency in Italy and Croatia,

was essentially stressed out the entire time, which I'm sure his travel mates were thrilled about. What does a stressed out Brock Besser look like? I don't know. Did he go from a zero to a one? I don't. A lot of running his hand through his hair. Guys, guys.

Guys, guys, I am stressed. It is. We all just got to calm down. The uncertainty that he must have felt, though, all kidding aside, because he actually made it to free agency for about six minutes. So you got to imagine the days leading up to the first where you're not only acknowledging that things aren't going great with. your current employer, but you're also now with an eye to who else you might play for.

Yeah. So Besser spoke yesterday at the Milford as well. So too did Tyler Myers. Interesting. Myers spoke a lot about his time with the Vander Kane, of course, because he's played with Kane and a bunch of different stops, including the World Junior team, which I laughed because it was about 16 years ago. I think a couple things have changed since then, but he also played with him at the

World's had a lot of good things to say about Kane. Kevin Lankin talked about how much he trained in the offseason in Finland. also talked that him and Demko got together about a month ago and started working in tandem together for the upcoming campaign, which I think is a really interesting thing because they're going to be counted upon not just to play well individually, but also they're going to have to work in tandem in terms of like, hey, it's your turn now, or I'm going to lift you up, you're going to lift me up and that kind of thing. Were Myers and Kane traded for each other? That was the trade, right?

So they never actually played with one another in the National Hockey League. Right. But they did high-fived each other at the airport between Buffalo and Winnipeg. Yeah. And he was like, have fun with Buffalo. and then away that we went. So, you know, anyway, that was kind of it.

We can dive through some of this audio at 6.30 as we get deeper into some of the minutia that the guys put out there yesterday. But, hey, big picture from yesterday. The golf tournament is the annual kickoff for so many of these Canadian NHL teams and yesterday that was for the Vancouver Canucks. They will continue this week.

There's going to be some on-ice sessions in Abbotsford for Canucks prospects. That's because this weekend, down at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, there's going to be a mini-prospect tournament between the Canucks Prospects and the Cracken Prospects. That tournament's going to be held in Abbotsford next year. They're going to alternate back and forth

between Seattle and Vancouver. So there's a lot going on. And then, of course, next week at this time, we will be prepping for training camp, which is going to be really exciting as well because it's another step closer to actual physical Canucks hockey, which we have been dying for since last season ended.

Elliot Friedman, SportsNets, very own NHL, Insider. On with Donnie and Dolly yesterday. This audio has been making the rounds on the socials, I believe a bunch of the shows on our station played it yesterday, but we're going to recap it for the morning crew. This is Friege talking about the Canucks continued search and potential solutions for that second line center position. It's a longer clip, but there's lots of good information in here. Elliot Friedman on the Canucks in their 2C situation. Elliot that market for second line centers Rossi re-signed in Minnesota

Mason McTavish is still out there Jack Roslovick is still out there what's going on like I mean Patrick Alvin tried really hard in August to get a second line center but there was no dance partners I mean first of all they're costly it's not cheap and the

connects don't have a ton of cap space to get that second line center well I think Rick a lot of it is what we just talked about in our last answer, it's just the fact that there's only one real seller. Yep. I mean, how many teams out there right now do you think, if you have a number two center, look how hard they get, how they're there to get, how many teams are looking to move one. And, you know, the other thing, too, is the Canucks have made a lot of deals.

