Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Caleb & Manny Scenario

Episode Date: June 3, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest hockey news with Victory+ NHL insider Frank Seravalli (1:31), plus they talk a week of big football trades with Too Deep Zone NFL insider Mike Tanier (26:27). 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.

Sarah Valley. Sarah Valley. Syra Valley. Frank. Sarah Belly. Frank. Sarah Belly. Frank.

Frank. 702 on A Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody, Halford Brough of SportsNet 650. Halford and Rob in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt if you are? Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Frank Sarvelli, our NHL insetter from Victory Plus

live from the Stanley Cup final in Carolina is going to join us in just a moment here. Our two of this program is brought to by Jason hominock at Jason. dot mortgage. If you love giving the banks more 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 broadcasting live from the Kintech Studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Guests on SportsNet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions.

Hotline email sales at ABLEE Auctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. Let's go now to the ABLE Auctions hotline. As mentioned, our next guest is our NHL insider from Victory Plus. Frank Sarah Valley here on the Halford and Breft Show on SportsNet 650. Morning Frank. How are you?

It's pretty good. How are you guys doing? We are well. We've still got a lot to unpack from yesterday because we haven't got to a number of things, including Gary Betman's State of the Union media address that he does annually before game one of every Stanley Cup final. Let's just open this up so the

conversation can go anywhere. Was there one big takeaway or one major topic that maybe superseded the rest when Gary met with the media yesterday? So there was Russian participation was a big one. There was talk about, of course, All-Star weekend in

27. Let's start, I guess, with the idea of succession. It seemed to be a big report or topic heading into yesterday and the commissioner poured cold water on that saying that his demise or retirement is greatly exaggerated that yesterday was a 74th birthday and that it's natural to recognize that this isn't something that he can do forever, that they've had some talks with the NHL's executive committee, which is the smaller, more powerful group of the board of governors, that they've apprised them of what they would like to do, but they haven't actually put anything into place. And to use his words, quote, nothing is imminent. So I'm not shocked by that. It doesn't seem like Gary Bettman is going anywhere.

and here we are. Is there a sense that everyone is relatively happy with the work that Betman is done? And I know it feels like the lockout wasn't that long ago, but it has been that long ago. And since they've kind of negotiated labor peace, and I think maybe something has to do with Marty Walsh coming in is the NHLPA boss,

it just feels like everything is all right on the NHL front. You know, there's no more problem franchise. Now they've cleaned up Arizona. there doesn't seem to be any one major issue looming over the league like there has been in years past. So long-winded way of asking, are people pretty happy with Betman right now? I think that's the case. I mean, look, nothing is ever perfect. There's probably always something to pick at.

But in terms of, hey, the NHL just starred at the Olympics. Revenue is so much so, like, record-wise that it's way outpacing the cap, which is a whole other topic. There are no problem franchises. They seem to have nailed, absolutely nailed the Arizona to Utah moves. And now expansions on the horizon again because suitors see the NHL as a value play to join in at the major four pro sports level. There's labor piece. I can't really think of a record TV ratings.

like they're up in a massive way. This is the most visible that the NHL has been in the U.S. probably in two decades. I can't really think of one negative to chew on. And I'd say part of that is due to the commissioner. Part of it is due to the rapidly evolving sports landscape and how insanely profitable it's been or valuation-wise it's been for these owners.

And now look at just how revenue fits into the whole picture. The league has managed to keep through a massive change of wealth with COVID. And now into this next CBA, like the owners are in such a great spot that he's even slowed how much teams need to spend on the cap. that it's put everyone in a really good position to smooth out this increase. Okay, let's talk about this news involving the Nashville Predators and the Colorado Avalanche.

What did you think of them poaching Chris McFarland from the President's Trophy winning Aves, the team that was supposed to win the Stanley Cup this year? It forces Joe Sackick back into the GM position what did they do to get him out of Colorado? Well, they offered a promotion, complete control, and a significant, significant raise. And so all those things still considered,

I totally understand how the National Predators arrived at this trying to land Chris McFarlane, a truly sharp hockey mind who is a worker and grinder and has earned the respect of everyone around the NHL, I don't really understand it as much from a Colorado perspective. Why are you letting Chris McFarlane leave to go to the Nashville Predators in your division? Why wouldn't you just top him up in terms of pay? He kind of had a lot of autonomy as it is because Joe Sackick,

as president of hockey ops, does have final say, but he isn't doing anything that Chris McFarland isn't putting on the table or in complete agreement with. So there was never any friction. Chris McFarland was always the guy doing a lot of the heavy lifting for Joe Sackick behind the scenes. And getting their rebuild up over the last 10, 11 years and turning them into a cup winner in 2022 is largely due to the work that Chris McFarland did in Colorado. So I think one of the true dirty secrets of the NHL is that, the Cronky family runs the Colorado Avalanche on a relative shoe string budget.

