Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Canucks Were Busy Yesterday

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including day one of Free Agency and discuss all the new Canucks signings (3:00), plus they look elsewhere around the league with NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen (27:00). 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 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 Turn to the defense. They try to cut for the net. Scores! My best hockey is yet to come. I'm really excited to do it in Vancouver. I felt that we stuck to our plan and were able to sign those guys that we believe makes our team better. We need more port license plates in the gift shop. I repeat, we are sold out of port license plates. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a plates. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. It's Alfred and his brother at Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning.

Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Brother of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling.

Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. So we did the Bort drop. I was wondering if the dogs were going to be able to cook that up in the lab.

Kudos to you. Big day for the Vancouver Canucks yesterday. A number of new players in the door. We've got a number of guests on the horizon. Guest list begins today at 6.30. Dan Rosen, NHL.com. He was tasked with updating the signings tracker for NHL.com. He had that job? That was his job.

I don't even know. I thought they gave that to like some intern. He tweeted out yesterday and he said, I know that this is correct because I wrote every single word of it. So Dan will join us and talk about all the signings. You know what? We'll spare him having to go through the Canucks ones. We'll go non Canucks division with Dan Rosen because there was a lot of news around the NHL yesterday.

Seven o'clock. Pete Blackburn from the What Chaos Hockey Show. Now we're going to bring Pete on the show because the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks did a sort of swap of players yesterday. Three Bruins coming this way to the Canucks, two Canucks going that way to Boston. So we'll talk to Pete about all that at 7 o'clock. 7.30, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice

of the Vancouver Canucks. We'll get his thoughts on all the new guys that'll be wearing Canucks uniforms this fall. 8 o'clock, Sean White. Yes, the kicker for the BC Lions. 28 straight field goals for the man. 11 for 11 on the year, including that winner against

Edmonton last week. So we'll talk to Sean at 8 o'clock ahead of the big game against Laddie's beloved Hamilton Tiger Cats. Sean White at 8. Brennan Batchelor at 7.30. Pete Blackburn at 7.00. Dan Rosen at 6 dan rosen at 6 30 and we might just have news more news it's going to be like yesterday or something like that because victor headman just signed a four-year contract extension worth a cap hit of eight million dollars which

just adds to the whole weirdness of the stephenamkos thing. Bizarre. Yeah. Even he was like, it's weird, man. We just don't like you, Stephen. Please leave. Please leave. He's like, do I have BO? What's going on here? After all this, so long and good luck. I don't call saying good luck.

I scored 40 goals last year. What is it about me? I don't know. Well, you know what? Rosen wrote about that for NHL.com as well, so we'll ask him at 6.30. But we've got a lot to get into. We've got a lot of Canucks news that we need to parse through

because, of course, none of it happened on our show yesterday. So without further ado, Laddie, 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? You missed No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed it?

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 The Canucks signed seven

players yesterday in free agency, and I had to laugh after we left the show yesterday. My kid was out at a soccer tournament in UBC, so I got there. And then, of course, all the parents wanted to talk about all the Canucks signings. And I'm like, literally everything happened from the moment I left the studio to the car ride getting here. You tell me what happened. You tell me.

I don't know what's going on. I have no idea. We'll kind of go through these one after the other after the other but the big one obviously and the one we'll probably focus the most on is jake debrusk agreeing to a seven-year uh deal with the vancouver connects with a 5.5 million dollar aav 27 year old winger soon to be 28 um reported rumored earlier in the day when ell Elliott Friedman came on with us bright and early at 6 o'clock in the morning. And my homeboy here, Jason Brough, astutely pointing out that, hmm, parsing through Frege's words, we may need to pay more attention to Jake DeBrusque.

That proved to be the right thing. DeBrusque, now a member of the Vancouver Canucks. Yeah, that was funny. Frege came on and said, well, maybe Jake DeBrusque. And then I asked a question about Gensel and the lightning. And then with my mic off off I went to Halford I said after thinking about it I was like Halford ask a follow-up question on Jake DeBrusque more about this Jake fellow and then uh Elliot said to me that it didn't sound very enthusiastic about it and I didn't sound very enthusiastic about it, but let me explain because I had a lot of people

reach out to me and said, and basically poke fun at me for my lack of enthusiasm when Elliot Freeman brought up Jake DeBrusque. Get this out of your system now because you're going on vacation. So this is your last chance to do this. So go. Have we even done what?

Yeah, we're good. Okay. We're good. Business. Business out of're good. Okay. We're good. Go. Business. Business out of the way. Okay. So the Jake DeBrus story in Boston, from what I had been following, and obviously it's the Bruins, it's another NHL team. I don't follow them on a day-to-day basis.

I kept hearing about this Jake DeBrus guy, who I knew who he was, Louis DeBrusque's son, who kept on getting healthy scratched. And I'm like, well, what's going on there? And then he had a trade request out, and then he rescinded that trade request. And he occasionally put up pretty good numbers, 27 goals a couple of times, but there was some real inconsistency there. And when I hear that a player is way was that under Jim Montgomery, he had become a more consistent player.

