Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Jays Can't Use The Injury Excuse

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest baseball news with MLB Network's Adnan Virk (1:38), plus the boys chat all things hockey with The Athletic NHL's James Mirtle (30:46).  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.

It's time to chat with Adenan. It's Adnan Furkees on the show. We're gonna talk some baseball and take a trip to the silver screen. That's right, it's time for Adenan. Yes, Adnan Furke joins us now. We'll head out to the ball game and talk about all the films he sees see.

7.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halford and Brub in the morning is brad to by Sands and Associates. They're open seven days a week and they're open late to help you get debt-free. With no judgment or upfront fees, visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are now in our two of the program, Adnan Burke from MLB Network. It's going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two.

Hour two is braddy by Jason Hominoch at Jason. Dow Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dow Mortgage. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Guests on Sportsnet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at abel actions.ca to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. Let's go now to the ABLE Auctions hotline.

As mentioned, our next guest is our insider from MLB Network. Adnan, Verk joins us now in the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Adnan. How are you? I'm doing great as always, fellas. Fantastic Knicks win last night. Even more amusing to me. As a three of us are in the public eye on television, on radio. Nothing better when somebody who's not used to being so is. Meeting my friend Ben G. Goldsmith, who's a terrific director, MLB Network,

diehard Knicks fan. He flew down to San Antonio, told me he got tickets for $1,200 bucks. Find the next bench was as a steal. That'd be $12,000. Madison Square Garden. And late in the fourth quarter, as Mike Breen commented, look at all these Knicks fans. They go, oh, my God, there's Benji. There's a shot of him in the crowd going nuts.

And then later at the end of the show, Charles Barkley says, look at these cockroaches. And he showed a shot of him again. It was such a funny moment. It's like, when you see one of your friends on television, it was just so funny. I had to share that. Your boy got more screen time than Salome yesterday. That's pretty good. Absolutely.

Benji had two shots in there going nuts. Salme only saw one cutaway. Ben still are a couple as well. Are they the craziest fan base in sports right now? It has to be. It's unbelievable, bro. I'm trying to think of a parallel to hockey. And I say, okay, maybe it's the Leafs just because it's a major market and they've been so futile for so long.

But, I mean, the Knicks fans, this is just rabid fandom. I mean, the get-in ticket, just for the cheapest ticket, game three. And it's, you know, way for the nose leaves there. No, it's way, $50, like, $4,500 for the cheapest ticket. And that's one thing to see. Okay, New York City is expensive, plays people, make good money. Okay. But your point brought the rapidness, the manic fervor with which they're falling around everywhere.

I mean, they took over Philadelphia, which, okay, like a two-hour drive. But again, San Antonio, this is not an easy flight to get San Antonio. And these Knicks fans are just going wild right now. It's cool to see. Okay, let's turn our attention to the baseball now. So prior to getting on, we had a fairly lengthy conversation about the Jays, losers of four straight. but we played some audio from sports nets color analyst Caleb Joseph who kind of went off during the game yesterday

on a pop foul that dropped along the first baseline where you know, Vladdy and the catcher kind of went towards the ball and kind of looked at each other and I think the play by play was classified as like banana peel routes where they just sort of peeled off it. Ball drops. Caleb gets very upset and agitated and starts talking about how this is a

microcosm of the bigger issues that the Jays have this year. So we kind of use that as a jumping off point to discuss what has been a disappointing season thus far for the Jays just when you think that they might be putting something together. They go on a four-game losing streak just when you think they might be getting healthy, more injuries hit. How have you guys covered the defending AL East and AL champs in what's been a very underwhelming first half of the season so far? Well, the frustration for me has been an MLB network as in the past.

you know, Canadian teams generally don't get as much love until the last couple of years. There was a lot of buzz and excitement around the Blue Jays. So every year it felt like a few of our analysts say, hey, watch up for the Blue Jays, the American League East. Watch up for the Jays. And then this season, it was kind of like, you know, there's a championship hangar.

It's really tough to do it again. I said, okay, the Jays are going to prove them wrong. They've got a great young core. I love their pitching staff. They're going to be fine. And as you said, Mike, just the inability to get any sort of consistency has been really frustrating. I really started to think the return on the corner a little bit,

that series of Baltimore. Then Baltimore adds the split, and then the Braves are a juggernaut, and they've really pushed them around. So four-game losing skid right now, and the banana peel route is a funny term, and maybe Kellogg Joseph is right to be frustrated about it. But ultimately, they don't really put it together when they need to. And I think the biggest thing to me is this offense. They clearly needed it a bat yesterday.