You know, they started to build up their, build, try to build back up their prospect base a little bit. You know, the Abbotsford team had a good run last year. But, you know, do they have a real top end process? specter pick that either they're going to that someone's willing to take or that they want to move or both in a deal um you know i think right now you know mctavish i don't think the ducks want to trade them i think they want to sign them i don't think they want to trade them but let's just do for argument sake rick if the ducks didn't want to trade mctavish do you think you guys have the hall that it's going to take to get them okay so it's not even you know worth discussing yeah you know a guy like

Jack Roslovick, I think, you know, Toronto was looking at him. I think they were looking at him potentially as a winger on the number one line. I don't know that anybody sees him as the number two center. Right. So, you know, yeah, that's not, uh, that's not the answer to your problem. I, to me, right now, unless Rutherford and Levinepool, something out of their hat that we're not seeing, um, the, the answer to that number two question is probably internal for a little while. I mean, those guys are hard to find and they are expensive to get. Look, you made a first round pick

you drafted the center. It's an organizational need and that's what you're going to do. The best way to solve it is internally, but obviously that that's a few years away. Okay, before we get to the analysis, there is a little bit of news in the NHL, especially if you're

a fan of the Calgary Flames. Or goalies. Greg, we got a big one for you here. Yeah, Dustin Wolf, the young goalie in Calgary, has signed a seven year extension with an AAV of seven and a half million. So he's getting paid. Yep, that's great. He's getting paid and he's getting paid early.

So the flames are doing like a lot of teams do around the league. They're taking their young stars and they're giving them a big extension out of their ELCs and hoping that in a few years, they'll look at that contract and be like, oh, what a bargain. So Dustin Wolf signs a seven year extension with a capital. hit of seven and a half million dollars with the Calgary Flames. Back to the Canucks. It is interesting and it is going to be hopefully exciting and not too stressful to go into this

season with, I would say, every center except for maybe Teddy Bluger being a complete wildcard. Like we don't, we really don't know what to expect. It starts at number one with Pedersen and we all know the story there. Heidel is almost like

a multifaceted wildcard because number one, we don't know if he's capable of being a number two center in the NHL. But the other part is we don't know if he'll be able to stay healthy. He has had a lot of concussion. issues. And it cropped up last season as well. You know, fingers crossed that he can stay healthy, but also fingers crossed that he's a good enough player to be a second line center, which is a very

big role in the NHL. Okay, then you get to maybe Bluger as the 3C, but you might want him as the four C, which introduces the three younger wild cards in this. I would say, actually, let's make it four younger wild cards. Okay. Because you've got Atu-Ratu, and we're going to play some audio related to Atu-Ratu. You've got Max Sasson, Ty Mueller, and let's throw in Braden Coots as well. Okay, sure.

Yeah, let's put Coots in the mix. That is sure. We've named seven centers and six. Six or wild dogs. Six are like, I don't know. Early ask us anything for you guys for me. Will the Canucks regret not resigning Pew Souter?

Good question. Especially at that A.A.V. with four point, like it was a very affordable contract that he got. He didn't get the moon. I mean, we all know the answer. It just depends how everyone else does. Depends if he's... Would you not want a bit of insurance, though, based on your sea depth? I mean, like, not to say that Heedl won't

work at 2C, and I know that Suter isn't technically a 2C, they're both probably three Cs. Well, you seem to be arguing that they will regret it. Well, I hope they don't. I mean, I hope Heel's amazing and he's healthy. I'm just saying, like, I mean, you have Heedle, you have Sudeau, you let go, both are probably three Cs, but if you have both, you have both, those guys, at least they're a little interchangeable at the two spot, especially if Heidel goes down with an injury, which is probable.

I also think that that is dependent on, well, how you look at that decision is going to be dependent on how a vendor Kane plays. Because when you think about it, that Kane's cap space, which they added, meant in a lot of ways that it was challenging to bring back Souter. I mean, let's be real here. As great as Souter was for the team last year, He's one of the most likely regression candidates in the league in terms of production. In terms of production. Yeah, but at 4.4, you still got a good 3C that could slot in as a 2C. That's a lot of money. Not really.

It is for a guy that I don't know. They can play 2C on a good team. I don't think that's a lot of money for what he brings. Well, I don't know. What does he bring if he's playing? He's not a total center. He's not scoring 20 plus goals probably if he's playing in a diminished role. No, but you're not going to expect him to.