And I heard his interview with Drance and Jamie Dodd. And when Drance wasn't cackling maniacally, I could hear Jake DeBrusque say that, you know, there were times that, you know, he needed to grow up and not grow up like none of them, like he was super immature or anything, but he said that, you know, some of the things, some of the, some of the years, the COVID years were hard for him and he had to, and he had to grow up as an NHL-er and he just had to learn how to be a regular NHL-er. And in reading through a few other things,

Bruins fans are not happy to be losing this guy because he had matured into a player that not only could score and play with really good players, he had also rounded out his two-way game and become a really good special teams player both power play and penalty kill so that was my reaction it was kind of stuck in the like is this the same guy that like wanted out of Boston all the time and then oh wait a minute he didn't want out of Boston and he couldn't stay in the lineup all the time

like is that this is the guy that I'm supposed to be excited to come play with pd well it's funny that you mentioned his play under jim montgomery because i did reach out to a couple people who were around the situation and both of them said the exact same thing uh bruce cassidy is that they yeah yeah yeah jake deborah skin bruce cassidy just never got along and it wasn't that one of the reasons that i always thought it was bruce cassidy's relationship with the veteran players that ended up getting him it could have been a turf out of boston anything with a multitude of his relationships with younger or older players it just i don't think the bruins as a whole were very happy um playing for him and i think jake de brusque by all accounts was a pretty popular player in the room because

guys like patrice bergeron were always going to bat for him and Brad Marchand was always going to bat for him. Now, those guys are leaders on the team and that's what they're going to do. They're going to try and encourage young players. That's what leaders do. Listening to Jake DeBruys' interview with, again, Cackling Drance and Jamie Dodd yesterday, I actually thought he sounded like a super mature and thoughtful guy and a guy that's learned a lot from his time in the league and maybe a guy that's also going to be looking forward to a fresh start. A couple things.

You know what? Let's play the audio from Patrick Alphine first because we don't have the particular part of the clip where he says that he envisions DeBrusque opening on the line with Petey. That is what he said, though. He said, of course, as every general manager says, he'll leave it up to the head coach,

this case being Rick Talkett, on who plays with who. But the things that they liked about DeBrusque. Here is Patrick Alfine on Canucks Central yesterday talking about their big day one free agent splash. Yeah, I do think there is still growth in his game and Jake is coming out of a really good organization that has a winning tradition out in Boston. So I would imagine he's going to continue to thrive here

and be part of the core group moving forward here in the next seven years and his ability to escape and create the offense. But I also think that his two-way game has really improved over the years. I've always been impressed by Jake in the playoffs where he seems to be able to elevate his game and play at the next level. So I'm excited about getting Jake into this group. So stay tuned until the next hour

when we have Pete Blackburn on the show and we'll talk to him. He's a Boston guy. So we'll talk to him about the Jake DeBrusque story in Boston, how it went from him essentially from being drafted all the way to actually leaving the team. We'll get the full narrative because, again,

one of the reasons that I might have sounded less than enthusiastic about Jake DeBrusque is I was kind of like, isn't this the guy that wanted to was getting healthy scratched and wanted to leave and was super inconsistent, streaky score. This is the guy we're resigning to play with PD. Hopefully this all works out. But I will still maintain that chemistry isn't always predictable.

Maybe you've got a line next season of Petey DeBrusque and Hoaglander and Miller, Besser and Suter, the other top line, or maybe it's Danton Heinen getting a look with Miller and Besser. One thing Patrick Alveen said about Heinen is that he can play up and down the lineup. Now, of course, the Canucks re-signed Bluger and Joshua, so those two could reunite with Garland on the third line.

I still feel like Bluger got a little bit screwed when Lindholm came and they bumped him off that line. I was thinking about that. I was thinking about that the other day. I was like, you know, in hindsight, I wonder if the Canucks should have tried a little bit harder to make Lindholm impede a thing. Alas, I wonder if the Canucks should have tried a little bit harder to make Lindholm and Petey a thing. Alas, I digress. Taka could also

next season look to elevate Joshua or Garland into the top six. And don't forget that the Canucks are going to give Lekker or Mackey a good look at training camp. Maybe he gets a shot with Petey and DeBrus. You never know. They don't want to

rush Lekker or Mackey, and you don't want to be in this position. But now that I think they've got all these forwards, they're not going to have to rush Lekker or Mackey. In fact, a guy like Pod Colson better show up, and he better look good. Otherwise, he might not even have a spot on this team, the amount of bodies that they have.