I mean, when you look at that lineup up and down, there Springer's hitting 206, Vlad, and this is appalling to think about, he has an on-base percentage higher than a slugging percentage. Let that sink in. He's a $390 on base, which is wonderful. A 387 slug, which is putrid. I mean, he's got a few more doubles here and there, but hits him home runs, man. And then after that, okay, of course, you're missing Kirk and Barger,

and those guys should be back this month, and they're both impact bats. But this would be like, you know, Vlad's going to get going. If the Yankees don't have Aaron Judge, I get it. The Mets don't have Sotom D'Olandor, I get it. But the Jay's got a couple of big guys here, right? Like, they should have enough in Vlad and Springer and Varsho and picking up guys that Hazer Sanchez, but they haven't done it nearly well enough. And you can only

expect so much of Patrick Corbyn's, you know, pitching last time for Blue Jays. He's got a decent job, but it gets a good offense at the Braves. You're going to need to score some runs, and they weren't able to do so. So one of the takeaways we've had in the early part of the season every time we have you on is that, you know, the AAL is pretty mediocre. And all you got to do is

go on that one, hang around 500 and then get on that one good run, and you should be okay. The Jays haven't done it yet. The Mariners have. They just had their eight-game win streak snap last night, but they won eight in a row. They won, I believe it was 10 of 12, to kind of vault back into where they thought they were going to be

after a slow start. What has been the key to the meritor's success over the last couple weeks? Yeah, proof that, by the way, these weekly hits you plagued me when I'm wrong. A couple weeks of you would ask me, Mike, who's going to win the West? I think it's going to be A's after. I think of course the A's not going to win the West. It's the Mariners. Once they wake up, they're going to be great,

and they've really turned things around. The most impressive thing to me is they're doing this all without who? Cal Rale. They're 12 and 6 without Calra. That is astonishing to me. And that further proves that a team like the Blues is can't use the excuse of injuries. Now, granted, when there's a bunch of injuries together, it can stack up and be detrimental. But the point is, teams can overcome the loss of a star.

And Mariners have done that. One guy specifically is Julio Rodriguez. Speaking of your stars, April, he got up to a slow start. We know historically now he's always a slow starter. He wakes up in July and goes bananas. May, he was fantastic. And that was something that really noticed. He had 10 home runs in the month of May, and he slugged 590.

So those are great numbers for Hulli to get it going early, and in June he has continued. And, of course, their pitching staff. We talked previously, Mike, just that the curiosity of piggybacking starters, whether or not that's going to work. Now they're going to go to a six-man rotation. It's tough to keep everybody happy. It's tough to keep those mouths fed. But everyone knows the strength of this team is their starting pitching. And like I said, the fact that J-Rod's been good, the offense is better.

This is the Mariners team we were expecting. And this is why it makes things now challenging for the Blue Jays. because if you look at it overall, you go, okay, well, Seattle should win the West. Cleveland should win the Central. Either the Yankees will win the East, by the, the Rays have finally faltered a little bit. Yankees lost that night, Scarcord roughed up. But those four are in, okay, done. It's June, whatever, June 4th.

I'm like, those four teams are in. Get two wallcard spots. Now, you can say it's an aberration how well the White Sox are playing. Okay, but maybe they are that team that wins 85 games in the rent. But the Blue Jays can't take it for granted because eventually these teams do show up, and Seattle's been thriving over this last week plus. I just want to throw this out there for local baseball fans. Cal Raleigh's going to start his rehab assignment this weekend.

He's going to start it with the Everett Aqua Sox of the High A Northwest League, which of course the Vancouver Canadians are at, unfortunately, he's only going to play one game and it's going to be in Everett. So C's fans won't get a chance to see him. He's going to move to Tacoma to play with the Rainier's after that. Landon DuPont can go watch him. Yeah, that's right. There you go. Good poll. Okay. Do you have somewhere you want to go, Jason?

I want to ask about the Yankees. And I mean, you mentioned the raise and the Yankees are going to be competing for first in that division. The Yankees have got to be heavily favored to win that division because you know me, I'm a big run differential guy, Adnan, and I look at the standings in the AL. And there's only, it's crazy, but there's only one team with a very impressive run differential. And that's the Yankees. the Mariners are actually second at plus 30 while the raise are plus five. The Yankees are plus 92.

Are they clearly, in your opinion, the class of the AL? Because I'm just wondering, is this going to be a really big year for New York sports? Yeah, it could be absolutely aggravating for all those New York haters. You're right, Prof. I think to me the Yankees are clearly the best team. And again, I look at starting pitching. Garrett Cole, since coming back, by the way, off of Tommy John, and I've said this before.

Normally it takes you two months to get going. My man was rolling. 12 and 2 3rd scoreless inning since coming back. That was stunning how good he'd been. Okay, last day, four runs were five and a third that happens. But you're adding him to a rotation, which is formidable. Schlittler had a 107 ERA prior to his last start Wednesday. Again, he had his worst year giving him five runs, but he had the third lowest ERA in Major League Baseball.

Then you had Carlos Rodon. It's a very good pitcher. Max Freed, who's been excellent. Obviously he hurt the last couple weeks. But like, those four together, I'm like, dude, good luck. Like, look at the raise starting pitch. pitching. You're not going to be able to match that top four. Now, offensively, Ben Rice is leading an OPS.

He's an MVP candidate right now. Then you've got Judge who's missed the last couple of games with Bone Brews, still putting up good numbers. Bellinger's Bellinger. And they've got more supporting contributions. If you like your Jose Caballeros have been better for them. So, yeah, to me, the Yankees is clearly of the better team. And for the raise, I give them credit because they get so much of it is dependent upon their

pitching. You know, their starters and their bullpen's been excellent. but offensively, to your point, the run differential, they eke out those four three wins, those three, two wins, those five, four wins. You know, they've got a couple of stars. Cameroneros is stud. They had a 46 home runs a season ago.

Chandler Simpson can fly. He's got great speed. Yandy Diaz is a former batting champion, but they don't go one through nine as impressively as the Yankees do. So I go length of the lineup for the Yankees and strength is starting pitching. Those are the two reasons I give New York the edge. Okay, I'm going to apologize ahead of time here.