And I say relative compared to the massive wealth that they have. Yeah. And it feels like at least part of this was a budgetary decision to say, oh, that's the type of promotion and range of salary that you'd like to be in relative to your peers. We'll just let you go. Yeah, they're in a bad mood about losing Champions League, I think, to P. If Arsenal had won, they would have kept Chris. McFarland. What do you think he's going to do? McFarland, I'm talking about in Nashville. Is he going to be active this off-season or does he need to get the lay of the land first?

No, my guess is that if the Nashville Predators waited this long, that there had to be some kind of back-channeling here to at least allow him to begin to wrap his brain around everything and that he hasn't just been sitting here thinking about what he would do as manager of the Colorado Avalanche, that I'd imagine that. that I'm not predicting transactions this week, but that he probably has a few things that he wants to figure out sooner rather than later. One of those would have to be, and one of the biggest pressing questions would be, what do we do with Roman Yose? This Preds team is a little bit stuck in the middle. They maybe are the NFL's poster child for that murky middle. And they've got aging players. They haven't made the playoffs. They've got a lot committed to cap and yet still have some value in some of these players to begin to ship them off to turn this over. So that to me starts with Roman Yossi. I think he'd have the most value on the market. It's hard to find a

true difference maker. And even if at this age he's on the down swing as opposed to the up, there's still plenty of teams that I think would clamor for a player like him and what he can create and would going somewhere give him a shot in the arm and maybe even a better question would be for a lot of these guys in Nashville. Do they even want to go somewhere? That was the one thing that kind of someone like Stephen Stamco has made it really clear. I'm not interested in being trade bait. I don't want to go anywhere.

My family really likes it here. We're speaking of Frank Sarvelli, our NHL insider from Victory Plus here on the Halford and Breff Show on SportsNet 650. I did want to circle back to one thing that I thought was going to be an issue for Betman and Daily, not just yesterday, but overall, but they really don't seem to think it's going to be an issue. It's the Bruce Cassidy coaching situation, which still remains in flux, although the NHL's got its stance on it.

It was very clearly made yesterday that both Betman and Daily don't think that this is an issue. Does part of this have to do with the fact that this situation and the way Cassidy's contract is word and or written up makes it kind of an outlier like there might not be another one like this so they're not worried about being precedent setting no I don't think that's part of it I think that different teams manage their contracts in different ways meaning the language that they use and this one was pretty airtight okay um so what do I mean by that um like for instance some contracts when it comes to the termination part of it are single-terminal

sided. Some are mutual. Some are one-sided just to the coach. In this case, and Bruce Cassidy mentioned a bit of this on spit and chicklets when he joined. He can't just walk away. He could walk away from the pay, but they still control whether or not he has permission to work somewhere. So that stands out. I don't think it's abnormal. I truly believe that what has happened, along the way is there's a lot of contracts that have been worded exactly like or very similarly to Bruce Cassidy and teams have put that language aside saying hey this is the right thing to do and this is the custom and norm and it hasn't typically been challenged

and certainly hasn't been reviewed or scrutinized in a way that this one has been with Bruce Cassidy the league feels look I mentioned this before Gary Betman's one of the best labor lawyers in the world. They're going to respect the terms of the contract, and Vegas has him airtight in terms of his services that they don't have to let him go anywhere. I'm very curious about the role that Edmonton plays and all this, because, I mean, it's very obvious that they want to hire him

or at the very least want to get him in for the interview to hire him. I think it's mutual, by the way. Yeah, I'm sure that Cassidy wouldn't, mind getting in there with, I mean, however many years, Connor McDavid has left on his contract, right? Like, that's another part of this as well, is that there's not a huge shelf life for McDavid at Edmonton, potentially.

And, you know, time is ticking and they need to get better. Is there any, is there any thought to the matter of Vegas looking at it and saying, well, the longer we drag this out, the worst we make it for Edmonton? The worst we what? The worst we make it for Edmonton. Oh, 100%. And, like, look, they, I'm not convinced that they're ever going to relent here,

even if they win the Stanley Cup. And part of that is because it's not really just about being in your division. It's the long game or longer game, which is, yes, Bruce Cassidy might make the Edmonton Oilers better. But more than that, if the Oilers crumble, part of their thought process in the back of their mind has to be, we know how good of a coach Bruce Cassidy is. he led us to a Stanley Cup,

he could have similar type success, but if it's someone less than Bruce Cassidy and if things blow up, what if there's a John Tortorella in Vancouver type experience, well then, hey, maybe we might be able to get McDavid out of our division for once and for all. Yeah. It's quite a rivalry between the Vegas and the others.

