Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Better Get Shaking

Episode Date: June 19, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they chat about what could be a very busy next couple of weeks for the Canucks (19:00), plus the boys discuss the latest hockey news with CBS Sports' & What Chaos Show's Pete Blackburn (29:13). 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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- on pitch number two and sends another bullet over the wall in left center. Smith pushes the fly ball right center field. Tatis on the run at the warning track, at the wall. It is gone! It's gone! And this game is over! Swing and a miss and that will do it. It is a lit-upens of six straight games. It's a damn shame. A damn shame. Good morning, Vancouver. 6.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody.

It is Halford and it is Bruff. It is Sportsnet 6.50. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by sands and associates BC's first and trusted choice For dead help with over three thousand five star reviews visit them online at sands-trustee.com We are in our one of the program Apparently an all-baseball show today on the halferd and brough show our one of this program is brought to you by Northstar metal recycling 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 Pile Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio. Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. We don't have an entire baseball show lined up. Ah, we just didn't have a lot of audio to parse through this morning. Glad he did his best. And then as he was putting it together with that Yankees clip in the end,

losers of six straight getting booed off the field yesterday. You asked if Aaron Boone was gonna get fired. And I said, I don't know. We'll have to ask AJ on Friday. We will have to ask AJ on Friday. But today is a Thursday. We have three guests ahead on a Thursday show.

It begins at 6.30. Pete Blackburn, he is the cohost of what chaos? The All City Network's national hockey show. We're gonna do a wrap of this year Stanley Cup final. Pete had all the feels about Brad Marshawn because as a long time Boston Bruins fan, it did pain him to see how this season played out. Yeah.

There was borderline tears on his show. He said he didn't want to talk about it. So we're like, let's get him on the show and talk about tears of sadness or tears of. Like there was there was some sad. Is he happy for Marshawn at all? Maybe on a personal level, yes, but sad about the state of the Boston Bruins and how this all came to be. So we're going to talk to Pete about that.

Everything else going on in the National Hockey League and do a rap on the Stanley Cup final at six 30. Speaking of the Stanley cup final, Florida Panthers, your Stanley cup champions, George Richards is going to join us from Florida hockey now at seven 30 live from the elbow room. Possibly. Yeah. I think he's been doing updates for everywhere that the cup goes. Probably hasn't left. And speaking of the Stanley cup, the parade is confirmed for Sunday at noon. George astutely

points out that anything in the shade is going to be considered VIP seating on Sunday in Florida. What the off season has in store for the Panthers. We'll talk to George about that at seven 30 are the Panthers, the most popular team in South Florida right now. We can get everything we need to know what the Florida Panthers and their Stanley Cup win from George at seven 30 right here on the health and in breath show on sports net six 50 eight o'clock Thomas Drance the Drancer from the athletic Vancouver and sports nets very own spy Canucks talk I will talk to him about the next couple weeks for the Vancouver Canucks when we get into what

happened we will start to go through some of the things that are actually happening now in the NHL off season. It was a fairly busy day for news and notes around the league. There were signings, there was trades. There was some news at Edmonton, a bunch of cheaters in Edmonton. So we'll talk to Thomas about all that at eight o'clock. Another reminder, JaysCare 50-50, please buy your tickets. I'm not going to do the entire spiel right now. I'm going to kind of spread it out throughout the show. Uh, J's care golf at raffle nexus.com is the URL by 50 50 tickets support challenge your baseball. It's a great endeavor and a great program. We need your help and we need your support. J's care golf at raffle nexus or dot

raffle nexus.com. Uh, I'll mention this throughout the show so we can try and get some tickets purchased today and tomorrow to end off the week strong, uh, working in reverse on the guest list. It's Drance at eight o'clock. George Richards at seven thirty. Pete Blackburn at six thirty. That's what's happening on the program today. Ladi. Let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

So because this is such a hugely important off season for the Vancouver Canucks, I feel like we should almost every morning until the off season is over, which is really just July 2nd, depending on which Marner, Mitch Marner does. We should be parsing through the majority of news as it pertains to signings, re-signings, trades, rumors, everything about this off season because the landscape is going to fundamentally shape what the Vancouver Canucks can or cannot do in this as we said very integral off season. So the news yesterday two teams kind of took the lead the Edmonton Oilers and the National Predators

I guess we should start in Edmonton because there was some really interesting stuff with a team that just finished its gap. Yeah, the Stanley Cup hangover. Started right away. Loser hangover for the Edmonton because there was some really interesting stuff with a team that just finished his gap. Yeah, the Stanley Cup hangover. Started right away. Loser hangover for the Edmonton Oilers. This was first reported by Frank Saravalli at Daily Faceoff and he has sources that are telling him that the NHL plans to continue to examine Edmonton's use of long-term injury, um, with forward of Vander Kane in the days and weeks ahead. And there weren't many details about like, what

is being alleged. And what's being investigated. And what, well, that's what I mean. What is being investigated and what is being alleged. But correct me if I'm wrong, Halford. Okay. But this Evander Cain situation all season has seemed off and a little bit shady.