But when you have. had them on 1.7 million, you loved the deal. Well, sure. When you have them on 4 million, I'm not sure you love it so much. You could also make the argument that he's played the best hockey that he's ever going to play. That he's hit the heights. Oh, I'm not expecting him to repeat what he did this previous season necessarily.

I just will miss that depth. There's a, okay, the center position, you talked about it from the Ross, pure guys that are in the mix, which I think is important because that's a good point to bring up, the six of the seven guys, there's some question marks around them. Maybe not even, if you want to put it in a

glass half full kind of way don't even say you know there's question marks around them you just don't know exactly what you're going to get yet it's a bit of a mystery box let's and everyone loves a mystery box it could be anything even a three C so there's that now I want to focus back and and preach kind of danced around I don't think intentionally but he danced around that they wanted to bring somebody in and I think more importantly they were very vocal in promising that they were we're going to bring somebody in. What were the big lines that Rutherford uttered in this offseason? It'll be more expensive if we don't than if we do.

Well, it'll be expensive to do it, but it will also be very expensive if we don't. And the other one is that we're going to do whatever it takes. Yeah. So you're not really leaving a lot of wiggle room as to what your promise is going to be fulfilled. Like you're going to either do this or you're not. You're either going to go big or you're going to miss entirely. Yeah.

And I realize and, you know, Adog threw up a video. of us on social media yesterday going that, you know, I think the Canucks misread the market. And of course most people didn't actually listen to the clip. They just immediately responded to Adog's salacious headline.

That's how it goes. Well, 31 other teams misread the market and the difference. Ah, the nuance. Well, the difference is... The video today is just going to be a one-minute clip of a rough complaining about the tweet response. The difference is, by the way, we're putting we're putting no more

Pedersen videos online. Except for today's. What if they're good positive videos? What if he scores the ad trick? Okay. Today's video headline is Halford and Brough make fun of Pedersen's weight gain. Yeah. Okay.

So the difference is that the Canucks made it seem like they were definitely going to do this. They were almost they were almost you know like yeah we got to do it. We're going to do it. Because they had to.

No, they didn't. didn't have a lot of other teams like Montreal in comparison where a Montreal in comparison were like we would like to address the center position let me wind it back they felt like they had to like Montreal right now all due respect they are at a different level of I think expectations and pressure in terms of a organizational trajectory they made the playoffs last year that's great they don't want to take a step back that's great but they're still in their infancy the Canucks are in a far different spot. I think there's a general manager

and a president of hockey ops who are under job scrutiny as opposed to the crew and muscle. But I also think that's Rutherford's personality. Now here's an interesting point. He just, he's like, we're going to do this. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of

Halford and Brough. Bachelor, Bachelor, life from Rogers Arena, Collinca, Knox Games. It is Brendan Bachelor, Bachelor, Bachelor. 7.02 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody, Halford, Brough. Sportsnet, 650. Halford & Brub in the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. BC's first and trusted choice for dead help with over 3,000 5-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-trustee.com.

We are now in hour two of the program. As the music suggests, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 of this program is bracked by Jason Hominuck at Jason. DaMorgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit them online at Jason. Dot mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in Step. To the Power West Industries hotline, we go. Brendan Batchelor joins us now, the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

morning batch how are you doing well how are you guys good to talk to you too how was it out at the milf yesterday uh yeah it was good uh you know the the vibes uh at the jake milford are always pretty good with um you know guys trickling back into town and um you know it's for a great cause and yeah they have to do a little bit of media and talk to us but otherwise uh it seemed like everybody was ready for a good day and it looks like it it went off well yesterday. So all in all a good day for those guys and interesting to hear from some of them for the first time as well. Yeah, including Elias Pedersen

and obviously what he had to say yesterday made the biggest headlines for a multitude of reasons, but it's funny because there's so much that's hinging on his ability to bounce back this year that anything that he's going to say or do is going to be scrutinized, you know, fairly or not. And he threw out the, you know, there's your headline.