And this is like, we expect nothing less of Vegas, really. Okay, I want to ask about a guy, this is a little kind of out of left field, but we talk about the market for centers, and it seems to be the same guys over and over again. We go back to Robert Thomas in St. Louis, but there seems to be a new guy now, and that's Nico Heeshire.

What do you think's going to happen with him in New Jersey? There's a new general manager there. The devils are probably looking at that and going like, man, we thought we had a team here, but we don't know if we do. And if Heeshire resigns, he's got one year left, and then he's an unrestricted free agent. He's going to need a big raise.

And I guess they're going to have to think long and hard about whether or not they want to commit to this group. Well, it's multifaceted, right? Because then Nico Heeshire, even though he's one of the leaders on that team and has been there from the start, the question he probably has to ask himself is, can I win here? It's a fair question to ask. when you get to these stages of your contract. And so I think it's a mutual examination period. I think the true answer is that we don't really have a read on it just yet.

He's a name that teams have been percolating about, teams have asked about, that they're curious to see where this goes, in part because it's so incredibly difficult to find centers who can make a difference. and they look at the complete nature of his game and see what a great fit he'd be. But then that same side of it exists for the devils, which is, let's say we trade Niko Heeshire, we now need to go fill that void in our lineup in order to become a contending team. And it's a lot easier probably to get to that place with someone like Niko Heeshire in our lineup than not.

but then you're also staring down how do we fill around him too which is what sunny meta is trying to figure out at this exact moment in time there's a lot of holes and voids to fill yeah centers pretty valuable in the NHL these days and that's why there's a lot of talk in Vancouver that the connects might draft Caleb Malhotra now you were the first to report that the connects had a deal in place with Annie Malhotra Caleb's dad what did you think about Manny being hired and what do you think about the possibility

of the Canucks drafting his son Caleb? I think it's a great fit. I really do. I think for this team with where they're at, having a coach that can grow with them and hit the reset button on this team's culture that's so desperately needed, he's going to be that beacon that helps guide that

and the comfortability factor between being a former teammate of the Sedeans working really closely with Ryan Johnson, I think it checks just about every box. The only awkwardness is what to do with the draft. And I'll just say that we can hypothetically debate this. I have a hard time envisioning right now, Caleb Malhotra not being available on the board for the Canucks to take at number three. but what we don't know yet is what happens with those two slots before that number three pick. And that's the part where, I mean, you can work yourself up into a tizzy,

but what happens if Ivers Denberg goes one and the sharks take a defenseman? It's a possibility. And if that's the case, then, well, then maybe Gavin McKenna falls into your lap at three. and you just have to execute and take the highest skilled player. I think there's a lot of teams that have been paying very closely attention to exactly what you said about grabbing a center and him being arguably the premier center in this draft, that matters.

And that's a big reason why he has shot up the draft boards and rankings, not just because he closed with one of the best, you know, second halfs of the season, but also because of the premium position that he plays. We mentioned one of the two coaching vacancies in the NHL right now, one of them, of course, being Evanton. The other one, Toronto. Now, I'm curious, what have you got here?

There was a report this morning, I believe it was from Darren Drager. The interviews this week are going to include Patrick Waugh, which I did not see coming. And then, of course, there's a handful of other candidates out there as well. What do you know, what are you hearing on the Maple Leafs coaching front, Frank? man it just feels unholy Patrick Waugh

behind the Toronto Maple Leafs doesn't not that got that one came out of left field I did not see that coming rain exploding yeah so that would be

odd to see but clearly he's a well thought of coach and I'd be curious to see what he learned from his second tenure as an NHL head coach

and what experience he'd that would bring to this role. Peter Lavillette, not a shock that they're going to talk to. Look, they've cut a pretty wide swath here in terms of people that they're talking to and investigating. And I expect this to heat up in a bigger way next week after the combine when they bring people in for in-person interviews.

But needless to say that of all the things that they're considering, including actually in Buffalo today for the scouting combine, what they do with that number one pick. Getting and nailing this head coach will be a big part of it. I'd love to know what their thought processes are because they're not revealing it and they don't want coaches to go in with any preconceived notion because I think the answer is they don't really know.

How is this going to play out? Are they retooling, re-whatever? How quickly do they envision being competitive because that's going to determine, in my view, what type of coach they go after. Frank, this was great, buddy. As always, thanks for taking the time to do it. We appreciate it. Enjoy game two of the Stanley Cup final tomorrow night.

We'll do this again next week. Have it going, guys. Yeah, you two, thanks. That's Frank Sarvelli, our NHL insider from Victory Plus here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of the draft, yeah, I watched that Gavin McKenna documentary. I've seen it yet. How was it?