It stunk from day one. Okay. You called it out. Right from the beginning. You were right. When he had surgery, not necessarily, we don't know what happened. Um. You called it out. I, right from the beginning. You were right. When he had surgery, not necessarily, we don't know what happened.

We don't even know like who would be making the complaints. Is it the Oilers that are leaking stuff? Is it a VanderKane that's leaking stuff? Is it none of them? People are just investigating this, but right from the beginning, when he had surgery in September, he was playing golf

in September and then he goes into surgery and you're like, well, why, what happened there? Why did they wait so long to have surgery? And then he underwent an additional surgery on January 9th. And according to Frank, that was to remove a congenital tumor-like growth in his knee that further complicated his timeline to return. With the knee surgery, he was forced to pause his rehab from the groin surgery for a period of seven to eight weeks. And then he began practicing with the Oilers again in late February following the Four

Nations break. And then remember some of the conversations we had, I think with Frank. And it was about LTIR because the Oilers weren't sure if they were going to be able to use that space at the trade deadline. I was like, that's weird. You'd, you'd think they'd kind of have a timeline and know one way or the other.

And then Frank would say things like, well, Evander Kane might want to come back before the playoffs. And we were both kind of like, wouldn't they be on the same page there? Like what, what is going on here? What is going on here? Anyway, they eventually, I suppose, did use that

LTIR and it might've been the, uh, Wallman trade that finally put them into LTI. And then Evander Kane misses the first game of the playoffs because the Oilers said he didn't have doctor's clearance. And we're all like, that seems like they're putting on a show for the NHL just to miss that first game. And then all of a sudden he was back in the playoffs.

Like the whole thing right from the start has seemed like there's a bigger story there. Yeah, and behind the scenes, there appears to be a real disconnect between the Oilers, Canes camp, and then whatever the league thought was either fair play with regards to LTIR or unfair play. The fact that they're still investigating it after the season is done and dusted and wrapped, there's a couple different takeaways from that.

One, and you'll be shocked to know that this narrative is coming out of Edmonton. The Edmonton fans are screaming, it's a rigged league. Everyone else plays around with LTIR and gets away with it. Why is there an investigation into this particular LTIR, you know, a grievance? I do wonder if they had something to do with his availability being earlier than when it was supposed to be because the first set of surgeries did take place at the beginning

of the year and the second one took place in January. I think they're investigating it because the GM started complaining about LTIR and we expect it to be addressed in the new CBA and this is the NHL. I don't know if this is all for show. I don't know if anything will come of it, but you know, we all heard that they were going to investigate this stuff a little closer because people were getting frustrated by it.

And you know, people texting in, Tyler, sure, but don't ever look into Vegas for their use of LTIR. Clown me. That's what I always think is funny. That was the first takeaway that I had. Mark Stone looking around like, Look, if you're gonna do funny business with LTIR, I don't know if there should be punishments

for degree of funny business. The reality is that Edmonton did not, whatever, however it came to be, Edmonton did not get his services throughout the entirety of the regular season. And he also sat out one game of the playoffs. There have been countless other teams where guys have popped back for game one while they've also gone about using the space from that players.

The Canucks have used it. The Canucks used it back in 2011. So my theory would be that something so egregious must have happened here, or there must have been a leak so large that the NHL couldn't ignore it. That's the only way I can imagine that it came to this level. Do you think so?

Or maybe like- Or what? They want to make this the- The crackdown, you know? Like this is the, you know- Finally we had to punish someone? Yeah, sometimes they call hooking and holding early in the season, or maybe this is a crackdown, you know, like this is the, you know. Finally we had to punish someone. Yeah, sometimes they call hooking and holding early in the season, and maybe this is a crackdown on it.

I guess my counterpoint would be, wouldn't the crackdown just be addressing it in the next collective bargaining agreement, saying we're not doing this anymore? Yeah. What are you gonna penalize them for? Are you gonna give them a cap hit retroactively for Evander Cain moving into next season,

and then make it more difficult for them to sign guys in the off season? It pains me to have to possibly be on the side of the Edmonton Oilers here because I don't care for the shenanigans to begin with. Well, okay. Is this possible? Now, this is pure speculation. I love pure speculation. This is pure speculation. Remember that whole thing around the trade deadline when we were like, are the Oilers in the Kane camp not on the same page here? I did wonder that.