We're speaking to Adnan-Verg from MLB Network here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. but not every but most of our hits moving forward, I'm going to ask you at least one work stoppage related question because it just feels like this is the cloud that is hanging over everything. Also, it feels like Manfred and the owners are set for like a major, major overhaul of like how the numbers work in baseball. I mean, there's going to be a lockout almost 100%, right?

There's no way because the, the CBA expires in the off season. Yeah. In the off season. like nobody no side is going to you know acquiesce before then it just it just doesn't it just make sense there's going to be a lockout and the real question is whether or not they're going to lose games yeah I think breath nailed that December 1st is when the lock it would happen you have to hope it would happen five years ago which is that December 1st lock had happened it was 99 days but they got it done in the middle of March did a trunk kid spring training and didn't miss any

ball games now to some who say well if they miss a few games it's not a big deal I'm like, no, no, I think it's a situation where, well, if you miss 20, what's the big deal about missing 80? Like, that's the fear to me. I really think there's a sense with both sides. That's not just like, okay, if you don't get a deal done and we go to 140, no big deal. No, no, no. If you start missing 10 games, 20 games, 30 games, then the owners will dig in and go, well, fine, screw

it, I guess we're missing the season then. Like, that is, to me the greatest challenge. Now, Harold Reynolds explained that to me last time around. I was like, well, if it's not done by mid-March, I'll get done mid-April. No, no, eventually Rob Manfred's going to go, hey, this is it. like take it or leave it like this is the deal and if you don't want to say yes come back to you when you say yes and if it's next year okay and the biggest question of course is how from the owners are going to be in the cap you know since i followed baseball you heard that the players will never agree to a salary cap

from the days of marvin miller if the owners are so staunch and they say unless there's a cap we'll cancel the season if the owners are truly unified then they'll win right like if ultimately the players that we're not going to agree to that the owners says well this is it take it or leave it then they'll win then they'll lockout we'll miss games, it'll be a tragedy. But if they say, all right, we don't want to call it a cap, we'll put in a floor, we'll find some other terminology, then the players, I think, we'll listen and try to make things work.

But for some reason, that word, you hear a cap, players go, nope, next question, next item. And that's where things are interesting. And I mentioned the owners being unified. Don't forget, in Major League Baseball, I think there's a stat 80% of the payroll is by 10% of the players.

So that's the other part of it. When you go to the vote, the average guy is not making. $20 million, right? The average guy is making $2 million. So when he gets to vote, or he's telling his union rep, but no, no, take the deal. Like, fine, if it's a salary cap, who cares? Like, that's my

thing, too. As much as I think the players are averse to it, does, you know, Roman Anthony really care about Marvin Miller and a salary cap? Eventually, these guys just want to play baseball. So I do wonder how fractured things will become the top heavy players, Bryce Harper's, etc., who are saying, no, cap of a minded body, I'll sacrifice

a season of my career, versus a young guy who's player number 20 to 25-man roster. I don't care. Fine, cap. I need to get the money. I'm not missing checks here. That's when you start to get the pressure is once you start missing checks. And that does not happen until the season begins. I want to, for the listeners out there that might not be either all that familiar with this or think this is too inside baseball, pardon the pun. But, you know, I'll put in a hockey context. When they brought the cap into the NHL, what happened? You lost an entire season because it was such a heated and passionate

fight between the union and the owners. To give you an idea of how profound this is for baseball, it's of a similar, like, gravity, the situation here, because they haven't had a significant work stop it since 94, like a significant one. In 94, I'll remind people that might not be aware of this, Rob Manfred was a junior lawyer on the owner's side of things. So he knows what this looks like.

And that was the last time that a cap was actually really you know, significantly pushed by the ownership group. Now, the numbers on this right now, MLB is calling for a cap of somewhere in the neighborhood of $245 million and a floor of 171. What did those numbers mean, Adnan, in terms of what we currently look at for payrolls in baseball? Great point, Mike.

First off, the floor was astonishing to me. The cap didn't surprise me, although I'm like, if I'm the Dodgers, that's going to be a problem because it's $400 million. They're going to get rid of $100. $150 million in payroll, the Mets, the Yankees, etc. The floor was astonishing. The pirates, the Marlins.

I mean, these teams, what's their payroll in a 60, 75, 80 million dollars? They're going to have to add $100 million? That was the first thing that blew me away. I said, I cannot believe the owners went that high with regards to the floor. But if you look at a role from the players' perspective, they'd say if those are the numbers we'd go, collectively, we'd lose like $500 million in player's salaries. I don't know how that number necessarily adds up, but that's what Bruce Myers said. like why would I agree to those numbers?

Like I would be costing the livelihoods of hundreds of players. We'd go down significantly. And to your point of the NHL, the biggest mystery to me right now is when I see how much the players hate the cap or the idea of a cap in baseball, how did this ever happen in all three of their major sports? Like that's the same to me. Like, how did we ever agree to a cap of the NFL, the NBA, and the NHL? Like the dominant system of business in sports in America is a cap. And these baseball guys are like, no, it's the worst thing ever.