for the day when he talked about putting on some weight. And I think he kind of said it derisively and later said he was joking. But there is something to it because the fact that even the golf tournament and acknowledging that he's put on some weight and decided to get stronger is such a cry from what happened last year going into camp that people are looking into it with that hope of positivity. Like, yeah, this could be a good thing moving forward because quite frankly, he and the rest of the team needed after what was a very, very disappointing 2024 campaign. Yeah, absolutely. And I will say, you know, I don't think he's just saying that either. He looks bigger. He looks stronger. He, you know, his shoulders look broader. So it's clear that he has put a lot of work in in the off season. And I think the big question for everybody is going to be, how does that translate to the ice? You know, is he able to find that jump in his step from, you know, a couple seasons ago and get back to being the kind of player.

that they need him to be. Certainly that's the hope. And, you know, ultimately we'll start judging that once we get to see them on the ice at training camp next week. But, you know, it's a good place to start from at least, right? Because, you know, there were the concerns in terms of his fitness coming back last off season and, you know, whether you believe that the knee was a key factor in that or whether it wasn't, you know, that's ancient history now.

So to be starting off by having half. a good summer by coming in stronger and at least putting himself in the best situation possible to have a bounce back season, that's a much better way to go into the year than the way things went last year. So hopefully that means that he can turn his game around and find some confidence and find some chemistry with whoever he's going to play with and start the season well and sort of carry on from there. But ultimately all of that part of it remains to be seen once they hit the ice. Who do you think you will play with? Yeah, so this is interesting. I think I know who the top six

are probably going to be, but I can't really decide in what order to put them in, because there's one school of thought that says, okay, if you put Evander Cain and Connor Garland on a line and you let them forecheck and crash and bang and create offense, that that might be a good fit, but historically Garland and Pedersen haven't been the best fit together. So if you put

Philip Heidel in the middle of that line, that might make sense. But then you're left with a line of Jake DeBrascolleas Pedersen and Brock Besser, which might sound good on paper. They're all skilled players. They're all capable of producing, but I worry about the speed of that line a little bit or lack

thereof. So, you know, if I was drawing up the lines, I might go a van der Kaine with Pedersen and Besser, although that's not necessarily a line that would burn either, and then, you know, have Debrusk on the other line with Heedlitt Garland. But it's going to be interesting to see. I think Nealz-Hoglander could have an argument to break into that top six as well if he has a strong training camp. And ultimately, we don't really know what Adam Foote's mindset about line combinations is going to be as

opposed to Rick Talkett. So it could be completely different than that. But if I was drawing the line-up card, the six guys that I mentioned would be in the top six, but I don't think it's obvious who's going to have chemistry with who or if, you know, there are no obvious combinations of the top of the lineup for me. Yeah. I was just thinking back, well, we just said we've been so focused on the top six that we haven't really even thought about the bottom six, but the bottom six is important. And, you know, a couple of years ago they had that third line with Garland and usually it was Bluger and Dakota Joshua. Well, then they're not going to have that anymore because Dakota Joshua is not on the team anymore. And I think you need Garland in the top six

and he probably deserves to be. What do you think about the bottom six? And should we be paying a little bit more attention to that? Yeah, well, I think the bottom six is interesting. because that's where the roster battles are going to be in training camp. So, you know, you look at, like, Anil's Hoaglander probably ends up on the third line, maybe with a Kiefer-Shirwood, and depending on how they try to set things up, could be Atu-Ratu, could be Teddy Bluger. But, you know, if they make a move to bring in a center before the start of the season, that could play out there as well.