Yep. What is going on here? Did something happen from that? Frank does go on to say in that piece. I don't know if you've ever heard, but sometimes things go bad between a Vander Kane and the teams that he's on. Sometimes.

I'm not familiar with that history. Sometimes relationships, like is there something, is there something there? Cause like I said. He's definitely left every other city on good terms. So I don't know where you're getting that from. Like, did he complain? Did he complain that he was pushed onto the sidelines

and kept out because of LTIR? Now, here's another thought that you can have on this, is that in that same piece where Frank breaks down from his sources what's going on with the league's investigation into LTIR, Frank also writes that Kane is, quote, expected to be trade fodder this summer as the Edmonton Oilers seek salary cap flexibility. Now, so I read that and I'm thinking, I do wonder if Kane is sitting there and saying, you guys help force me to hold out the entire season

to get the cap relief. I get to come back in the playoffs and then you're gonna quickly try and dump me or move me. As quick as possible, my nose might be out of joint. Yeah, I should be like, yeah, we don't like you. Yeah, and that is a totally plausible scenario as well. We actually just wanted you away from the team this season. That's why we went through. Now from a purely, that's why you had surgery in September and not the end of the season. From a purely, oh, it would be so delicious standpoint. The

Oilers getting dinged with a cap penalty, heading into a summer where they're gonna need to shell out huge bucks for Evan Bouchard and are finally able to enter extension talks with Conor McDavid. I mean, it would be hilarious from a Neutrals point of view that the one team that's finally, finally gonna get dinged for LTIR shenanigans is the one that has Conor McDavid waiting for a contract extension on

July 1. Well, let's move on to the next bit of Euler's news because for some reason, the Eulers are thinking of giving Trent Frederick an eight-year contract with a cap hit just below $4 million. This one comes courtesy again, Frank Saravalli from Daily Face Off doing work on the Edmonton beat yesterday. Frank said yesterday, quote, don't expect the Oilers to announce the deal in the near future given they've got other business

to attend to, but Frederick's deal is expected to be at eight years north of 3.5 million, but just shy of four. There was also news on this extension from another reporter, the score is John Mattis. So this is definitely out there to some degree. I have no idea why they'd be interested in extending Frederick this long.

I thought he was a pretty disappointing acquisition for them. I know he was injured and I know he missed almost the entirety of the regular season with Edmonton due to that injury. But when he was playing in the post season and maybe there were lingering effects, didn't get over 12 minutes a game,

was minimal in terms of production. Even the physicality, which he is known for, didn't get over 12 minutes a game, was minimal in terms of production. Even the physicality, which he is known for, didn't really shine through. I didn't notice him. I noticed Pod Colson way more than Trent Frederick. Likewise, and that wasn't just because we're connects guys and we were trying to look for Pod Colson. He was a much more noticeable player.

Frederick did have a really great year two years ago. That's when he had the 18 goals and 40 points in 82 games. So maybe there's a thought that when he's healthy, he can get back to that. But for a guy that's turning 28 who didn't really shine in his cameo appearance with the oilers to get a reported eight year deal is kind of crazy. But teams are retaining guys right now. We're kind of seeing that, that there's a lot of teams that are re-upping with their players so that either don't hit free agency or aren't available in the trade market. This morning,

the Ottawa senators resigned Fabian Zetterland who they acquired from the San Jose sharks at the trade deadline. So that's one as well. There was a trade yesterday as well in the national hockey league. After a few days off of no action during the Stanley Cup final, the national predators announced that they had had reacquired veteran forward Eric Halla from the New Jersey Devils. Not exactly a blockbuster trade and nothing that's really going to shake the league to its core, but it is a guy that returns a bit of a journeyman player in a hall, having played in a variety of different locations.

He goes back to Nashville, Nashville looking to bounce back from a terrible year last year. Nashville also announced yesterday that their captain, Roman Yossi is expected to be a training camp this summer or this September. Now you might say, well, why was that ever in question? If you didn't follow what happened in Nashville this year, one of the many things that went wrong was that Yossi was limited to 53 games this year with what they thought was post, post concussion syndrome. I'm going to try and pronounce the actual, uh, syndrome that he had postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. I think I got it. It's POTS for short. Is that, uh, so you know what it is?

Tachycardia is, uh,cardia is an elevated heartbeat, right? It's when you have an abnormally large increase in heart rate after sitting or standing. It's what most people know as getting old. Roman Yossi is not old enough to have that. It was apparently a byproduct of the concussion that he suffered on a hit from Sam Bennett earlier this season.

So he was out of the lineup since February and then was having these. That must be kind of scary actually if a car just starts racing like that. Right, but always. While you're playing too. Yeah, so for him it happened in the post-concussion window, as I mentioned, after like sitting up or lying down.

