Halford & Brough in the Morning - The MLB Needs A Salary Cap

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason do some Ask Us Anythings (3:00), plus they discuss the top hockey stories of the day with NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen (23:33). 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.

On a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford and Brub show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brub in the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program, AJ from AJ's Pizza. On East Broadway is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brats by Jason Hominoch at Jason. 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 you live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026 year-year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics. Our next guest is the owner and proprietor of AJ's pizza on East Broadway. It's AJ here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports 9650. What up, AJ? TGIF, what is going on?

First off, I want to say that we have got an unprecedented number of Ask Us Anythings coming into the Dunbar Lumber text message in Basker right now. Pizza emojis galore. I mentioned this because you haven't asked us anything for Laddie. Go ahead.

I do. So, Laddie, who's, who do you hate more now? The Dodgers are the Yankees. Come on. Oh, that's a good one. That is a good one. I mean, come on.

I mean, come on. Recently. Just look into your heart. Recently, I will, I will say the Dodgers. Yeah. Recently. Recently.

very heavily bolded and underline. Hey, what a stupid sport baseball is. What a stupid league. I just want to put that out there. I think it's really dumb that the Dodgers can have a billion dollars in deferred salaries. I agree completely. That's insane. 60 million?

It's nuts. It's nuts. And he's not getting most of the money to like 2042 or whatever. I digress. Give it to his grandkids. Stay alive, Kyle. Stay alive. All right.

We'll leave the Dodger hate there. We'll fast forward to this week. So another great weekend. And by the way, for those that haven't gone, AJ's is one of the best places in the city to watch football. We only have a handful of weekends of NFL action left. So what do we got this weekend, AJ? I know we're going to be, go Seahawks and go Bronco.

Shout out to Teresa. So we got that on the horizon. What's going on on AJ's this weekend? Well, it's going to be epic. And you know what? If you don't want to be at the concrete jungle and can't really hear yourself think, You know, you can always go to the quiet side

and the games will still be on. And Sunday's happy hour all day. It's going to be epic. It's going to be epic. But yeah, go Broncos, go Seahawks. Okay, buddy, love it. Thank you for doing this. As always, we appreciate it. Enjoy everything this week. It's our last weekend with four NFL games. We're down to two next weekend. See you, buddy. Thanks. Everybody enjoy. Take care. Enjoy the sunshine. Yeah, thanks, buddy. Have a good one.

AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Speaking of, you know, we're trying to set everybody up for the big football part. if you want to have a big football party at AJ's, be sure to visit them 325 and 327 East Broadway. Reservations are going fast. Okay, let's make this full of Askus anythings because the listeners have really come through texting into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line

at 650-650 Metro Vancouver's Trusted Choice for Contractors and Renner Warriors for over 50 years, visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com. in Tuas and ask us anything. Why are some professional athletes like Kyle Tucker accepting deferred salary deals?

It used to be that a front-loaded salary was what the best players went for, but that's seemingly changing. What happened to the time value of money? Yeah, these are interesting deals. I think the time value of money

still exists, but you can get more total dollars. if you accept deferred payment. And I don't know, maybe some people see the investing environment right now and going like, I don't know where I'm going to get returns. There have always been a lot of returns. But the biggest one, the biggest one is taxes. Yeah.

They can get these salaries later in their lives and maybe they can move to a lower tax area and take advantage of tax savings. Like baseball's got such a convoluted system mentioning taxes, of course. Like if you get a low, luxury tax. There's something like there's a CBT rate that's involved in their collective bargaining agreement.

Also, right now in terms of annual AAV, just based on the straight math of how much money you get over the length of the contract, Kyle Tucker has the second largest single season payout in Major League Baseball right now at $60 million.

His teammate, Shohei Otani, has the largest at $70 million. Now, there's a million different deferral payments that go into this and the math on it is very, very convoluted. But if you just want to say, who are the two highest paid players in baseball by standard contract next season, the Dodgers have both of them. And one of them that picked up in free agency. And you can make the argument that they picked up Tucker, not so much because they desperately

needed Kyle Tucker, but because they didn't want some of their other competitors to get him. It is crazy to me that a team that is racking up World Series titles, as the Dodgers are, also went out and got maybe the two best free agents in baseball this year, in Diaz and Tucker, I think that there needs to be at least a couple of mechanisms in place. Just a couple. I think that the deferring, having a billion dollars in deferred money seems wrong to me.