The fourth line could then feature a new signee in Kiefer Sherwood. I am super excited to watch this guy on the Canucks after watching him against the Canucks in the playoffs. And Patrick Alvin was joking that Quinn Hughes was probably the most excited for Kiefer Sherwood because Sherwood basically pissed off all the Canucks and was probably a hassle for uh Quinn Hughes uh with Sherwood's forechecking ability and he's just he's one of these guys that plays with a lot of energy and tenacity and he's annoying and

he's got an awesome name uh now fourth line Nils Amon probably still the center down there. And I guess the other winger, if it's Sherwood down there, is whoever doesn't crack the top nine. There you go. There's your spot. There's probably no need right now to think too intricately about the line combination. But I think it's worthwhile just to trace out a few possibilities

just to show you what the Canucks did yesterday and how it all could shake out. The bottom line really is this. DeBrusque has to make a significant impact, preferably with Petey, who needs to come back refreshed and ready to perform at an elite level. An elite level. An elite level. We need to hold Elias Pettersson to a high bar.

If Petey doesn't bounce back for the Canucks, it's hard to see how they're a cup contender. That may sound harsh, but that's the reality with his new contract. They have made a big bet on Pettersson, and if he doesn't play a lot better than he played in the second half of last season and into the playoffs, hopefully he figures out any physical injuries that he's got. Hopefully he has a good off season of training. Hopefully he

gets his head straight because if he doesn't, the Canucks, I don't see any way that they're a cup contender. You can't have your $11.6 million player, you know, not living up to that contract. Now, granted, when it comes to DeBrusque, he doesn't necessarily have to mesh with Petey. He doesn't have to because that's a lot to put on a player. You come in and you say, okay, you have to play well yourself. If you have chemistry with Elias Pettersson

and he holds up his end of the bargain, great. If not, the nice thing about DeBrusque is that he turns just 28 in October. He's 27 right now, 28 in October. So he's still got some prime years left, but he's got to bring a consistent and reliable effort, which is again, something he lacked at times in Boston under Bruce Cassidy, but seemed to figure that out in his last couple of years with the Bruins. So my takeaway on this was the one line that Patrick Alvin kept reiterating when he met with the media, did Canucks Central, released a statement about DeBrusque. Jake has consistently been able to elevate his game in the playoffs.

I think that is a two-part answer. I think that answers what they like about DeBrusque and also what they are thinking already further down the road. Not talking about the regular season, talking about what did we see in this year's playoffs. We saw an $11.6 million-a-year center in Elias Pettersson underwhelm, and we also saw him at times anchored with guys like Ilya Mikheyev on his wing.

Right. And how many times did we be moan the chances that we're landing on the sticks of guys that just couldn't put the puck in the back of the net. Here's the one thing that jumped off the page to me about DeBrusque. He's already played 86 playoff games. That's what you get. And they talked about him coming from the boston program that's what you get when you're drafted by the bruins and you play your entire career there

they're in the playoffs every year perennial playoff team de brusque played more playoff games than conor mcdavid has and they both broke into the league at the same time that clip i put in the intro was a beautiful playoff goal by jake de brusque that's So they are obviously got an eye on just beyond regular season counting stats and success is that when it comes down to the playoffs, and Alvin did mention this yesterday as well, they've got more versatility and more depth. So in game seven against, I don't know, the Edmonton Oilers, the best chances aren't falling on the sticks of McKay,

Evan Lafferty, and everybody else, right? Austin and Langley takes in. It's going to be hilarious when DeBrus fits like a glove with Miller and Besser and Petey is playing with PDG and Carlson or Putt calls in. God, I hope that doesn't happen. Keith the Water Guy, at what point is it up to Pedersen to mesh with his line mates? The guy has had a few really good line mates over the years and we are constantly giving him excuses.

Well, he didn't have good line mates late last season, but part of that was Petey's fault but part of that was Petey's fault. Part of that was Petey's fault that he was left with those lineups or those line mates because Miller and Besser, do you remember? Tuckett gave Petey Besser a little bit of time at the end of the regular season and he gave him Connor Garland at the end of the regular season. And he gave him Connor Garland at the end of the regular season. And it looked a tiny bit better, but not as good as Miller with Besser and Garland sticking with Joshua.

So, yeah, absolutely 90% of this is on Pettersson to mesh with his line mates. DeBrusque's only responsibility, like you can can't it's unfair to debrusk if you're the coaching staff and you go to debrus and you go you really gotta perform well with petterson yeah i see i don't right like i don't think they would do that this this i don't think they would do that if this gives them another look on the wings because when they brought in lindholm part of the problem was he bumped Beluga out of the sea and then it was also abundantly clear to Rick Talkett that he was only going to deploy him as a center like he's like he's not a winger he's a center so it made yes they brought in an extra forward that added to the depth of the group but it was kind of at the

wrong spot I think that at the end of the day that coaching and management group would have probably said all right we like Lindholm and we liked what he brought but it wasn't the right solution for I think that at the end of the day, that coaching and management group would have probably said, all right, we like Lindholm and we liked what he brought, but it wasn't the right solution for the puzzle pieces. He was a good piece, but he didn't fit perfectly. And that's why- He wasn't a winger. No. And that's why bringing in DeBrusque, I think, conceptually, I like what they did yesterday.