And you know some people get that, they're like, sit up too quick, old people, they're like, I got a headache now. I'm dizzy. Right, it was happening to Roman Yossi. Was he getting like dizzy and that sort of thing? Yes, yeah. So he is on meds to alleviate the symptoms

and he will be okay and will resume training with the National Predators in September. So there's your news out of there. And in other news from around the National Hoculee. I get that in the hot tub sometimes, by the way. I get it all the time. Oh, you stand up too quickly in the hot tub, you get out, and then you're back in the hot tub.

We're all these first aid people. What happened? Did I take a nap in the hot tub? Russ's like, do I got the pots? I got the pots. Other news from around the National Hockey League from yesterday, Ryan Donato signed a four year, $16 million contract extension

with the Chicago Blackhawks yesterday, average annual value of four million. Another guy that's really bounced around the NHL, from the Bruins to the Wilds to the Sharks to the Kraken and now the Blackhawks. A career year though at 29, I didn't even realize he reached these totals, 31 points and 31 assists,

62 points in 80 games this season Is this a Ryan suitor comp? Pew suitor comp. Oh, sorry. Yeah, you suitor Ryan suitor would love to get that kind of money right now Well, he's probably getting with all the bio Yeah, is this a getting it from like nine teams? Yeah, is this a is this a pew suitor comp because yeah, I kind of know exactly where you're going with this And I think you might be right. Yeah. Well, I mean, he's a center. He hasn't really like stood out in his career much. But a career last year.

Yeah. I can't remember how old suitor is, but he's probably around this age. Four years, $16 million. Pew suitor is also the same age, 29 years old. Yeah. Yeah. They're very similar players. Very similar trajectories, bounced around the NHL a little bit, found a home. Four years, 16 million.

Now the interesting thing is like for Chicago, it kinda seemed like a no-brainer. Yeah, yeah. Donato was, I mean, non-Conor Bedard division was probably the best player last year. He wildly overachieved for them. Might have been better than Bedard. Right. That's why I wanted to put that in quotations, not brackets.

I, you look at what he did last year and you know, Chicago's got tons of cap space. They've got roster spots available for anyone that decides to show up and play well on a regular basis. And Donato really showed up last year. Okay. Um, so let's go through the timeline for the next couple of weeks because they are going to be massive for the Canucks in terms of what they're going to look like next season.

It's June 19th today. Halford, it's Thursday. Thursday. Okay. So remember, you got it wrong yesterday. It's Thursday, June 19th. The draft is next Friday and Saturday. That's June 27th and 28th.

Free agency as always is July 1st, the Tuesday following the draft. In other words, the Canucks better get shaken. Currently the only players under contract that you can slot into the top six for sure are Elias Pedersen and Jake DeBresk. Dos. Uno. Pedersen.

Dos. DeBresk. Okay. Ideally Garland and Joshua are back in a third line role where they excelled the season they made the playoffs. Maybe Heedle is their center because that's where the Canucks want them. They see him as a third line center or a top six winger, but probably a third line center.

So they need to add at least another top six center and top six winger. Now they could always circle back on Besser or Souter, but it doesn't feel like that's their plan A. They want to get faster, they need to get faster. I think they want to get different. Yeah, that's fair. And a little size wouldn't hurt either. I was looking at the Canucks lineup yesterday and I just had a bunch of thoughts.

I wonder what the future holds for Nils Hoeglunder. I could honestly see him anywhere next season. In the top six, in the bottom six, or on another team. I know the Canucks see him as a likely bounce back candidate, but I could also see him as a trade chip where another team sees the exact same thing and goes, that guy has cost certainty over the next few years. He's talented.

He plays with a bit of an edge, get him in a new environment. Maybe he takes off. Um, so I wonder about Holglinder. Um, if Heidel is the three C is Bluger the four C or is Bluger maybe a trade chip as well with some young guys down on the farm, like Max Sassen or Ty Mueller. Where do Sherwood and O'Connor fit? Those guys can play up and down the lineup. You could put them in the top six if you want.

You better have two good players playing with them. Sure. Because they're not really top six guys. Down is preferable. And then, you know, I kind of mentioned this already, the Abbey guys, among the forwards, I'm mostly thinking about Linus Carlsen and Sassen. this is purely me speculating, but I really do see Lekker Mackey as a potential trade chip. They don't want to trade DPT. No.

Or Willander. Nope. Which would only leave Lekker Mackey in the kind of blue chip department. Yeah, I know guys like Kudryadzev and Mancini have impressed, but I don't consider them blue chip prospects. Like Lekkeramacky has the draft profile.