And then, you know, as we sort of go through this exercise on the fourth line, you'd have the other one of Blugger or Ratu, Drew, Connor. And then what I see is the open spot on the roster, on the wing on the fourth line, which is what Archie Baines, Linus Carlson, and that group of guys from Abbotsford that performed

so well in the playoffs last year, that's the spot that they're going to be competing for. And, you know, ultimately, you know, you'd like it to be a meritocracy and say, you know, whoever plays the best in camp gets that spot. But there are also things to think about like Carlson needs

waivers to go down. Baines needs waivers to go down. Nealz Oman needs waivers to go down. So, you know, that maybe leaves a guy like Jonathan Leckermackie out in the cold in terms of making the NHL roster to begin the season. He might have to go back down to Abbotsford and continue to apply his trade there. Max Sasson is another guy who had, you know, good spurts at the NHL level last year, but he doesn't need waivers this season either.

So, you know, he would have to beat out all the rest of those guys to really earn a spot on the roster and make them consider exposing someone else to waivers. So, you know, it's other than that one spot on the fourth line, you kind of can already see the outline of the way this forward group is going to look, you know, with maybe an exception here or there. Someone has a good camp and earns a spot higher up the lineup than you might have expected. Someone else gets hurt in camp and that opens up an opportunity for one of those AHA guys to break through.

But, you know, yeah, when this Canucks team in the past decade, has been at its best. It's had a third line that, you know, could either play matchup minutes and shut down minutes or was a driving force in terms of driving play. And, you know, that's going to be a key part of the lineup this season. And there aren't the obvious candidates to drive a line that way like there were when Joshua and Garland were playing together there. But that said, I don't think any of us would have predicted going into that season two years ago the Dakota Joshua would have had that strong of a year because Rick Tocke called him out for being out of shape in training camp

and there was a day that he was moved to the AHL group. But so, you know, I think what the conducts will be hoping for and what it makes sense to hope for is breakout candidates from that group in Abbotsford that had such a strong year last year. So can Linus Carlson come up and really solidify his spot as an NHL player day in and day out? Can Archie Baines come up to the NHL level and use some of that playmaking and creativity that he has,

but have it translate at the NHL level and maybe produce a little bit in a bottom six role. Those are some of the big questions that I think are going to define how effective the Canucks are, not necessarily at the top of their lineup, but some of those bottom six minutes make a big difference too. And ultimately, to me, that fourth-line winger spot is going to be the most interesting battle to watch at camp.

I'm worried that this team is going to have trouble, scoring? Am I right to be worried, wrong to be worried, and if I'm right, what can the new coaching staff do about it? Yeah, I think that's a great point because we kind of think we have an idea of how this team is going to defend, right? Adam Foote was the defensive coach here over the last few years. They were, for the most part, a very good defensive team, especially you know, last year after they brought in Marcus Pedersen and Elias Pedersen stepped up at the NHL level, you know,

assuming that Adam Foote had a big hand in the style they played defensively under Rick Talkett, we know how they're going to be able to play. But the issue with this team dating back to ultimately when they went out of the playoffs against the Edmonton Oilers has been goal scoring.

So, you know, you've got some different voices on that coaching staff now. I'm going to be really interested to see how, how they try to generate offense and how effective it is because on paper you could say this team struggled to score last year

and they've subtracted Pew Souter and Dakota Joshua and added a VanderCain but other than that it's basically the same forward group so you're looking at the same guys that many of them had down years last year or didn't produce to the level that they had the year before you're relying on those guys to carry the mail and produce and

you know I think certainly I don't know if it's fair to be worried about it yet because we have to wait and see how things play out at training camp. But, you know, it is rightly so, I think, the biggest area of focus for this team going into the season because they've solidified their goaltending, assuming Demko can be healthy. You know what? Even if he's not healthy, we know what Kevin Lankin is capable of. We saw it last year. So you're not terribly concerned about the goaltending. As I said, with, you know, the changes they've made on the blue line with the addition of Marcus Pedersen in particular.

I think we know how they're going to defend. You know, obviously, Quinn Hughes is going to be Quinn Hughes, so you know what you're going to get from your defensive group, but it's your forward group. And, you know, again, I think every conversation with this team going into this year circles back around to Elias Patterson. Can he produce like a first-line center? Can his line drive play?