Do you think they're better than they were last year? I think at forward, they're better than they are. Let's turn to the blue line now, though, because- You think they're better at forward right now than they were last year yes yeah yes i do yes i do i think i i think having sherwood and joshua together makes them a even more and this is a good term hittier forward group because much hittier because it did seem at times last year that it was like well you got dakota joshua running around doing all the hitting and then it's like well who else is providing that so sherwood comes in and that's his bread

and butter i hope their speed is upgraded up front as well and patrick delvin was talking a lot about heinan's a good skater yeah um but you got to do something with that skating right um and heinan has bounced around a little bit so you know he's a hometown boy hopefully he gets some juice out of that what about the blue line? The Canucks added some beef to replace Nikita Zdorov and Ian Cole. Derek Forbort and Vincent DeArnais are both big boys who can kill penalties. That's another really important thing that Patrick Alvine talked about yesterday with most of the players that were added.

Somehow they got taller. I didn't think it was possible when you lose Zdorov and Cole, but they actually got taller, which is impressive. But the penalty kill was something of mind in most of these signings. And I think Forbert and Darren Ayer

are going to suit the Canucks' defensive style under Tockett, but you do have to wonder, and Drance asked this of Patrick Alvin, and Patrick Alvin didn't disagree if they've got enough puck moving ability on the bottom two pairs especially if Hughes and Horonik remain a pair right now the second pair would be I don't Susie and Myers with presumably Forbert and De'Arne on the third pair and then you've got guys like Noah Juleson and Mark Friedman can be your 7th and 8th guy. Is that good enough?

It sounds like Alvin is pretty open to adding another D-man, but how he's going to do that remains to be seen. They spent a lot of their cap space already. They don't have a lot of assets to trade, certainly not ones that they want to part with. Alvin also sounded open to experimenting with splitting up Hughes and Hronik and

having those guys, these are, this is Patrick Alvin's words, carry their own D pair. And he said, those are the questions for training camp. I keep going back to the last training camp and how they really tried to put everyone except Hronik with Hughes early on

just to try and make it happen. Now, ultimately, Hughes and Hronik got paired together and they were so good together and the team was having success that they never really looked back. And they were right to do that. But I think what they're looking at right now is they're going,

all right, Quinn Hughes has been a pretty good player without Hronik, before Hronik. I know he won the Norris Trophy this year, and that's a feather in both Quinn Hughes' cap, but also Hronik's. Yeah. But for the sake of the team, they might need to spread the wealth a little bit.

Okay, I'm going to go right back to what I said about DeBrus. This, to me, is another nod to, like, we're looking down the road here, and we're looking towards the playoffs. This blue line now has 6'7", Tyler Myers, 6'7", Vincent Desharnais, 6'5", Carson Soucy, 6'4", Derek Forbert. I think they might be the biggest blue line in the NHL. Is it worth noting that De'Arne was healthy scratched eventually by the Edmonton Oilers and replaced by Broberg

because the Oilers were having trouble with the Florida Panthers' forecheck? Yeah. I mean, that's going to be an issue. Anytime you have the bigger, slower guys. They were actually pretty excited about the potential of De'Ar because he's only been in the year in the league for a year and they they thought there was more they thought there was more there so maybe a guy like adam foot sergey gonchar can bring out more in vincent darren a well and i think he for sure would is along those same lines as well he's a 29 year old guy and he hasn't even cracked 200 nhl games yet

you know susie and my eyes is your third great. The second pair I'm not so sure about. Like, I mean, and I don't know much about Forbert either, but, I mean. Well, Soucy and Myers would be your second pair. Soucy and Myers. That's what I'm saying, though. I don't, like, I would prefer them to be on a, you know, ideally. Isn't this exactly like last year? You're kind of like, yeah, you like the top pair of Hughes and Hronik.

Yeah. Stay together, but you're going to be tempted to play those guys a lot, so you keep the guys, all four of them, in the bottom pair, below 20 minutes a night. Yeah, there are a lot of question marks, and I'm a little worried, but not like extremely worried. We'll talk more about what the Vancouver

Canucks did, and feel free to text in any of your questions or comments into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Text said, there's a new read here, so it's rattling me. Text in on the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way.

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They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Dan Rosen, senior writer from NHL.com, is going to join us in just a moment here to highlight Hour 1. Hour 1 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. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Dan Rosen joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Dan. How are you? Good morning, guys.

What's going on? Not much. Okay, so I was scrolling through Twitter, and I saw that you were tasked, tasked with the NHL.com free agency live tracker. And then he said it's... Yeah. I know all of it because I've written every word of it. Rosen, shouldn't that be for some intern to do, not the senior writer?