Yep. I don't think you can count on Lekkeramacky to be a regular NHL or next season when he can't even get into regular AHL games. This is not a criticism of the prospect. Everyone just develops at their own rate. And right now, if you were to say, all right, Lekker-Mackie, we'll got you in top six, you're going to replace Besser, I think that would be unfair to the

team and unfair to the player. It's a big ass. I don't think they'll do that. Um, so it's, it's wide open for the Canucks right now. And people that wouldn't want the Canucks to trade Leckermackie, I get it. But Jim Rutherford has said, he's like, this has been his quote, I'm paraphrasing a little

bit here, but he's like, you know, to get these second line center or top six winger, it's going to hurt and they're going to be people that don't like what we do. And I do wonder more and more if that is Leckermackie. Again, this is going on the assumption and what we've heard that they are, would you say staunchly opposed, staunchly opposed to moving Willander or DPT?

DPT especially. Yeah, like that is the cameo that DPT had last year solidified him in the eyes of a lot of people in the organization and Leckermackie the interesting thing about him is despite whatever's happened in the American League this year where he did have a good regular season like the goal scoring totals for a guy his age in his draft plus whatever you're fine. I thought he showed well in certain situations. Yeah in the NHL I thought he looked really comfortable on the power play

Yeah, he doesn't have the trust of his head coach in a series where you're playing against a AHL veterans like who cares like it's You know, it's a learning process for me. Yeah, whatever the case to get bigger and stronger I think you can sell a really and tell a really nice story about him as a prospect and something that you could retain Or sorry, you could get really good value back in return. And I do wonder if that's what's going to end up happening here. So some sort of hybrid, if you're going to throw all your chips on the table, it's going to be like, well, we've got Leckermackie. We've got a first round pick this year.

We've got a first round pick next year. Oh, that's the McKenna sweepstakes. I don't know if you want to even entertain that idea. And then you start going down the list and it's like, can you trade a guy like Blugr? Because it does make sense if you're gonna bump a guy from the American league to play 4C behind whatever you've got at one, two, three. And right now you've got Pedersen as your one

and Heidel ideally as your three. So you're gonna have to fill the two. But I get, you start to see the pieces taking shape. And part of it is because you see what's going on in free agency and in trades right now. And it's there's movement happening already. The Canucks aren't going to have a lot of options as opposed to previous years.

We went over that yesterday. So the stuff that you're putting on the table to offer up to other teams can has to be more and more and more as it grows. The question is, and I think it'll always come back to this with regards to what you're willing to part with this summer, will you finally concede that you do need to move one of those defensive pieces?

I love our listeners. Two texts come in. Don't forget Ratu. He would need to clear waivers. And then tones. What about Ratu? He could be the 4C. Yeah, he could be the 4C as well.

And that would be something where you're like, we move Bluger now, everyone will be saying, well, what are you gonna get in return for Bluger? Great question, I'm not sure. But it's gonna come down to a real simple sort of scenario where there's a list of things that the team is willing to move. Then there's always that small pile of things

that you don't really wanna move, but you haven't quite said 100% no to yet. Like 99% of the way there. And that's me. Look what they're asking for. They're asking to get a top six center and a top six winger, maybe another top six winger. Yeah. And it's going to be difficult. It's going to be honestly, almost impossible. We got a lot more to get to on the Haliford and Brough show on sports net 650. The hockey talk rolls on. Pete Blackburn's gonna join us at 6.30. George Richards at 7.30.

A lot of Florida Panthers, Stanley Cup final talk, and we'll look ahead to the off season with both of those guests. Thomas Drantz is at eight o'clock. Reminder, start getting your WellBeLearns in. Hashtag them WWL. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Let us know.

We'll read them at 8.30. It's your chance to be on the radio. You are listening to the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 PM on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 634 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650.

Halford Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Pete Blackburn's gonna join us in just a moment here to highlight hour one. Hour one of this program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling, Vancouver's

premier metal recycler, pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. This is the middle of a 70 Powell Street in Vancouver. Our next guest is the cohost of What what chaos the all city networks national hockey show He's one of our favorites. He joins us yet again on the show Pete Blackburn here on the health of the brush on Sportsnet 650 What up Pete? So fellas, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming on man We appreciate you taking the time

Although you might not appreciate what we're about to do because we're gonna make you talk about Brad Marshawn for an extended period of Time would a guest. Yeah, who of time. Who would have guessed? Yeah. Who would have guessed? Who would have thunk it? My first one. It hurts us too, Pete. In a different way though.

Yeah, in a different way. He's like best friends with Luongo now. That sucks. What is going on in this world? What was it like to see him become a playoff hero for the Florida Panthers, Pete? Yeah, I mean, bittersweet, weird, all the words.