So I'm just amazed at how either A, how staunch and loyal the players are in baseball against it, or just how much the other players seemingly don't have an issue with it. I'm not thinking it's right or wrong. I just find it fascinating the difference between different athletes in sports. Well, I think in the case of the NHL, the owners were willing to stay out as long as it took to get a salary cap. And a lot of them on a profit loss basis were losing money. So they were actually like, sweet, no games. We don't have to pay the, like, they didn't, seriously, they didn't have a lot to lose.

Like, do you remember those years? Like, there were a few teams that were spending crazy amounts of money. And the other teams are like, our revenues are not what you think, you know? And we need to do this. We have to do this. Which leads me to my next question, how unified are the owners? Yeah, and that's the big thing. In baseball, there have been teams that have not been able to spend,

but because of revenue sharing, they're still making money. Like, they're not hemorrhaging money, to my knowledge, at least, like some of those NHL teams. And also at the top end, like, do the Dodgers want a salary cap? Do they want a hard salary cap? Or do they want to be able to, like, just, you know, wield their spending ability over the entire league? like everyone like they've been doing for years. I know if you bring it back to hockey,

you know, there's a lot of lease fans that are like, I hate the salary cap. It would be awesome if the Leafs could just spend and spend. And I'm sure the Rangers feel the same way, maybe Detroit. I mean, I know in Vancouver, there's a lot of owners or there's a lot of people that are like, man, you know, like it would be nice if you could just spend your way out of a rebuild. But there's no other way to do it. So what have you heard about the owner's unity on this?

What scared me, brough, is last year when I heard someone say, even the Yankees are pro-cap. Like, that's how severe it's become. I was like, the Yankees for years always had that advantage.

They would outspend just like, as you said, the Leafs could or the Dodgers, whomever. But once I heard, like, no, the Yankees are actually pro-cap. Like,

now, you know what, this is getting too ridiculous. We don't like the fact the Dodgers are getting away with this and everybody else kind of want some sort of fiscal certainties. But you're right. If the owners are that unified,

And it's a cap of us. And what I wonder is if Rob's sister Bruce Meyer, who's the lead negotiation, MLBPA, I'll give you everything else. Like we have to get a cap. On anything else, it's negotiable. Okay, like there's certain items in life. He said it's not negotiable. John Skipper, my friend and former president of ESPN,

he told me when he would do deals with Roger Goodell, Adam Soaker, because the way you do it is you walk in there and you go, here's 10 things. And these are three things that are absolute must, mandatory. I got to get it. There's three that I wish for it, but it's not a big deal. And the other four we can negotiate. And that's kind of how you're going to do it.

Like Rob's going to go to Bruce Warren and go, hey, we've got to do a cap. Now, we can determine what the floor is, what the ceiling is. All that can be determined. But there's be some form of a cabinet, anything else. You want a shorter schedule. You want more playoff shares. You want a rookie. You go ahead, name it.

Give me 10 things you want, but this one thing has to happen. And I think what honestly has to happen also from Rob's perspective is that get the player unions from the other sports to talk to the players. And so you guys are so over the cap. But look at hockey. Look at hockey. Look how much it's thriving. The numbers are up.

The cap's going up. up year to year. They're making more money. The numbers, the ratings right now for baseball, or excuse me, for hockey, never been better? Playoff ratings that are up like 30% in the States. Like, as you said, it's saved hockey. If you have those guys explain, like, well, listen, it's actually worked. I know when you hear a cap, you think

it's detrimental, but it has been profitable to the sport. There's NBA players signing for like, some of these guys get 40 billion a year to go, oh my God, you know, Portland's got to spend. Like, they need to spend it. So I'm like, this will be a benefit to players sometimes. I know it sounds bad to put a cap, a limit, but there are times

is going to be beneficial to marginal players who are going to get overpaid. But I'll say this in the players' defense. If the owners say, well, we have to have for competitive balance. Really? Let's look at the division leaders right now. Raids, Cleveland, Milwaukee. Those are all small market teams. Tampa's up there?

Yeah, the Brewers have the most baseball last year. They had 97 wins. They're 29th in payroll. So don't tell me you have to have a cap for, you know, in terms of competitive balance. I don't think that's accurate. the teams are spending the most are not always winning. I know at the end of the day, fine, the Dodgers are backbacked champions, but there's a lot of competitive

teams who don't spend money, i.e. the race, the Brewers and the Guardians. Adnan, this was great. As always, thanks for doing, and I promise we won't ask lockout related questions every week, but we will talk again next week. I'll say five more months of intensive labor against Jason. It's going to be a bit of a drag.

It's going to be more than that, Edna. It's going to be more than that, pal. See you, buddy. See you, bud. Thanks, boys. Ednan, Verk, on Sports 9-650, was brought to you by Angry Otter Liquor. Lazy Loggers stepping up to the plate at Angry Outer Licker, plus program members get a 15 pack for 1699. Do the math. That's $1.13 a beer.

Now that's some lazy math. Play ball, visit them at Angry Otter Licker. All right. Do you want to do a couple minutes? You know what? Russell Wilson announcing his retirement on social media yesterday. I guess this was kind of a given since he was going to see. EBS and not another NFL team for the upcoming campaign. Some thought he might take a break from his playing career, but no, it's a permanent one.

Russell Wilson announcing his retirement on social media yesterday. So I would just like to say that I forgive you, Russ. Wow. I forgive you. Okay. Russell Wilson and I, and I think you, went through, I think maybe the biggest sports divorce of our life. You could put some other people in there too. A lot of people divorce themselves from Russ.