Will Evander Kane come in and be a help in terms of generating more offense? Like, these are the biggest questions for this team this year? because, you know, I don't think we're concerned about them defensively or in the crease at all, but, you know, you can't win every game one-nothing or two-ones, so you need to be able to score some goals. And ultimately, I think that's what they're going to be judged by and how successful they are this season is going to come down to their ability to produce offense or not. Yeah, it's not really a two-one or three-two league anymore.

It's a lot more high-scoring, so you've got to be able to find a way to score. I wonder if there's a little more from the back end that they could unleash. One of the things I'll be curious about at training camp is if Hughes and Heronick are together because you might be able to put Hughes with someone else. I mean, maybe you start them with Willander, I don't know, and then ask Heronik to do a little more offensively jumping up in the rush. Maybe you pair him with a guy like Marcus Pedersen. Yeah, you know, that certainly,

possible. We saw Hughes play with Myers at stretches last year as well and you could try and get Pedersen and Heronick going and I think in terms of trying to drive offense and drive transition play in particular from the back end, that would make a lot of sense because Philip Heronick kind of has to be the

safety valve when he's out there with Quinn Hughes but we know that he's capable of more offensively. So you get him on his own pairing with a guy like Marcus Pedersen who can be his safety valve then he has the opportunity to get up into the play and try and create and try and produce it and you know again with his shot from the point and his puck moving ability we know that he can be an asset offensively to a greater degree than he has been in the past so you know that's another thing that'll be interesting because

you know as much as Adam foot's still there and he's the head coach he's not running the defensive end of the bench anymore so there could be some different deployment choices there and that'll be fascinating to sort of work through early in the season. But, you know, you're right, I think, in terms of trying to unlock more from Hironic, but at the same time, you know, if you're, if we're talking about Quinn Hughes and Philip Hironic as being cues, keys to generate more offense, as much as I think they will play a factor there, then, you know, we're not talking enough about the forward group because ultimately it's the guys driving things up front that need to produce

the most that will have to produce. reduce the most if this team wants to have success. And, you know, again, like every conversation with this team circles back to if Elias Pedersen can be Elias Pedersen, they're fine. If he's not, then you start to worry. And, you know, not to keep pressure on the guy because certainly he has enough of it going into this season, but, you know, with the way the roster's made up with, you know, the fact that the organization hasn't, you know, gone out and acquired a centerman as of yet

due to a variety of factors, not least of which being that no one seems to have acquired anyone this offseason with the way free agency played out and everything like that. You know, it just puts that much more pressure on Pedersen to be the guy that they need him to be and they paid him to be. And, you know, that to me is the biggest factor in terms of how this team will look offensively. What are you expecting from Besser? And I guess a lot of it depends on what we see from you know who because, you know, It's, you know, Besser, I mean, last season, you know, I don't feel too sorry for professional athletes that are making millions of dollars to play hockey, but it was a, it was a challenging year for Besser because there was a lot of uncertainty about his future and, you know, there were some that felt he was a little bit disrespected by the organization. And then J.T. Miller, a guy that he had been paired with for years and had a lot of.

of success with was traded away and he just felt like well I don't know how he felt but watching him it looked like he was just kind of he didn't have he didn't have purpose out there he wasn't playing with purpose and I'm just really hoping that that whatever Pedersen and Besser had it's a few years ago it's a long time ago now had they can rekindle that I know Pedersen was very happy that Besser re-signed. So hopefully they can find something. Do you think they can? Yeah, it's going to be interesting. Either that or with Philippaedal, right? And I guess it depends how they deploy the top six. But, you know, talking to Besser yesterday at the Milford, it was clear that he just wants to focus on hockey this year. And he's been pretty honest that last

year things did get to him in terms of the upheaval around the team, the speculation about him being traded before the deadline, you know, the speculation afterwards about whether he was going to come back. He even joked that he went to Europe in the summer, but he did it before Free Agency Day, and he's like, I don't recommend for anyone else going through that. Don't do that because I was distracted and stressed the whole time when I should have just been enjoying my trip. So, you know, these things do affect him, but now all of that is off the table, right? Miller's not here anymore, and yes, he had a tremendous amount of chemistry with Miller, But Miller was also at the center of the big off-ice drama last year.