Like, I'm not going to root against the guy. I'm happy to see him succeed and, you know, I'm happy he got his. But at the same time, you know, as a Bruins fan, like, there's a selfish part of you that wants, you know, his success to be kind of contained to within Boston. And at this point, he's won as many, as many Stanley cups with the Florida Panthers as he has with the Boston Bruins and, you know, a fraction of the time. And that's weird.

And, you know, seeing the thank you Boston chance yesterday in the morning at elbow room was like the real point. I thought I had grieved this trade until I saw that happen and I had to process that. It was all very weird. So yeah, I mean mean like very, very conflicting feelings in a lot of ways. Had the Panthers become rival number one for the Boston Bruins?

I can't even, I don't even know if you can even say rivals because like the, the Bruins right now are towards the bottom of the barrel and the Panthers are clearly the class of the NHL and you know the Bruins have never beaten this version of the of the Panthers and this kind of iteration. So I find it hard to call them a rival. I still look at Toronto and Montreal as like the biggest rivals there but obviously you know given the two playoff matchups, the feeling of Brad Marshaan and you know, kind of this whole situation, Florida's kind of got the upper hand right now, for sure.

As Brad Marshaan, we all know, I think he's a Hall of Famer. Has he gotten to the point where he's a first ballot Hall of Famer? I don't know. I mean, I'd have to see like what that ballot looks like, but sure fire Hall of famer? I don't know. I mean, I'd have to, you have to see like what that ballot looks like. Um, but sure fire hall of famer for sure.

And I think that, you know, this, this run has done a lot for Marchans legacy and kind of not only his wallet, but his legacy as well. Because I mean, you're talking about a guy that probably just made himself, made himself about $10 million more over the course of this playoff run because he's probably going to get an extra year. His AAV is going to go up a little bit as to what he was looking at in Boston

when he was saying that he would kind of come down and come to the middle of meeting place so that he could stay in Boston. So made a bunch of money. I definitely think that he's a hall of Famer and you know, a second cup, I think solidifies that and the run that he had is, you know, I would say he's probably the best mercenary acquisition, mid-season acquisition, maybe in NHL history.

Yeah. I mean, he made that third line. I mean, we were kind of, you know, comparing everything to the Canucks and I think the Panthers had three lines that were better know, comparing everything to the Canucks and I think the Panthers had three lines that were better than any line combination that the Canucks could possibly put together.

That team was, can you remember a team that was so loaded up front? We went through the exercise yesterday and the seventh forward that we came to was Carter Verhage who was a point to game guy in the playoffs. Yeah., I mean this is a team that really kind of had no holes and no weaknesses and you know a lot of people are rushing to the dynasty conversation and whether this team is a dynasty regardless of whether they are or not and I personally think that they're knocking on the door but maybe not through it yet. This team

and the run that they just went on is one of the more impressive and dominant runs that we've seen. And you look at the goal differential, which is plus 39, like the other teams that are in that range, they're tied for the fourth best goal differential in post-season history. The three teams above them are all dynasty teams. They're the 80s Islanders and the 80s Oilers.

That team is right up there with some of the more dominant and unbelievably heralded teams that have won the Stanley Cup. You look at what they have and where they had no weaknesses, that part of me, I give credit to the Panthers, of course. But I also say like, you know, the Oilers held on in the early going here, the Oilers are really great team and they established themselves as the class of the Western conference through the first three rounds. And then they got smoked as this thing went on.

And I think that they're clearly the second best team, but Florida was just that much better and kind of in their own tier. Um, how would you feel if Brad Marshawn signed with the Leafs? He's not going to, he's not going to do it. Don't even, we don't even have to entertain it. It's not going to happen. I have my, I have my feelings on, on what's going to happen with

Marshawn this, uh, this summer. I, uh, I'm leaning towards Utah as a likely destination. Yeah. Which would be a lot of fun and it would make a lot of sense for a lot of different reasons. Um, yeah, but I'm, I'm putting them with the man at this summer. Please expand. Like what's, what's the thing? Do you think this is just getting maximum money? I think it's getting maximum money and they've got plenty to play with. I think they're trying to add veteran presence to that team. I think they're going to look at what you saw from him during this playoff run. And I also, I look to that guy loves hunting. He loves outdoors.

He is best friends with Kevin Miller, who lives in Utah. They run a business together out of Utah. A lot of it makes sense for him to have his final chapter in Salt Lake City. OK, backtracking a bit, how would you classify where the relationship is between Marshawn and the Bruins right now? Is there ill will and bad feelings? I Don't know if there's ill will and bad feelings, but I you know, I think that that door has already been walked through and There's not a lot of reason to turn around right if the Bruins did not want to meet Marsha's price

When he was willing to come down from around seven million, seven and a half million on an asking AV, like he's only made himself more money during this playoff run. So if he's trying to maximize money, the Bruins are completely out of that picture. And then, you know, when you look at where, where they are as a team, like their window is, is not going to coincide with him if he wants to win.