Yeah. Especially after he left the Seahawks. Well, divorce from us too, right? I think, you know, Quinn Hughes and our show had a bit of a bit of a divorce. He left us. But we left Russ. And Russell Wilson, for years, when it came to me, at least, could do no wrong. Like, I loved the guy.

I loved how clutch he was. I loved. how he, I loved how he played. It was exciting. And his escapeability was incredible. And he gave me or he helped give me what I really wanted as a Seahawks fan. And that was a Super Bowl. Did the Legion of Boom help too?

Yeah. But anyone that acts like Russell Wilson was just managing his way to a Super Bowl. Like, okay, no disrespect to Sam Darnold, but Russell Wilson was a far more impactful quarterback that Sam Darnold was. Sam Darnold made, he played great this year. Okay. But what Russell Wilson would do in Seahawks games was incredible.

And I think there was definitely a time where he was my favorite athlete. But then things started to change because I felt like Russ started to go, I don't know, kind of crazy. And his ego got out of condition. control and he started thinking about his legacy. He was always talking about his legacy and then became really important that he won an MVP. And then, you know, with the whole let Russ cook movement was, which was always like, I don't know if I love this. You know, I get the argument for it. But I also know deep down inside, like you got to run the football. You know,

you have to. And it felt like Russ kind of, he was one of the reasons that the Seahawk kind of fell apart. And I think Pete lost the room. Pete Carroll lost the room. And then they just lost their way. And during that time, Russ also lost something.

And that was his athleticism. And it was his escapability. But he still played like the old Russ. And he would get. outside of the pocket and then he would get like hunted down and he couldn't make those plays anymore and you know it all culminated with like eventually me and i and i think you i don't want to speak for you was like trade this guy like i'm done he went from he went from my favorite athlete to a guy that i started to actively dislike for not only his play on the field but his personality

And when he went to Denver and he went there, and remember what he said, he's like, I don't want to win one Super Bowl. I want to win multiple Super Bowls. And we're just rolling our eyes. And he went to Denver and it was a disaster. So an absolute disaster. But now that I,

now that I've seen him get his comeuppance, which I honestly felt he deserved, I really did, which sounds whatever, terrible for me, but I'm a terrible person. a Turbul sports fan. I wanted him to fail. Well,

and he did. But I actually bounced back from enjoying him, watching him fail to actually feeling a little bit sorry for him. Because he became such a meme and he became a guy that just everyone was making fun of. But now that he's retired,

I do want to remember him mostly for the guy that we saw at the peak of his athletic powers in Seattle and a guy that helped the Seahawks win their first Super Bowl and franchise history. I know we're up against it for time and I know we've got to do the hometown heroes. We will. So don't bark dogs. It's a really interesting thing that you bring up when you detailed run through his career because the last four years of Russell Wilson's career

were bad enough that a guy who looked like a sure fire football hall of famer might have played his way out. And that is exceptionally rare. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure there's another player in NFL history that you could say has gone through a similar career arc. For all the reasons that you mentioned on a personal level, extrapolate that over to what his legacy looks like and what his football Hall of Fame candidacy looks like. Anyone that wants to diminish his time in Seattle is doing it disingenuously, I would say. I think retroactively people are trying to do it. Say what you will about the Pro Bowl.

And he made the Pro Bowl nine times as a Seahawk. If you want to go through the list of there are 12 other quarterbacks. sorry, there are 12 quarterbacks all time that made the same amount of Pro Bowls. 11 of them were in the Hall of Fame. Yeah. We're talking guys like Brady, Manning, Breeze, Favregers, who will be. Unitas, Elway, Marino.

So he's in that air. The stuff that he did with the Seahawks, put it this way, in a really weird way, if instead of accepting the trade and getting moved to Denver, if he had just retired, his career would have been a slam dunk for the Hall of Fame,

and his legacy, while tarnished because of how it ended, would in no way be in what kind of tatters it is right now after four years of going through Denver and Pittsburgh and the Giants. And it is just a weird set of circumstances. Okay, we're up against it for time. We got to go. Before we go to break, I do need to tell you about our friends at the hometown heroes lottery. They need your support to help change lives.

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God, I hate Brash Thursday. Best day of the week, baby. It is just awful. What's this song called again, Lattie? I don't know if I could say it on the air again. Garbage. It's called Hail Bastard. Oh, my God, you can't say that on the air.

You're fire, buddy. You know we do. You are listening to the Halford, show on SportsNet 650. Alfred and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. They're ready to give you the financial fresh start you deserve. We don't judgment or upfront fees. There it is.

Visiting today at sands dash trustee.com. We're in our two of the programmer, the midway point of the show, James Myrtle is going to join us in just a moment here. Our two of this show is brought by Jason Hominoch at jason. At jason.mortgage, the most medal of all the mortgage brokers. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

visit them online at jason.mortgage to the able auctions hotline we go our next guest is a senior writer for the athletic james myrtle joins us now from the halford and bref show on sports 10650 morning myrtle how are you thrash thursdays i didn't even know that was a thing it is it shouldn't it shouldn't be we do it in spite of it's unlicensed music brubs protestations he does not care for thrash thursday the dogs love it i go along with it like most things uh okay i want to start You know, yeah, good segue. That's why I'm on the radio. I want to start.