No, man. that's for me. You know, you got to stay up to date. You know, we got no interns. We got us, man. That's it. We do our work. Well, I was on it all day yesterday. You did a remarkable job with it.

And if you were doing the live tracker, you are intimately familiar with the drama that went down in Tampa Bay. So you actually posed this question. You said, are the Lightning better with Gensel and McDonough and their cap hits instead of Stephen Stamkos and Mikhail Sergachev and their respective cap hits? Did you ever come to an answer to that question, Dan? You know, I know because I think we really, you have to see it play out, right? We know what the Lightning are with Sergeyev and Stankos.

We don't know what the lightning are with McDonough and Gensel. I'll tell you what, their power play is going to have to change. We know that because you don't have that shot from Stephen Stankos in that spot. The right-handed shot. Gensel's more of a net front guy on the power play, a little bit behind the net, you know, can operate out of the circle, but not the shooter that Stamkos is. Sergeyev is a younger, faster, more offensive defenseman

than Ryan McDonough. So I don't know the answer but to me right now today the answer is they're better off with Sergeyev and Stamkos than they are with McDonough and Gensel because we know that we've seen that happen we've seen it play out and we know what it looks like and it's

also I was asking a question for this coming season down the road you can make a case to me that they're better with McDonough and Gensel, but I'll argue with you that, you know, okay, maybe Gensel, five years younger, has more of an upside in a few years than Samkos will have,

but then Sergachev is going to have more of an upside than McDonough, right? Because he's way younger and has way less miles, too. So I just think, and then you factor in the Victor Hedman contract, I think if you just look at the two guys, I think they're better off with Sergeyev and Stankos. Let's see how it plays out, because J.J. Moser might have something to say about this eventually. You know, Conor Geeky might have something to say about this eventually,

and then it might not look so bad,, and then it might not look so bad. Then it might not look so bad. But right now, I look at it, and then it might look great, actually, for the Lightning. But right now, I think I lean towards Stamkos and Sergachev over McDonough and Gensel. I'll tell you what looks bad right now is the relationship between Steve Stamkos and his former team. We had Freed on the

show right in early yesterday morning, and I asked him, I said, where's the status of the bad blood between Stamkos and probably Julian Breezeball most specifically. And Freach said it's not good. It's really not good. And then Stamkos classified the breakup with the Lightning as quote-unquote

puzzling and strange. I know the Lightning have done this before as they've moved on from veteran guys, but Steve Stamkos isn't just any veteran guy. Are you shocked at how all this went down? Not really. No, because Julian Brisebois is a general manager who removes all emotion from the equation.

He's very good at that. And to be honest with you, I think it's a trait that general managers absolutely have to have because their job is not to fall in love with players. Their job is to continue to build the best possible team that they can build. They can't worry about legacies and icons and reputations and all that stuff. They've got to build what they believe is the best possible team. And he does that. You know, we've seen it.

I mean, like, he does that. He's gotten rid of guys who've been key parts of Stanley Cup championship teams because it's time to move on. I don't think it's time to move on from Stephen Stamkos. That's what they decided. I could argue against that, but I'm not surprised at how it went down. When was the last time you really saw a good breakup, right? I mean, good breakups don't happen. They very rarely happen that a team will say, you know, this is, you were great for us. And the player is going to go yeah thank you very much

for all my time here it was wonderful i appreciate it i'm going to move on and everything's going to be hunky-dory it doesn't happen that way um henrik lundqvist is a legend with the new york rangers they bought him out right i mean think about it those in those terms and just think about lightning marty saint louis Louis. Legend on that team. Legend in that franchise. Traded at the deadline to the Rangers and it just, you know, it was just like, alright, you're gone.

But time heals those wounds. I think time's going to heal this wound with Stamkos. It's also very possible that by the time he goes back to Tampa as an alumni, Julian Brisebois is not the GM and John Cooper's not the coach. We don't know, right? So I'm not surprised how it went down. I understand the wounds and I think they're going to be open for a while for Santos,

but time will heal those. Hey, Dan, what do you think of the bets that the Washington Capitals have made? They've added Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane from Calgary, and then on the back end, Matt Roy, and they got Jacob Chikrin out of Ottawa. Maybe Jacob Chikrin will finally be happy somewhere. He'll be happy in Washington. Yeah, maybe. I mean, he's got one year left on his deal. I admire the Capitals for continuing to try to retool and continue to build a team that can at least stay relevant and stay ideally a playoff contender in the time that they still have Alex Ovechkin and he's chasing Wayne Gretzky's record. I admire that. I don't think this puts them over the top. I don't think this makes them

much better than they were last season. Maybe they're a little bit better, but I'll tell you, the New Jersey Devils are way better, so you're not going to have to compete with that. You know, a team that's going to try to fight for that spot. The Hurricanes aren't as good, but I don't think the Capitals caught up with them yet.