Like if he just got a taste and he wants to make another run at this thing, Boston's also off the table. So they make really no sense to me. If they wanted to keep him and they wanted to make him a guy who finishes and retires with the Bruins, they should have kept him and not traded him in the first place. Right. And I'm kind of wondering about where the level of angst is among the fan base, maybe even the media in Boston,

because I know that the end of year media veils with Sweeney and Neely were pretty testy. I know that this run that Marshawn went on doesn't help things at all, because they went out and splashed a bunch of cash for Zdorov and Lindholm, and then there wasn't enough, I guess, left to keep Marshawn, and people have to be scratching their heads at that or just straight out

furious at that. And then the future seems really murky. Like, I don't really know exactly what the Bruins are moving forward because they do have money tied up in some veteran guys. And it just doesn't look like they're going to be that good. Yeah, I think the uncertainty aspect is is the key here is because you don't really know what the roster is going to look like.

You don't know what Marco Sturm is going to be as an NHL level head coach. You don't know what his staff is going to be able to do around him. The roster is like, you look down the list of who they've got locked up right now, they've got five forwards locked up who aren't on UFA contracts who have been at least like regular players on this team in the past. So have no idea what their forward group is going to look like their defense. I'm not really worried about because they had a ton of injuries last year like McAvoy missed a bunch of time. Hampus Lindholm and missed a bunch of time. You mentioned the door of I don't think he's going to look as bad this year as he did last year, given

the role that he was asked to play because of those injuries. And then of course, Jeremy Swainman and what he is in net, you know, he can't really be much worse, you would hope, based off of year one of that contract. So, you know, I'm not gonna say that they're gonna be a horrible team. I just don't know what kind of team they're going to be. They've got money to play with. They don't have a ton of prospect in terms of the system coming up. So there's a lot in flux right now for sure. How was the Marco Sturm hire received? I think it's weird because there's not a lot of people criticizing it, I know, I think it's weird because, you know, there's not a lot of people criticizing it, I suppose, but I think there's an air of it being underwhelming, especially considering

when you entered into this postseason, how many names were available. And like at the outset, a lot of people were talking about, you know, maybe they get a guy like Mike Sullivan, they bring Mike Sullivan back. Maybe they make a big splash with a young guy with like a David Karl, uh, you know, maybe they get a guy like Mike Sullivan, they bring Mike Sullivan back. Maybe they make a big splash with a young guy with like a David Carl, uh, you know, Joel Quinville, maybe like to hear Marco Sturm who wasn't even really discussed at the beginning of things. Uh, there is some, you know, there's been some talk about like the Bruins have a tendency of, of not wanting to pay their coaches a lot and that could be the case here. There's also been a lot of talk about like, oh they're going to the boys club, they're going back to one of their own, an alumni.

So, you know, there's definitely some hesitation or some, you know, reservations about Marcus Thuram. But I think at this point people have settled into it and they're willing to give them a chance. So correct me if I'm wrong here, but right now the Bruins down the middle have Lindholm, Zaka and Middlestadt as their top three centres. Is that how you expect them to go into next season or do you expect them to seek change there? Oh no, I would definitely expect and hope that that's not your top nine on the middle

for a number of reasons. They headed into last season with Pavel Zaka not wanting to play him down the middle. They wanted to play him on the wing because they felt he was more effective there. One year later, you're heading into the season with him slotted right now as your number one center. Not amazing, especially after you spent big in the off season, trying to sign a number one center. So, you know, I think they're going to have to be creative. I think they're going to have to look at, you know, maybe the Washington capitals blueprint last year,

which is an extremely hard blueprint to follow, right? Like they made a few off the board trades and they basically hit on all of them. I think that the Bruins are going to look at that and say, this is something we can do, but the question is whether they can do it effectively and not, you know, just not kind of stupidly rearrange deck chairs. It just seems like there are so many teams looking to upgrade their center position and so few players out there that you can come up with that would make sense.