It was good. It was really good. The McKenna Project. The McKenna Project, and it's free on YouTube. If you want to watch it, I guess it aired on TNT. Actually, had a higher budget than the Hail Mary project. It was really interesting. And the one thing that I really picked up on was the impact of social media on Gavin McKenna and just the way young people are constantly on it.

How so, Jason? Expand. I haven't seen it. Okay. During that time after the incident in Penn State. Or he punched that guy. He said, no, it's not allegedly. Like, he punched him.

He said, like, I was glued to my phone for two days. Yeah. And I'm like, I understand that. But I also, like, that must be hard. And he makes a lot of references to the criticism that he's seen from people online. And about his game because he did get criticized a lot. And people were like, yeah, it's had to be better, you know, after the world juniors.

I said it. And there's a lot of people that, you know, do it anonymously on social media. And his mom even said, like she came out and said multiple times in that documentary, I worry about his mental health. And I'm not trying to make it out like Gavin McKenna is, you know,

has some mental health issues or anything like that. That's not the case. But I think, it's a fascinating case study in a teenager who's been recognized for a few years now that he's a pretty terrific hockey player and might go first overall and he went through a bunch of adversity this season and now he might go first overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs where there's going to be even more attention on him. Anyway, I think we're chasing the director of the McKenna documentary. I don't know if we're going to get him on, but, but Adog's on the chase.

And it's worth a watch. It's only 45 minutes. Okay. It's on YouTube. It's called the McKenna Project. And I just found it, I found it really interesting. There was most of the stuff I was like, yeah, I know about that. But it added some context.

And there were some good interviews with his family, himself. And also, he's got a really interesting background. His grandfather has played a big role in his life. And I enjoyed that part as well. All right. It's time now to turn our attention. to our friends at the VGH Plus hometown heroes lottery.

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You're listening to the Halford & Breath Show on SportsNet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 733 on a Wednesday. Wednesday, everybody. Halford. Brough, Sportsnet, 650.

Halford and Brum of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got debt? If you do, reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours and they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. Hey, remember how

happy I was when Aaron Donald retired? Yep. I was like, thank God, finally. Seahawks don't have to play that guy anymore. He was terrified. Well, is he coming back? Sounds like it. And he's going to Miles Garrett?

I don't know if he'll be back for week one. He posted on social media a caption underneath one of his sort of infamous workouts. Aaron Donald still works out like a beast. And it was kind of like if I can get the fire, find the fire. Most of those guys that come back out of retirement, the fire isn't in training camp or week one. Yeah, yeah. It's like in the second half of the season kind of thing. Yeah.

I wouldn't be surprised if he joins him for a second half run. Oh, man. it's going to be something. It's going to be something. We're going to talk to Mike here about this in one second. Before we get to Mike, I need to tell you that we are an hour two of the program. We're at midway point of the show. And hour two is bradded 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. Visit them online at Jason. Dot mortgage. To the able auctions hotline, we go. Our next guest is our NFL insider from the two deep zone. It's Mike Tanier here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you?

Well, I was doing better a couple of days ago. When I was minding my own business, I had just completed the Los Angeles Rams team chapter for the FTN Almanac, which will be on newsstands or wherever, you know, on the internet in July. And it was all done. And we were all sort of celebrating with champagne. And then the Miles Garrett trade happened. I'm going to tell you something right now. as I was doing extensive rewrites to that chapter,

the Aaron Donald rumors and posting happened. So I wrote a couple sentences in there in the chapter, which said, Aaron Donald is talking about coming out of retirement. I don't want to think about it if it happens. And we are definitely not revising this chapter if it happens. So that's where we stand with the Los Angeles Rams right now. Okay.

Let's start with the Rams. The big question is, why did the Rams choose to do this? Everyone knows that Miles Garrett is, let's just call it the best defensive player in football. I made the best player in football. So I think you just answered it. Period. But why did they spend so much, including shipping out a pretty good rush edge in Jared verse and a first, the second and third round pick for Miles Garrett?

Yeah. This is the biggest all in Rams move since the last big all in. Which was a couple weeks ago or something. The only time this off. You're right, a couple weeks ago. The only time this off-season, when the Rams had been out of character, was when they drafted Ty Simpson. And I think if the Rams had gone out there in the draft and said,

Hey, Kenyon Sadiq, another tight end, let's have 80 of them. Or the line, and we just need a guy, you know, or a defensive back. No one would have blinked about any of the other moves this off-season. They're all in the win while Matthew Stafford is there, and they bring in Trent McDuffie. And now they bring in Miles Garrett. And you lose Jared first, but again, you trade a very, very good player for the best player in the league at that position, and you throw in the draft

picks, and it's an all-in move. The only thing that kind of, like, rattles around in the can mentally is why did they go try to get their quarterback of the future, too, instead of getting one more guy for 2026? But that's kind of like your Rams wisdom there. That's like, oh, we're playing galactic chess. We see the whole board, you know, we see the future, et cetera. You take that out of the equation and say, yeah, Rams are doing everything they can. They want to get past the Seahawks. they know there's a short window, and Garrett's going to help them do that. Do you know the Rams play of the Seahawks in Week 16 and 18? You're going to wait until Christmas for the first Seahawks Rams game.