But I like the moves for Matt Roy. I like that move. I like the Jacob Chikrin move. You're younger, a little bit more mobile on the back end. I'm good with that. Pierre-Luc Dubois is a 50-50 bet. You know, I mean, that's really what it is. We'll see.

This is a guy who's asked out of a couple of teams. You know, did he stop playing last year? Did he stop caring last year? I don't know. I mean, having talked to him in the past, I think he's a pretty good dude. He's a good talker. He's vocal in that way.

But I think he internalizes everything. He reads everything. He takes everything in. And that's going to have to stop. But there's talent there. There's no question about it. So it's a 50-50 bet, but they're okay. I think they're a little bit better on the back end.

I don't know how much better they are up front. I hope Alex Ovechkin comes to camp in shape. We're speaking to Dan Rosen, senior writer for NHL.com here on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Your thoughts on the work that Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predville predators did yesterday so i saw something yesterday where somebody said uh to find the winner on free agency day and i don't forget who it was look at the team that signed the fewest amount of long-term contracts that were well over multi-million dollars, that's your winner. I disagree.

The Nashville Predators are the winner. Because they didn't just sign guys that, they didn't sign these massive contracts, these eight-year deals, seven-year, right? They signed, I mean, Brady Shea got a seven-year deal. They signed guys who have won, who still have it for another couple of years, like Marc Chisseau and Stamkos, are going to be big-time players for another at least two to three years. Then you worry about the back end of those contracts a little later on. But for at least another two to three years, you're talking about guys who are still top-end guys. Brady Shea is a very underrated defenseman. He's been very good with Carolina. He was good with the Rangers.

I love it. You know, and then you get Saro, which, again, I like that, too. It also opens up another asset for you. And then Askarov to get back, you know, maybe you want to trade him. You can hold on to him, whatever you want to do, but it's an asset that you have. I love what Barry Trotz and the Nashville Predators, I absolutely love what they did, and you know what? Look at that division right now. Dallas is still pretty good, but they took a hit. Colorado, they've got a little bit of

roster questions, still pretty good, but they took a hit. We'll see where they're at, right? It's open. It's open right there for the Nashville Predators, and I want to see them jump through it, and I think they can. Toronto Maple Leafs gave Chris Tanev, who's 34 years old, a six-year contract, and Oliver Ekman-Larsen, just coming off a buyout and a Stanley Cup, to be fair, who's 32, they gave him four years. So pretty significant term for those guys. Does that just show how desperate the Leafs were to improve this blue line? Yes. And here's what I'm thinking. Chris

Tanev, it's a six-year deal. Let's look at the first three. Oliver Ekman-Larsen, it's a four-year deal. Let's look at the first two to three years of that deal. That's the window that you're looking at with these guys being impact players for the team. Tanev's a terrific player. He's big, physical. He can block shots. He's got a great first pass out of the zone. That contract's not going to look very good in year four,

maybe even in year three. But if the Toronto Maple Leaf leaves can get over the hump if they can with the core that they have in the next two years and really make a run make an oilers type run then it's worth it and if they can't brad trilliving and brendan shanahan are not going to be a part of those last couple of years of that contract are you bullish on the leafs because i because i i gotta be honest dan like i'm, Dan, I'm pretty bearish on them. No, I'm not bullish on the Leafs, but I see

I understand where they're coming from with these contracts. Is it going to make the difference for this team? Listen, that core's got to get angry. They don't play angry. They don't play hungry. They probably are. They talk a good game.

But where is that anger in the playoffs? Where is that next level that we've seen the Tampa Bay Lightning get to, that we've seen the Florida Panthers get to? Where is that? I haven't seen it, and that's why they don't win. That's why they don't win in the playoffs. And I just wonder what it's going to be like with Mitch Marner's situation hanging over them.

Well, listen, if you ask me, Mitch Marner, either one of two things has to happen here. Brad True Living's got to go to Mitch Marner and say, Sorry, dude, that's it. You got to go. We got to move you. I can't have this. Or, short of that, Mitch Marner's got to go to them and say,

I ain't going anywhere this year, we're winning this year, we'll deal with it later. Right? One of those two things has to happen, because it can't be gray area all year long. If it's a gray area all year long, it's going to be a problem, because that's all you're going to hear about in Toronto. And if I'm Mitch Marner, I'm telling the Maple Leafs, I'm a mercenary for you this year. Let's go.

Let's win. I'm going to be a part of this team. And then you know what? I might leave next year. I don't know if I'm going to resign, but this is our year. Let's go win. I don't know if they can. Like I said, that core has got to get angry.

That core has got to change the mindset. If you're not going to change the core, you've got to change the core's mindset. And Tanev helps that. I think Ekman-Larsen helps that. But are they going to put him over the top? To me, it's on Matthews. It's on Marner. It's on Nylander. It's on Riley.