Like I've spent way too much time thinking about Marco Rossi in Minnesota, but you know, Vancouver needs center help. UC Montreal is I think going to be aggressive looking for second line or third line center help. Calgary I've heard is another team that might be doing that. Like clearly there are going to be some teams

that are left out of this. Yeah. And I mean, you mentioned it, but like it's hard enough to acquire middle six center help. The Bruins are trying to acquire top six center help and that's just an even harder thing to do especially when you don't have a ton of capital. Like every problem they like whenever the Bruins are linked to a good player on the trade market the first response is always oh what what kind of

package can they even give up for this guy? And that's what it ultimately comes down to. And that's going to be their biggest challenge is not only identifying the players that can come in and fill these roles and do so effectively, but how do you go and get them? And that's probably the bigger question. Anybody can look around the league and say,

oh, we should go get that guy. The question is how? And that's going to be a very, very difficult task for Don Sweeney and crew. Is there any buyers remorse over Elias Lindholm? I think there has to be. I think with both Lindholm and Zadorov, you think that they're definitely capable of giving you more than they did last year. And I think that some of the problems last year, whether it was from, you know, the room or just kind of the things, snowballing injuries, like you look and you say, everybody was kind of affected by this with the exception of David Pocernock and probably Morgan Gicke. But, you know, everybody here has the capability of elevating their game and being a

little bit better moving forward. But I still, I think that there's got to be buyer's remorse. Cause you look at the price tag on Lindholm, it looks like an overpay to begin with, but it especially looks like an overpay now. Well, you look at his top season and that was the year he had Johnny Goodrow and Matthew Kachuk on his wing. He had 42 goals and 40 assists for 82 points. He had a 78 point season, I think, when he

first came to Calgary. But other than that, he hasn't really approached those areas. Like when I watch him play, he doesn't seem like a guy that's going to create a lot of offense. Does he to you? No. Like he's certainly not blindingly fast.

He's, he's super strong and he's good along the wall, but he doesn't strike me as a particularly dynamic player. No. And like, he's one of those guys where like he's a good player and he plays pretty hard, uh, but there are times when he just is kind of invisible or a real non-factor. And like he was signed to be their number one center. And you mentioned like the production that he had playing alongside really good players in Calgary. I think that was the Bruins hope. I think the Bruins hope was that they would slot him next to David Posternok, and whether

or not he was that kind of player, that Posternok would be able to unlock something in him and that production would come. They've clearly, I think, discovered that he is not a number one center in his first year in Boston. And so that's where the overpay comes in. And that's where, you know, when he goes quiet, you can't have your number one center be that much of a non factor in so many games. And that's the problem with Lindholm.

Beep, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Maybe we'll check back over the next couple of weeks. I expect there's going to be a lot of news and notes from around the league. So if you're up for it, we can do this again. We really appreciate it. Maybe we'll check back over the next couple of weeks. I expect there's gonna be a lot of news and notes from around the league. So if you're up for it, we can do this again. Yeah, of course, happy to do it.

Always a good time to chat with you guys. Same buddy, thanks for doing this. That's Pete Blackburn from What Chaos? All City Network's national hockey show here on the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. I wanna throw this out to the listeners. Dunbar Lumber text, 650-650 Metro Vancouver's trust to choice for contractors

and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. What do you think is going to happen over the next couple of weeks for the Canucks? Do you think they're going to achieve their goals? I mean, part of the reason for bringing on a guy like Pete Blackburn is to just show you yet another

team that's in a position where they need to upgrade and they need to upgrade not like the third line winger position. They need to upgrade at premier spots. A lot of teams that want to add this summer. They are one. And, you know, regardless of what the Canucks do, I know if they aren't able to achieve their goals, then, you know, I think, well, we've kind of proven that or shown that, you know, it's going to be hard. And if they are able to achieve their goals, then I think we give them the kudos

that they will deserve that they can pull something off here. Because you've got a lot of things going against you right now. If you're the Canucks, you've got a lot of competition for good players and you don't have a ton to give up. Like I don't think anyone's going to sit there and be like, wow, really want the 15th overall pick in the draft and Jonathan Leckermackie. Here you go. Here's a top six center for you. Enjoy.

He's young, he's talented, you know, like how is that? I just, my brain can't figure that out. I cannot figure out how they're going to do it. So maybe there's a way that you can convince me that they can do it. So text into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650-650 and you tell me what you think is going to happen because for the life of me, I'm not sure how they do it.

I hope they do it, but I'm not sure how they do it. We got some time, we got an open segment on the other side before we get to George Richards at 7.30. We'll talk to George about the Florida Panthers and the celebration and what they're planning to do this off season besides party. Um, we're going to talk about the Jesse Marsh story because believe it or not, the Canadian

soccer manager is in trouble again. Laddie said, uh, before the show, he said, uh, couldn't we get a soccer manager that doesn't get in trouble in Canada? I was like, eh, that'd be boring. We like him feisty. So we'll talk about that and we'll read a few of your texts into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650,

650, you're listening to the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet, 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the Vancouver Giants. It's never too early to get your Vancouver Giants season's tickets. Tickets start under $19, $19 at vancouvergiants.com forward slash season tickets.