It's going to be fascinating to see not only that, but also if the Seahawks try and respond now. Yeah, the Seahawks are having a really good offseason by the standards of Super Bowl champions. Because when you're a Super Bowl champion, you're trying not to lose guys. Of course, you'll lose Kenneth Walker, but then you fix many of your other players.

problems along the way. You bring in Dante Fowler, and that solves a problem on the defensive line. You keep a lot of the guys. Everything was going pretty well in that respect. And not only did the Rams do this, but I'm sure you guys talked about it, you face A.J. Brown now in the opener. So the Seahawks are beset on all sides. Hey, the Patriots went out and got A.J. Brown. You kind of knew it was happening, but now it's official. That's your opener. Christmas and New Year's could be ruined because you have to deal with Garrett and maybe Donald is there by now and McDuffey and everything else. So, but set on all sides if you're the Seahawks right now.

Does this make the Rams the best team in football? Well, it's funny where we were running the DVOA, you know, analytical projections and their neck and neck with the Seahawks. And it's literally the Seahawks and Rams. And let's caught neck and neck because I know that Aaron Schatz doesn't want the official numbers out. He's still running simulations and all. But it's those two teams and everyone else.

And the reason why it's not high. is because the jump from Verst to Garrett just isn't that much, because Verst was in there, and the Rams pass rush was in there, has awesome, awesome, awesome. And now it's like, awesome, awesome, awesome. You know, it can only go so much further in that respect. And the simulations still look at the Rams kicking game and say,

that's a problem. They don't have good return, man. The kicker's a question. Simulations still look at the Seahawks and say, oh, all the guys are back, sheeds, back, the kickers back, the punters back, et cetera. So that's the difference maker. But, you know, fans around the country will be forgiven for saying,

gosh, the Rams is the team to beat right now and thinking that that's the team that they need to go with. So why did the Rams draft Ty Simpson? You can kind of see the logic because they had their first round pick in 2027 year marked. It was going to go to Garrett or it might have gone someplace else. They were trying to do something with AJ Brown. They were trying to do something wacky on that end as well. So somewhere in the bowels of their decision-making process, they said,

what if Stafford has to retire? and somebody in that organization really liked Simpson. It sounds like it was Sneed. Sneed was on board with Simpson. The rest of us weren't. It doesn't sound like McVeigh really was, but in the front office and scouting, they liked Simpson. So they went out and made that move.

It's still baffling. They can explain it a thousand times, and it's still baffling. Why didn't you trade down then? You could have gone down 10 spots, gotten another pick, grabbed another guy. Why didn't you do that? There's no good logic for it.

And the bottom line for the future is, Sure, say Simpson turns out to be okay in two years. Garry will be 33. Devante Adams will be gone. Who knows what planet Puka will be living on by then? Why are you making this, and you don't have draft picks down the road? Why are you making this decision for the future when every other decision you made is really serving the present?

So I don't want to talk about them too long, but where does this leave the Cleveland Browns? It's funny because you look at the Browns all season up until now. they rebuilt their entire offensive line. Andrew Barry did this thumpster dive for offensive linemen. He grabbed some guys in the draft, but he grabbed Elkin Jenkins, who the Packers were sick of. He grabbed every offensive lineman who, like, their team was tired of but could still play

a little bit. Goes out there in the draft, grabs all these guys. Okay, whatever you think about the Sean Watson, they're giving him one more chance and maybe that'll work out. Hey, you could see this scenario where the Browns were like, hey, they figure out a quarterback rotation and Garrett's on defense. maybe they go 9 and 8, maybe they get a wild card, maybe they build something for their new coach. Now that's out the window again.

Now that's out the window. They're a rebuilding team again. It sounds like the reality of what's going on at quarterback, whether it's Watson, whether it's Shador, whether it's Bill and Gabriel, they realize they don't have it, and they're kind of just trying to get through the year and amortize some bad decisions there. So with that in mind, Garrett was done. He did not want to play there anymore. There were no more financial apologies they could give him. They move on there, and they go back.

into this wait until next year, wait until two years from now mode. I think it's a little gross. If they were doing that, they probably doing that to a first year. Coach is bad, doing that to leave a general manager dangling like they're doing with Barry. Also a bad decision. But that's just how the Browns do business. I got

one more question. It's kind of a Brown's question, but there's the argument to be made that Miles Garrett is the best player to be traded in the modern NFL during the prime of his career because it's not just the one Yeah. This is the firm, Barnwell at ESPN, he kind of ran down the list.