I mean, it's on Tavares. Those are the guys, right? It's going to help out a little bit to have Tanev and OEL, but those guys have got to have it. If they don't, they're not going anywhere. So I can't be bullish on the Leafs until I see it. I mean, I keep picking them to win in the playoffs every once in a while, you know, in the first round or whatever it is.

And I keep, you know, eating crow on it because those guys need to get angry. They need to play that way. Dan, I know you've got a busy morning ahead, so with that, we'll let you go. Enjoy the rest of the day. Good luck with the tracker. All right. Oh, tracker's done, baby. Tracker's done. All right, cool. See you of the day. Good luck with the tracker. All right. No, tracker's done, baby. Tracker's done.

All right, cool. See you, buddy. Thanks, Dan. Appreciate it. Dan Rosen, senior writer for NHL.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. When he was talking about Nashville, I was just nodding along.

You could have seen it on the stream if you watch on Sportsnet Plus. Because I think when you go and look back on the number of 40 goal scorers in the NHL last year, of which I think there were less than 20, two of them went to Nashville. Like, Marchessault had 42 and Stamkos had 40. How many teams add 80 goals of offense on a single day?

Well, they're not necessarily going to score that many for Nashville. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they're close. I mean mean that was the one thing that got me about stamkos in particular like marcia so i kind of understood why vegas let him walk like people like oh he's the face of the golden knights like come on man they've only been in existence for seven years like give me a break and that's what vegas does right stamkos stanley cup winning captain uh face of the franchise drafted there's been there for over a decade oh weird scored 40 Scored 40 goals last year.

Might have been their best player. Now, you could say the same thing about Marcius Olastro, is that he might have been Vegas' best player. But that's sort of the Vegas MO. If it can't be the Canucks, I'd go for a Nashville-Tampa Bay Stanley Cup final. Ooh, that would be delicious. And then Nashville having to face Vegas

in the Western Conference final. This is removing the Canucks entirely from the equation, by the way. What did you think about what some of the other teams did? I sadly liked what the Oilers did when they signed a couple of nice wingers in Arvidson and Skinner. Arvidson, because I think he's the type of player – I like Arvidson. I think he's a good player.

When he's healthy. When he's healthy, player when he's healthy when he's healthy yeah that's true but and Skinner you know I don't know if he's a playoff player

because he's never played a playoff game but he's not the biggest dude but they got him for one year and three million dollars he's probably going to

score a bunch of goals these are the type of deals that you get when one you're a cup contender and two you the dangling carrot of getting to play with Dreisaitl and McDavid. You get guys jumping on board for pretty good contracts. You look at Edmonton yesterday and Arvidsson and Skinner for really no term.

Arvidsson got two years. Skinner got one. $7 million combined cap hit for guys that could probably give you 20 to 25 goals each like that's good value i wonder if evander kane's gonna get healthy he needs to why oilers need him he's not that that old i wonder if it's gonna go the other way i wonder if the injuries are gonna be so accumulated that he might open the year on ltir or something well you should be able to recover from a sports hernia. But they're over the cap right now.

So they're going to need to figure something out. I mean, that's going to be the second part of the summer now, is everyone's come out of their boots. Like, spending yesterday was crazy. There were a lot of deals. Now, again, I'm not talking about the San Jose's and the Chicago's of the world. They can afford to overspend and, like, load up. Whatever.

Yeah, whatever. Yeah. Whatever. This is just sort of a have fun year anyway. But you know, Edmonton's going to have to figure some things out beyond buying out Jack Campbell. They're going to have to figure it. And you look at right now,

you look at the cane contract and you're like, that's kind of a problem contract for us right now. Evander Kane is the fourth highest paid forward on our team. And he was, I mean, he was irrelevant in the playoffs last year. That Stanley Cup run had very little to do with Evander Kane, and it had a lot more to do with what happened when Evander Kane wasn't in the lineup, but you want to be dead honest.

I like what they did, though, and I hate saying it out loud because I don't want to see Edmonton get better than what they were this year. Let's go down the road a few hours into Seattle. Seattle spent some money, and they added Brandon Montour, and they added Chenandler Stevenson. And I still look at that roster, and I go, boring. Yeah, Montour is good.

He's a good defenseman, and I think a lot of people miss the boat. Remember when he had that dip in his career where you could have had him for a lot cheaper than seven years, 50 million that he got right now? It fits their MO, what they did yesterday. What, being boring? Yeah. That's what Ron Francis has been slow and steady and going to invest in bonds all the way. I'm going to put some money in the railroad because it's never going anywhere. He's investing in bonds while the way. You know, like I got to put some money in the railroad because it's never going anywhere.