I want to start with the cup final. We're going to talk about your piece on Tom Dundon here in a sec. But you actually, he ran a poll, Myrtle did on Twitter. Are you watching the Stanley Cup funnel? There were three choices. Yes, every minute. Some of it. The third option was, no, I don't care.

And the votes were pretty evenly split across the three. Was there any sort of like impetus or reason? that you threw this out there, Murdo? Are you finding that the Vegas-Carolina series might not be gaining as much traction as other Stanley Cup finals? I was just thinking of a column of working on something,

and I was just curious what my, the people that are reading my content, how they feel about this final, because there's some people that are saying, like, oh, who wants to watch this? And the TV ratings are going to be bad. And then there's other people that are saying this can make a great matchup,

and these are two interesting teams and great teams. And I was just trying to kind of take the temperature. but I heard from some other media, and they're like, what are you doing? Why are you putting this poll out there exactly? And, you know, I'm a diehard, right? Like, I'm going to watch every minute of it, and no matter what, it doesn't matter who's in there.

And I've watched every minute of this Stanley Cup final since I was a kid. So I'm not the target audience for that poll, but I just wanted to see what some other people were feeling. And I think especially in Canada, there's a lot of people that are a little bit fed up with the NHL right now. Their teams aren't very good. It's another Sun Belt, Stanley Cup final, and I think there's some frustration in Canada in general. Can you set the scene for what it's like in Carolina?

Because I know you spent some time down there. And we had Sean Reynolds from Sportsnet on the other day, and he was talking about the energy and atmosphere around this team. Curious to get your thoughts on that. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they, the fans there do a great job. I mean, it's one of the louder buildings in the league, I would say. I mean, it's certainly top 10.

I don't know if I'd go as far as top five. but it's an older building and they get pretty rowdy and drunk in the parking lot before the game and then when they get going, they get fired up. So yeah, I was there for the whole Eastern Conference final and they had some games where they just completely ran over the Montreal Canadiens and some overtime games and things like that.

And it's a good crowd. It's a good time. You know, I recommend that if people are in that part of the world to go check it out. Okay, so you mentioned that you were there during the Eastern Conference Final where they wiped up Montreal. And that was, if I'm not mistaken, when you spoke with Tom Dundon, which is a rarity

these days, because having come under a little bit of scrutiny, and I'm understating that, but a little bit of scrutiny since taking over as the owner of the NBA's Portland Trailblazers, Dundon's maybe been a bit reclusive when it comes to media. So good on you for getting the one-on-one with them.

The article is how a controversial new NBA owner funded an NHL powerhouse to the Stanley Cup final. Let's walk through this. What was it like, first off, getting to sit down and speak with Dundon? Yeah, he invited me into his owner's box. He had a bunch

of friends and family there at Game 5. So it was right before the game was getting going, and we just chatted for 10 or 15 minutes. And you know, I think he was feeling like he was getting a lot of bad press in Portland, and obviously things are going well in Carolina. So he said, let's have a conversation.

And we did, and we got into some of the stuff. And I'm by no means an NBA expert. You know, I tried to do some of my homework on what's happening in Portland, but to me, it seems sort of similar to when he came in and bought the hurricanes. I mean, the, if anything, the hurricanes were in a worst position than the Portland Trailblazers are in terms of the market and arena and everything happening. And he, I don't think you can deny that Tom Dundon did a great job in Carolina. I mean, I didn't even realize how bad things were in Carolina until I went back and

looked at what it was like in 2018 when he bought the team. They had the lowest payroll the entire league for like four years straight. They were tied with the Arizona Coyotes who were going through bankruptcy proceedings. Their building was falling apart. They didn't have a lease agreement that extended very far. They had missed the playoffs

as something that was a seven or eight years in a row. They were in really, really bad shape. And they were definitely a relocation candidate at that point. And then you go down there now and the revenues there have skyrocketed. The building is full. They have a sellout streak, 166 games as of the last, as of game one.

in the Stanley Cup final. The players are happy there. They've got a great GM in Eric Tulski. They've got a great coach in Rod Brindamore, and it's turned into a model franchise. So I don't know how you can really, you know, question what Tom Dunden's done in Carolina. Does Dundon still run the team on a,

I don't want to say shoestring budget, but is he very, is he still careful with money? Yeah, I mean, the way that Eric Tulski, the GM down there put it, was that he wants to find value. So he doesn't give him limitations on his budget in terms of the player payroll. If you look, Carolina's been spent at the cap for the last five years. They're under the cap a little bit this year, mostly because there wasn't anything for

them to acquire and free agency with the way that it was last summer. But I think on the other side of things, on the business side of things, Tom Dundon doesn't like spending money if he doesn't have to. So it's kind of an interesting way. way to do things because I think that there's there's some areas where the hurricanes run things very, very frugally. And then there's other areas where they invest a lot of money. And Tom Dunden's committed to putting $800 million into the air, building things around the arena, hotels and restaurants. And so he is going to invest a lot of money there. He's spent a lot of

money on the player payroll. But, you know, I think if he can find a bargain, he's going to do it. Is it possible that a big spending team could try and poach Eric Tulski out of Carolina, kind of like Nashville did with McFarland and Colorado? Yeah, it's fun. I mean, you don't think of Nashville at a team that's going to be poaching people. You know, like it's, yeah, but it does sound like they made him a great, made McFarland a great offer, and that was part of why he left. I think Tulski has a long-term contract, and it's hard for me to say if it's one,