And he put it on par with when the Rams traded Eric Dickerson to the Colts in 87. I think Dickerson was coming off a couple offensive player of the year. So putting it in that context, even though I said that they paid a huge haul to get Miles Garrett, did the Browns actually get enough in return for trading who might be the best player in the National Football League? That's an outstanding question because there were gathers. I think it was only last year that I was sitting there. Maybe it was two years ago listening to Barry answer questions at the combine about a Garrett trade.

And it seemed at the time two first round picks could have been it. And I don't know if verse and a first round pick and a second and a third add up the two first round picks, etc. But had they done that like clean slated a couple of years ago, maybe they'd be in better shape now. The one thing I hate is when it's a trade for the far, far, far future. It's one thing to trade for next year. When you start talking about 2028, you lose me forever because a million things can happen in the interim. So I don't know. I'll say this was maybe the best move the Browns could have made right now, but the right move might have been not to hand.

Garrett, financial apologies and pat him on the head and say one more year in the past, get that done in the past. And maybe they'd have a clearer perspective of what's happening right now in the present. How much does A.J. Brown help the Patriots? I can't help but think about the Patriots performance in the Super Bowl. And I was like, they went in there. I mean, they had the 14 and three season. They get to the Super Bowl. And then it's like, oh, maybe their schedule was really easy because this does not look like even close to a Super Bowl contender yet they were in the Super Bowl.

And that's a good way of looking at it, not just a Super Bowl, but in the championship game. Oh, the opposing quarterbacks hurt. It's a snowstorm. And other places along the way where they, The whole system seem to be working in their favor. Brown definitely helps. You're going to get a with-the-program version of Brown, at least in the short term. They also have Romeo Dobbs now.

So that's a kind of a refresh of their receiving corps around Drake May. The question becomes, how much was the schedule a factor? And the answer probably is a lot. And then you also have to look at, well, the bills are there and the Ravens are rebuilding, and Patrick Mahomes will be back. The one thing I'll say about the Patriots schedule, the Jets are still the Jets, The dolphins are an even worse version of the dolphins. They might have four wins right off the bat walking into the season with this new receiving core.

So Brown's going to help. I think they're going to be a playoff team. There's a lot of variables you have to look at the ASC before you figure out how the balance of power really works. I'm going to list three kind of disappointing teams from last season, the Ravens, the Bills, and the Chiefs. Who are you highest on heading into next season? I'd have to go with the Chiefs because you can insert Patrick Mahomes right away and say, well, there, there's one solution. You can insert Kenneth Walker and say,

oh, they weren't able to run the ball for a couple of seasons. There's the next solution. And while they lost a lot of guys on defense, they drafted guys on defense. They have the coaching staff with Spagnollo impact. They can turn things around quickly. I'm not sure what the bills are doing right now with promoting Joe Brady and keeping Brandon Bean,

et cetera. They seem to kind of be at their wits end or at cross purposes right now. Ravens are intriguing because, again, Once the Browns get weaker, you start looking at those teams. And you say, okay, Lamar Jackson comes back and there's kind of a new mindset there. What does that do to that team? Hard to say. They lost a lot of guys, Tyler Linderbaum, Isaiah likely, and free agency.

That could be another team that's at the crossroads, at cross purposes. Whereas the Chiefs, you know that they can turn things around very quickly with their quarterback back. Who is Patrick Mahomes' top target going to be next season? Kelsey's still there he is, right? Yeah. You're retired, yeah. Kelsey's still there under a new deal and was still getting the job done. I'm checking ways right now for a traffic port to see where Rashi Rice is.

I laugh, but maybe I shouldn't laugh when it comes with that guy. It was well delivered. Yeah, thank you. Mahomes has used a committee approach that was based around Kelsey as his safety valve in the past. Probably what it's going to be. We'll see about rice suspension. worthy is there. The fact that they have Kenneth Walker,

we'll see what he can possibly give them in the passing game as well. They might be able to do a little more with a little less if they can run the ball efficiently. Finally, before we let you go, Russell Wilson is on his way to the booth. He will be joining CBS as an analyst this season. Jason and I talked about it yesterday. And we spent a fair amount of time trying to, well, I was a two-parter, understand his legacy

and then figure out his Hall of Fame, candidacy. They didn't do a great job of either. And I think that's because it's so confusing and it's very complex. There's not a lot of guys that play themselves out of contention, potentially, the way that Russ has over the last few years. Where do you stand on? Let's just do the Hall of Fame candidacy. Yeah, you're exactly right when it comes to Hall of Fame candidacy. He played himself out of it in recent years. It's not just playing poorly, but all the stories out of the Broncos, the way that went down, really made a very negative third act to his career. Whereas you've got guys like Matthew Stafford have these amazing third acts.