He's investing in bonds while the stock market is racing ahead. Right. It's just this is sort of how this team has been built from day one. They didn't do anything splashy at the expansion draft like Vegas did. They didn't do anything. They didn't come out of their boots in the first couple of years in free agency. This was the most I think that they've spent since they've been a team in the National H years in free agency. This was the most, I think, that they've spent

since they've been a team in the National Hockey League in terms of big splashes. But the guys that they brought aboard are good, solid NHLers. We'll make them better. But you're still wondering, and I hate using this term out loud, but who's the alpha on that team? Who's the driver? Who's the leader? Who's the guy to make them interesting?

Right. And that is a problem. Yeah. I'm thinking about Seattle partly as, you know, can they be a good team? But I more think of it, to be perfectly honest with you, can they be a successful franchise in Seattle? And are they going to capture the hearts of Seattle sports fans? And they kind of did in their playoff run, if you want to call it, a couple of years ago. But I don't know, man.

I just keep thinking that this Kraken team better have some sizzle to it and better make the fans fall in love with it real soon because the Sonics are coming back. And once the Sonics are back they will be extremely difficult to compete with in terms of the attention economy yep and um i think it's a valid point to raise some people might be rolling their eyes at the entertainment value but the no i like the attention economy that's good yeah it's it's an important thing to bring out right they're in it they it. That's what we're in.

That's the business we're in. We're in the attention economy. I've just never heard a phrase like that before. It's good. Attention economy. I was reading a stat today where it said that 84% of all Americans are going on at least one vacation this summer, and then people were trying to explain it away. And someone said, well, you can't have a blank Instagram. Not in this world.

Not in this world. Not in this world. Not in this attention economy. No, there's no way. That's so depressing. Yeah. And I do wonder sometimes if people are going on vacation to enjoy the vacation or to let other people know that they're going on vacation. Oh, I think there's a bit of both for some people.

Again, so depressing. It's the worst. It's the worst. Yeah. Like, why even go? I mean, we went to... No, I'm doing it. Yeah. and go i don't i mean i we went to um now i'm doing it you can't have a successful uh vacation

without making your best friend feel awful about it yeah that should be the yeah when we went down to where i am we went down to uh orange county last spring break and we went to we went to a clippers game and one of the people we were with put a picture of us at the Clippers game. I didn't even realize this. And then your house was immediately robbed. Yeah, and now I don't have any belongings. And then someone, and then the person later told me, it's like, oh, like so many people reached out to me about how cool it was that we were at a Clippers game. And I was like, oh, like I just, I was like, I didn't do that because I was watching the Clippers game. I was at the Clippers game. And I was like, oh. I was like, I didn't do that

because I was watching the Clippers game. I was at the Clippers game. Good for you. That must make you feel good about yourself. The attention economy. That's a good one there. That's so many texts. Awesome.

Sounds annoying. By the way, we pivoted hard from Brandon Montour signing with the Seattle Kraken to the uh the instagram of life and the kraken being a bunch of betas no but the kraken are failing the attention economy we couldn't even talk about them for three minutes before we got bored and started talking about something else um okay this is gonna be my new thing by the way until the

kraken are interesting like that's gonna be the way that i'm gonna needle these guys they are boring man no it's fair super boring it's fair because nothing exciting about them well they also got swallowed up by u-dub football which had like a renaissance right as the kraken were trying to gain a foothold in the market all of a sudden you i mean it's not all of a sudden but u-dub goes to a national game. And I don't think everyone here locally understands the significance of that. Well, wait until the Mariners are in the World Series during, you know, the beginning of next season. Eventually, when the Sonics come back, we should have a Kraken regular, but only ask him Sonics questions. Yeah, yeah. Just not even talk about the Kraken.

I should be like, do you remember Nate McMillan? I think that was a great point guard. I've told this story on the air before. When we first started here at 650, we had designs to have a Seattle Kraken regular on the show, not weekly, but with enough regularity that it would be a thing because I erroneously assumed that the Vancouver-Seattle rivalry would be like right off the bat

and that it would be our geographic rival and that they would be sort of what Vegas was, this big behemoth of a team coming in and being good and compelling and because of all the advantages expansion teams got, they would be competitive. And not only did it not materialize, but I look back on it and feel like a fool

thinking that it would have because it's so far removed from that. So far removed. Well, the Golden Knights were the outlier though, right? But everything was set up for them to at least be a facsimile of it. They had an advantageous draft.

They were going to be better than Columbus or Minnesota in their expansion years. I mean, everything was there. And other GMs were wise to the grift. They're like, no, we're not letting you take our good players anymore. But even with that. But I think they intentionally went down to a very conservative route. Yes.

That's what I'm shocked. We're not going to be Vegas and watch us. At any rate, Pete Blackburn is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show. And you want to listen to Pete because we're going to ask Pete the story of Jake DeBrusque in Boston right from the very start to the point that he left the Boston Bruins because

that is the headline player that the Canucks signed yesterday and they're hoping that Jake DeBrusque is going to come to Vancouver and have some chemistry with Elias Pettersson. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Marc Jusso and Stamkos are going to be big-time players. He's a major player down at the sewing store.