So as a team, they want to move on from that. And Besser gets to move on from all the speculation around his future. Now he knows. He's a Vancouver Canak. He's signed long-term. He's got that deal done. He can just focus on playing hockey. And hopefully, for his sake and for the team's sake,

that means that he can get back to being more of the offensive producer that he was two years ago when he had that 40-goal season. And ultimately, yeah, you know, him and Pedersen trying to generate chemistry, I think, will be really interesting. And you're right, a lot of that, you know, will depend on how Pedersen performs. But, you know, I think they're capable of it. I also think the power play for all these guys is going to be such a huge factor. And, you know, there's a good chance that Besser, who's played a lot of net front with J.T. Miller around might get it back up into more of a shooting spot on the flank. And, you know, we saw him score a lot of goals from that spot, especially early in his.

career when he was breaking in as a rookie. So, you know, if he gets more shooting opportunities on the power play, rather than being the net front guy, that might help him produce a little bit too. And, you know, ultimately it's all of these guys saying, you know, things didn't go the way we wanted. Last year, we had a down year. And it's going to be up to them to carry the mail now. And we'll see how they go in terms of whether they're able to.

But, you know, whether it's Pedersen or Heidel, I think, you know, there's going to be a lot on Besser to produce offensively, regardless of what line he's on. And, you know, even though the contract distractions gone, the Miller distractions gone, he's here long term, you know, there will still be pressure on him to produce and there will still be focus on him, as there always is in this market if he doesn't. Where do you see Besser on the power play? I know you kind of mention it there, but how everyone's, everyone's position maybe, because, you know, does he take over that left flank position that J.T. Miller has? and if it's not better, who is it?

Yeah, that's, I would like to see him in that left flank spot just because I think he can get his shot away more effectively from there. You know, I think of Vander Kaine potentially could come up and either play the bumper or net front. You know, that bumper spot has been kind of tricky for them to replace, basically ever since Bo Horvatt left. That was kind of, you know, where he set up shop there. And, you know, I don't know if there's been an obvious replacement ever since.

So, you know, first of all, the way the power play tries to generate offense is going to be interesting because I think it was at one point last year, Rick Tockett called them mechanical in the way that they were trying to do it. And there wasn't a lot of fluidity or creativity there. So as a unit, they need to be better and find more ways to, you know, generate offense. And, you know, I can't even begin to remember how many times Rick Tocket bang the drum about just needing to attack the net and create more chaos around the crease, even on the power play. we'll see if that's the way they try to do it if Adam foot takes a different approach you know or or whoever ends up coaching the power play takes a different approach in terms of how they want to create those opportunities but yeah I'd like to see Besser in more of a shooting spot because he's got that great shot and you know you've got a guy like

Evander Cain that I think would be more effective down low and at the net front so that's sort of the outline of how I'm trying to draw things out but ultimately that'll get filled in fully through training camp and then we'll watch and see if they can get back to being you know a top five power play in the league because I think they've got the pieces there and are capable of doing that it's just can they find the confidence and find the fluidity to to make sure that they can produce at that level batch we're back baby we're back let's go we're talking connects we're talking line combinations England's got a game against Serbia today not feeling the vibes from them but you know we're not going to

about Manchester. No, we're not going to play it. We won't talk about them. We are not. Good. Sorry about that. Okay. Yeah. Sorry for everything that you're going through with them. Hopefully the, hopefully the Canucks will be better. Great, great, uh, great chatting with you. I'm sure we'll chat lots this season batch. Yeah, we will. Have a good one. Thanks, you guys. See you, pal. Thanks, buddy. Brennan Bachelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. Thank you.