that he can get out of or not. Part of what happened with McFarland is they offered him a promotion as well because it's a president's role. So I don't know. Every executive in the league has kind of different language in their contract about what they can get out of and what they can't. And I mean, as we're seeing with Bruce Cassidy in the Vegas situation, I mean, it's a coach, not a GM, but it depends what the language on your contract says

and what kind of a non-compete you have and things like that. So, you know, if someone like Tulski has, let's say, another five years on their contract, I'm not really sure if he can get out of that or not. But other teams would be smart to ask because my guess is he's not making market rate as a GM in the NHL. Isn't Carolina kind of the epitome of finding value? I mean, the team right now, they're not even getting all that much from their top line. but when you think about that Stancovin, Taylor Hall, Jackson Blake line, that's kind of the definition of finding value where a lot of teams don't. I think that line, their cap hit this season is like $4.7 million combined or something like that.

And most of that's Taylor Hall because Blake and Stankovin are still on their entry-level deals and their next contracts don't kick in until next year. So yeah, and in that Eastern Conference final, that line was basically their first line. in terms of the number of minutes that they were getting from Rod Brindamore. But you look out throughout their lineup. I mean, they do a great job of finding players that are undervalued and other organizations and acquiring them. And I think Kandre Miller is a great example.

You know, they trade a first and a second round pick to the Rangers, but they're using Miller 26 years old, great skater size. They're using him as their number one defenseman. He's playing huge minutes for them. And he's been excellent. I think he's been a, you know, he's on the list of cons of life candidates with how he's played. So how does an organization like the Rangers not value a defenseman like that properly

and basically give them away? I mean, they got like a late first round pick, but so what? I mean, it looks like he's a real difference maker for a team that might win the Stanley Cup. So, you know,

and I think Vegas is good at that too. I mean, if you look at the way both of those teams are built, it's not really through the draft. Like there's not a lot of, Vegas doesn't have any first round picks on their roster that they made. They've gone around the league and poached other players or, or sign them in free agency.

And Carolina is a bit of the same thing. I mean, the only first round picks that Carolina has in their lineup is Svetnikov and Jarvis. And the Jarvis pick wasn't even their pick. You know, it was a draft pick that they poached out of Toronto and made it. So. Ajo was just into the second round, right?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they do have some guys, Slavin and Blake and they have some players that they picked with, you know, second, third, fourth round picks.

And that's great to find value there. But in general, you look at how Carolina and Vegas are built, they found free agents that were undervalued. They made trades with other teams and they won those trades and that's how their teams were put together and it wasn't really a traditional kind of rebuild through

the draft the way we thought we think of like other teams doing. Do you think the system that they play makes it easier for them to identify players that will work in Carolina? Do they know what kind of players

to go after the attributes etc., that sort of thing that will work in the system. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, that's, if you read my preview of the series, I wrote about why Carolina was having such a good year. And in that story, Eric Tulski said that part of why they can find undervalued players is they know exactly what they're looking for in the kind of way that they play. And they know players, he said Stan Cohen is a good example where they might be undervalued in other

organizations, but they know that with the way that they play, they're going to fit in. And an example that Tulski used was, you know, some teams are looking to play, you know, more of like a net front defense and they're going to want bigger defensemen and more physical defensemen. And that's not the way that Carolina plays. They're playing more of a man-to-man style and they want to have more of a skating and puck pressure and aggressive kind of system where they can have. So they want, they'll value players more like, let's say, Sean Walker and Shane Gostis pair. and some of the defensemen that they've got over, I don't know, and I mean, Vegas is kind of, you know, the Braden McNabs, you know, and so Carolina is looking for a different kind of a player,

and that's part of why they're able to identify someone, I think, like Stankovin, 5'8, play them at center, and it works in their system. And, you know, the trade they were taking a lot of heat for last year, they're getting a lot of credit for how well it's working right now. Yeah, it was interesting. I was watching an interview with Taylor Hall the other day, and he was talking about

how he had to adjust his game to play Rod Brindamore style of hockey. And he actually kind of suggested that he wasn't in the proper kind of skating shape to do what the Carolina Hurricanes needed to do. I think part of that had to do with the fact he was playing in Chicago. Maybe he wasn't being as pushed as hard.

But I think the inference there from the Carolina side of things was that they had either an inkling or maybe they had the data that could back it up that Hall had the ability to play at the pace that Carolina needed it to, and that's where the value was. It was being not utilized in Chicago, but you needed a profile of player that could skate and had the ability to play at the pace that Brindemore wanted them to play at.

And I thought that was really interesting because it shows that not only are they identifying the players that fit, but maybe the players that aren't necessarily playing at that level, but can play at that level if they come into the system. Yeah, and I mean, there have been some players that have gone there and were like, this isn't for me. I think Nicolent, I think that that was one of the things that he saw is like, not only was he not crazy about being in Carolina, but he looked at the system and the way that everything's worth.

And he's like, you know, I don't think this is for me. And they need players that want to be there and they'd get buy in. And I thought it was interesting. You know, Nikolai Yelers was the hero game two in the Eastern Conference Final. And I wrote about him and talked to him and his decision. And like, he never had a doubt in his mind when he was going to free agency. There were other teams offering him more money and more term than what Carolina did. He's like, I want to be a Carolina hurricane.