You have Wilson who kind of needed a third act that just felt normal, and his was very abnormal. So that's going to hurt his chances. I don't think when he first hits the ballot, there's going to be a lot of enthusiasm for him from the Hall of Fame, and he may be somebody needs to stay in the booth for a while, become a grand old man of the game, have the Broncos stuff and the giant stuff fade,

and then people will start to remember the amazing things he did with the Seahawks in the early and mid-20 teams. Mike, it was great getting caught up with the bud. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it. Always a pleasure. Take care and enjoy the offseason. You too, ma'am. That's Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

So is there anything you want to get into here? There are a couple other Canucks notes that we kind of glossed over earlier in the show. Well, we didn't even mention they signed a kid too. Yeah. So that came down yesterday. The Vancouver Canucks signed forward. Ilya Sophanoff. Isn't he a keeper?

That's for Perry St. You're man. Right. Yeah. Different guy. Although he's got the frame to be a keeper. Big guy. This was the draft pick

of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021 that the Canucks acquired last June in exchange for future considerations. I guess the understanding there was he wasn't going to sign with the Black Hawk. at all. And they decided to move on from his draft rights. He had a pretty good year in the KHL and helped his team go out all the way to the

Cup finals there. Intriguing prospect. It's a one year two-way contract. But I guess he's going to get a look at the NHL level in large part because it's the Vancouver Canucks and everyone gets a look right now given how thin they are on talent. Yeah. Well, I mean, the center position. You got Pedersen.

you got Heidel. We don't know what the future holds for Atu Ratu, despite his terrific performance of the world. Yep, gold medal winning. You know, you've got, I guess, Coots is an outside possibility. I really hope that doesn't happen. He needs to be in the HAL.

He does. And even if they draft Caleb Mahhotra, like, don't throw him into the NHL. And by the way, a lot of people are like, he's already committed to BU. You can break a commitment to college. college sports. The bedrock of college sports

is reneging on your deal. Is that legally binding when you commit to a school? As a matter of fact, it's a right of passage to break at least one on your way to college. Maybe more. Yeah, they like send dog the bounty hunter to go get you if you don't show up. It doesn't work like that.

You just tell them you're not going anymore. All right. It was great knowing you. I mean, I think it would be great if he did go. But, you know, we don't even know if the Canucks are going to draft Caleb Malhotra. But the other guy that I'm curious about, too, a little bit, is Teddy Bluger. Because it seemed like under the last management group that Bluger was practically a lock to stay with the Canucks. They couldn't stop talking them up, but they didn't trade them at the deadline.

You know, maybe they didn't get any great offers for Teddy Bluger. But does that change now? Their stance on a guy like Bluger. Who knows? but this Sophanov guy is going to be at least in the mix for a center position on the big club and I think it just means like

these are the types of moves we're going to see over the next couple of years they're going to bring in some younger players and give them a shot because why not yeah so right now right now they'd have Rossi oh Rossi I forgot about Rossi too uh Bluger question mark PD I guess you could throw

Ty Mueller in the mix, too. We're just throwing out names that maybe you didn't mention it. Yeah, they talk them out a lot. Yeah. Well, and Heedles are in total. Heedles Wildcard. Wild card, yeah. Now, on the subject of another center, potentially, Caleb Malhotra, it should be noted two things. One, the Vancouver Canucks

interviewed Caleb Malhotra at the NHL scouting combine in Buffalo on Monday afternoon. And two, Intrepid nashel dot com reporter Mike Moriel did a Q&A and a follow-up with Melhotra after the interview and wrote a piece for

NHL.com. Caleb said that it would be pretty cool, quote-unquote, to play for his dad in the National Hockey League. A lot of really interesting quotes to come from the piece, including how he said he felt the interview went well with the Vancouver Canucks. They did indeed ask him a series of questions about playing for his dad.

He made note of the fact that he has not played on a team that his dad has coached since he was 12 years old playing minor hockey right here in B.C. in a spring on a spring team. And that was the last time that he actually remembers Mani coaching him. Now, there's something interesting here

that he very consciously said, and I'll read the quote. This is me being Caleb Malhotra now. I kind of separate dad and coach. And I'll talk to dad, but I'll talk to coach a lot

about a lot of different things in my game, whether it's about the team or just specific things in my game. I call both my parents before every game and usually talk to dad more about the hockey side and what he thinks I need in the game, whether it's moving your feet, staying on the defensive side of pucks, making sure you're not cheating.