Doesn't seem like that's a great solution for what ails baseball, right? And I know that Manfred is, at the very least, willing to go to the mattresses on a salary cap. And it seems like there's an equal amount of pushback from the players union on this. But it's hard not to look at baseball and suggest they need some level of capping it because the further this goes along,

the less likely it is that anyone's going to be able there's going to be a handful of teams that are going to be able to compete financially. Yeah. And then you're going to get teams that are just going to sit there and do nothing. Those are the biggest problem. Year after year after year.

It's not the guys that are willing to spend money. It's the ones that are willing to take advantage of the revenue sharing. Just sit back and be miserable for decades and not compete. because how are we going to do it? The welfare queens of Major League Baseball. Honestly, though, like, what do you do if you're one of those aforementioned queens?

What do you do? Well, anytime you, the incentives suggest doing nothing, then that's a problem with the system. 100%. Rager, ask us anything at this current moment is, by the way, that was not a political take. I'm talking about sports here. Okay, don't just life is different. Text in 650, 6.6.5. Politics, anything you want to get.

Life is very different. Ranger, ask us anything. At this current moment, is Macklin Celebrini the most exciting and most bang-for-your-buck player across any sport in California? Wow. I mean, Sho-Hae is pretty incredible, man. Yeah, with all due respect to Macklin-Col-Col-A. I don't think you can put an actual dollar figure on what Sho-Haw-Haw-O-Toney's value is.

Yeah. I don't. Bang for your buck. I don't know how much are Sharks tickets compared to Dodgers tickets. That's true. That's true. Maclin is on an ELC, so there's that. Did you see the assist he had last night against the Washington Capitals?

He is phenomenal. He, I mean, he worked down low, took a ton of contact, and eventually just a little backhand pass out front to his teammate who scored. And, you know, it wasn't a goal, it was an assist. But there's a reason why so many people compare him to Sid. Yeah. Like, Sid down low is, and still is, a monster. and so is Celebrini.

He's just so damn strong. And I think about trying to defend Team Canada at the Olympics when you've got Sid, like Sid and Celebrini and their power down low. You've got the speed of McKinnon and McDavid. Yep. I mean, my God. This forward group is going to be insane.

So just to tweak this back to the Connoxicon. for a minute here. Drance's got a really great article up at The Athletic right now talking about the rebuilds and the notion of it and he dives deep into the hypotheticals about when you stockpile your picks

and it's like when you go into this process things can really break your way in a positive way if you get a generational guy at the top of the draft or say like a late round pick turns out to be a superstar maybe not even a late round pick

like a third round pick or whatever. Conversely, it can really work against you if you get that high pick and not that they're a bust but they don't necessarily project to be that transcendent star so I look at and this is not meant as any disrespect

to Connor Bardard who's having an amazing year but I look at the hype that went into the pre-Baddard draft and then the pre-Celebrini draft and I remember a lot of people projecting out that Bedard was going to follow in the lineage of McDavid and McKinnon. Yeah. That he was going to be that level

of player which in hindsight is a lot to put on a young player weirdly enough Celebrini who came in with less hype is probably closer to being a generational player in the Crosby mold than Baderd is to being to being McKinnon

or McDavid and that's the San Jose Sharks kind of having fortune fall their way. You need it. And it's just if the drafts have been flipped, let's say that San Jose got Baderd and Chicago got

Celebrini, it just totally changes your trajectory as an organization. Well, I think Chicago is pretty happy with having Baderd, though. No doubt. No doubt. But of those two picks right now, I'd challenge someone to say, I want Baderd over Sellebrini right now. I don't think anyone would.

Would anyone in this room take Baderd over Sellebrini right now? Dogs? No. At first blush? No. And that's not as meant as any... Is he a top five player in the league right now? It's in the conversation.