And part of it was he was excited about the idea of going somewhere that's a little bit quieter of a media market, quieter than even Winnipeg, getting out of the spotlight. But, you know, so for someone like that or someone for like Taylor Hall, they go there and they, they love the system that they're playing. They love the energy that it involves. But it's not an easy way to play because you kind of need to be going all the time. And it's really it's really a taxing system, I think, on the body. and it's interesting that they've been able to get basically that entire roster running like a machine and that's why they ran over Montreal and it's just like a really aggressive skating style that is hard to maintain over a long NHL season.

Yeah, it's tough to maintain during the regular season, but I bet it's actually not during the playoffs because I bet when you're rolling and you're frustrating the hell out of the other team, I bet that can be actually really fun almost like, You ever seen when like a penalty kill gets hot? And the guys on the PKK are just like, yeah, let's go out and frustrate the other team stars again. But it is tough during a regular season where, you know, the games just don't matter as much. Yeah.

And I think that the fact that they've gotten through the first three rounds so quickly is a big part of it because they can maintain that energy. And, you know, a lot of watching that series up close with Montreal, the Canadians were just completely out of gas. You know, they had played six more games. Like, I remember going before game four in Montreal, just talking to some of the players and was like, man, I don't think they happen anymore. And then in Carolina, they seemed so fresh. And it felt like they had barely played any hockey. And they were just, they were just ready to run all over them. And then that's the way that it played out.

Well, Carolina's down one-nothing in this series to the Vegas Golden Knights. I know you threw this out on social media. I think it was you. do you think they will get more out of Ajo, Svetnikov, and Jarvis? Because for all the great things we say about the value that they found in the, you know, the Stancova line. And what a great signing that Eilers was, you still need in the biggest moments, you need your biggest and your best players to step up.

I mean, to be honest, including seeing them up close, I didn't, they were the third best line for Carolina in all the games that I saw when I was down there. say that that's the case for game one as well. So it's kind of a unique situation that a team can have its first line not playing that well and their ice time getting cut and just looking a little bit out of sync. And then the team is still advancing and winning as many games. I mean, it speaks to the depth that Carolina has. And I think that that's the kind of the dichotomy that is, Vegas is built in a different way.

Vegas has better high-end players than Carolina does. But Carolina's got better depth than Vegas does. So we'll see which one wins out here. But I'm most surprised by Seth Jarvis because he's a guy that had such a, he had a really good season. There were some injuries mixed in there. He makes team Canada at the Olympics. He just hasn't been very noticeable at all in the playoffs for me for Carolina.

So they need him to step up. Aho, surprising too. I mean, he was their leading score this year and like, where has he been? And one of the big strengths for Carolina this year was their power play was one of the best in the league. And it's been just kind of okay. So I don't think they get Bass Vegas without them doing more damage and without them looking like a number one line

and we'll see how it plays out. But, you know, it was the stall line with Eilers that was getting the matchup against Eichols. So they're not even using those guys, even though those are the biggest name guys and they were their leading scores during the season. They're not even using them as a number one line right now. So I guess we'll see what happens.

James, thanks for this, bud. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll talk soon. Okay, nice guys. James Myrtle from the Athletic here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Before we go to break, I need to do the smart decision brought to you by Crow. Smart decision made yesterday by the NHL Broadcaster's Association. Those are the ones that vote on the Jack Adams.

And congrats to Tampa Bay Lightning head coach, John Cooper, the winner of this year's Jack Adams, the winner of his first ever Jack Adams Award, as coach of the year in his 14th season with the team, narrowly, and I mean narrowly beating Lindy Ruff. Coop got 226 points, votes, if you will, the points for first, second and third. Ruff had 223, one of the closest all-time votes. I do believe they got it right, despite the protestations coming out of Buffalo, said Lindy Ruff should have got it. I think Coop did a fantastic job getting to 50 wins with the Tampa Bay Lightning team this year.

Just look at their back end. They barely got anything out of their captain, Victor Hedman, who only played in 33 games. Ryan McDonough barely played over half of the regular season. and yet the Tampa Lightning were right there again back in the playoffs for the ninth consecutive year. So good, uh-oh. Coo, coo, bud.

Oh, boy, I knew that was coming. There are a bunch of other coaches that got first place votes. Yeah, I know. Dan Mews. That's fair. Bednar, Marty St. Louis. Yeah. Travis Green got four first place votes.

Good for him. Talk got three. Now do the guy who got the one. Marco Stern in Boston? Who voted for that? Who this year? I shouldn't say that. I just think he's neat.

No, but he had a fine year, but who could legitimately make the argument that they thought of all these other candidates that Marco Stern was the best coach in the NHL this year. You know what I think is even weirder, John Hines getting a second place vote. I know. Some of them didn't make a lot of sense to me. Now, what he got against John Hines? He's not a very good. He's not very good coach. Yeah.

They're not a second best coach in the NHL. Kind of got smoked in the playoffs. Anyway, we're up against it for time. We only have limited time to talk to Dransy on the other side. So that is your smart decision. Brat to you by Crow. Your trusting accounting attacks advisors for over 55 years. Crow, smart decisions lasting value.

Learn more at chromaicay.com. Coming up on the other side, as mentioned, Thomas Drance is going to join the program. You're listening to the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.