We talk about the penalty, kill, and faceoffs a lot. So there was that sort of compartmentalization where there's like hockey coach manny, and then there's dad manny, which is a tough thing to do. for a kid, because obviously those lines blur, especially when you're younger, and maybe you don't have this either emotional maturity or just the regular maturity

to understand that you need to do that. Now, will it extrapolate and play out at the NHL level remains to be seen? But I thought it was interesting that there's already those defined roles, because he's going to be asked a lot about that if he goes to the Canucks. And I think, and I'd say more distressingly, if he gets fast-tracked into the NHL this year, which I really hope. Really hope they don't do that. I'd be shot.

I mean, wouldn't it go against everything that they've been saying? Yes. But we're not going to rush this. Right. What happened to the best way to go fast is slow? Yeah. That was a great line. And I hope that they adhere to that.

Should they take him? Finally, Caleb did discuss what kind of profile player he is and where his floor and ceiling is. Again, this is the quote. Floor. Massive bust. Yeah. He didn't go there. My floor, Caleb said, is to,

just as a really responsible center. He then went on to say, when I'm at my best, I think I'm an elite centerman that can score and literally do everything. I try to play like Alexander Barkoff. And obviously,

he's a winner. It'd be funny if he was like, my floor is still way better than my dad. Way better than my dad. That would have been a good way to show that there's a little friction between him and his dad, you know?

That's good. Well, I was thinking that when you were saying in his quotes. Like, him to say to some of these questions. Like, you can't really go out on a limb on any of those questions. Well, he answered him down the middle, as expected. Sounds like a nightmare. Counterpoint.

Yeah, like, what's he going to say? Counterpoint, as a high riser and a guy that's going to go high in this draft, you could say to one organization, this is such a unique set of circumstances. You could say, hey, don't draft me. This isn't a good idea. Yeah. And it takes some brass ones to do it. And I'm not sure that the organization would love the.

answer, but I bet some other NHL clubs. I think they'd appreciate it. They'd appreciate it. They'd appreciate it if it was a truth. Now, I don't, maybe he wouldn't say that publicly in an interview with NHL.com's Mike Moreale, but maybe privately in the interview, he'd be like, hey, just a heads up. I don't think this is a great idea. Can I just say that this draft is fascinating?

Fascinating. It is. I mean, it definitely helps that the Kinnockshire part of it. They've got the third overall pick, but, you know, McKenna could in theory, drop. Stenberg could in theory drop. And then you've got San Jose at number two. They could either draft a defenseman

at number two or trade back and still get a pretty good defenseman. It'd be nice if some of these things played out. There are all sorts of things on the table. You know, it might just go like, it kind of goes first. Stembourg goes to San Jose. The

connects to take Malhotra and then a really good defenseman would go to Chicago. They don't talk about Chicago enough. They're going to another good player in this. It's nice to know what no matter what happens though the Canucks come out as a winner. Like they'll get somebody great

no matter what. That's good PR buddy. I'm just saying. That's good SPAN. It's nice because it doesn't always happen like that. Are you the new Jim Rutherford? Yeah, they hired me. Looking at the mock drafts,

the top six picks at least are all legitimate difference maker potential players. Like that's amazing for the teams that have a pick in that region. It's going to be interesting. Okay. I need to do now the smart decision brought to you by Crow and really quick, I do want to go back to the one of the trades that we talked about with Mike Tannier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone. The AJ Brown trade to New England.

This was a smart decision because Philadelphia really needed this. And if you want any further evidence to that, left tackle Jordan Milata said yesterday, quote, thank God it's over. what felt like an endless Sega, I think it was more just in the lines of two years, but the AJ Brown situation in Philly felt the lack of harmony and the simmering feud with Jalen Hertz and his very open displeasure on the sidelines

felt like it was years gone by and it felt like it really derailed things in Philly. The last year especially, I know they won the Super Bowl, was it the most dysfunctional defending Super Bowl champion? of all time. Who still got 11 wins and went to the playoffs. The fans hated them.

It didn't quite tank the team, but it made it uncomfortable enough that the season was a disaster. He's gone. The Eagles are happy. It was a smart decision to finally move on. And now AJ Brown is a member of the New England Patriots.

Where does it leave them, though? Philly? Yeah. I think they'll be fine. They were barely using it. I mean, he did have 79 catches in over 1,000 yards last year. That's using them.

Yeah, but... He'd be the number one receiver on Kansas City. Yeah, and he's going to be the number one receiver in New England, too. by a wide margin. Okay, that is the smart decision brought to you by Crow. Your trusting accounting and tax advisors for over 55 years. Crow, smart decisions lasting value. Learn more at chromokai.com.ca. We're going to continue the Canucks conversation coming up next.

Randy Janda is going to join the program. You're listening to the Halford In Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.