And just so we're clear, it's not meant as any disrespect to Connor Bidard. but sometimes things work out where the generational player you thought you were getting was actually in the draft following the first overall pick and that's where it's going with Celebrini right now

because as you said every time you watch him play it's like his game matures a little bit more beyond his years to the point where the Crosby comps aren't that crazy and you're talking about Crosby the top five player in the NHL all time

like it is it is wild by the way Rager had another one in here and I did the research for it. I think it was who's going to be the last long-standing player born in the late 1900s. In any sport, though. In any sport. So I've got a good answer for that one. Yeah, I got one here. Okay, so right away my mind went to what position right now in all the sports is allowing players to play the longest? I was like, NFL quarterback, given what we've seen from Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers playing into their 40s. A lot of guys are doing that. So I thought, hmm, okay,

Let's work this out in my mind grapes. Went to it, looked at the quarterbacks. You're wrong, by the way. Quarterbacks born in 1999. So the youngest ones available, 99 would be the birth year. Trevor Lawrence. Could Trevor Lawrence hang on until his 40s

being a second or third string quarterback playing well into his 40s with, so he stays healthy, the pedigree that he has, the talent that he has, Could he hang around the NFL for that long and be the last active player? That would be my thought. Where is yours? With a golfer who was born in 1999.

Golf? Yeah. Did you see what Vijay is doing? No, I know. Golf? I didn't even consider golf. Did you see what Vijay is doing? He is going back on the PGA tour?

He's on the PGA tour. I think he's 62. Wow. He's in the Sony Open right now over in Hawaii. So he gets a nice vacation too. He gets to go to Hawaii. way, Nick Taylor is currently co-leader at the Sony Open and Vijay is at minus two.

And what he's done and it's quite controversial is he's used in an exemption where guys that have made a certain amount of money on the PGA tour and Vijay has made millions and millions. Yes. Can just say, yeah, I want to be on the tour. That's amazing. Because he was on the, he's been playing on the Champions tour forever. Why did he decide to go back all of a sudden?

He's a grinder, man. He just wants to play. He just wants, I think he just wants. Well, you've got the right answer. But there's a lot of people out there that are like, you shouldn't do this because you're taking a spot from a young up-and-comer. Sure. You know, you go play on the Champions Tour.

But I haven't gone down the full hole of research. I don't know what Vijay said about this, but I think it'll probably be a golfer that was born in 1999. Yeah, probably. Well, now that you say, yeah, I mean, Vijay is doing it at 63 for Christ. I mean, if you can just be, if you can just be contending in majors in your 50s or something like that, then I think that that gets you, that gets you the nod. Sean, I got one here.

Sean in Van. What was your favorite venue to do a quote unquote on location show? Any funny or terrifying stories you could share? Yeah. Shout out to our old. He was one of the program directors at 1040, Mike Whittingham. When the NHL draft was here, we were doing the morning show at 1040, and he set us up to do a live-on-location show at the park casino, right?

That was going to be the site of, you know, where all the executives, of all these NHL teams were going to be staying at the hotel there, and there's this big casino floor, and we're like, this is going to be great, right? Like, you know, there's going to be all these different people walking in and out. It was right across the street from Rogers Arena. So you were going to see all of the hustle and bustle of the NHL draft. We're all 31 teams at that point, came in, and everyone was going to be there. There were just a couple problems.

One, our show was on at 6 o'clock in the morning. And two, they had us located on the third floor where all of the banquet rooms were. So we get there at 6 o'clock in the morning. There's not a soul there. It is hollow. No, that's not true because there was someone vacuuming. There was someone vacuuming. There was also someone from the old TSN-1200 in Edmonton,

for some reason, seated right next to us. I was like, there's eight banquet rooms here. We don't need to sit right next to one another. And then there was, yeah, there was like a janitor. Then you interrupt the show. He's like, don't mind me, just getting the old wet dry back. And we were doing a show. I crapped all over this for the first hour that we were on the air.

Like, no holds bar. I'm like, I don't know who booked this, but they should be fired. Wittingham was listening to it driving in to the casino. He was just crestfallen when he came in. He was, we didn't do it. We didn't even go with the second day. We just, we were like, no, we're not doing this again. Day two of the draft, we're just going to do our show from the studio.

So live on locations are tricky like that. You want an area like that where it's quiet and you're not really surrounded by too much noise. But there was just a total lack of hustle. We've had some good ones on location recently at AJ's and Dujay-C-on-Marine. AJ's was great, Du-O-C-O-G-Marine. We've done a couple shows from Duocon-Marine. Actually, we did one at the old shop as well. But yeah, they can be tricky, the live on location shows.

Tambo and East Van, ask us anything. How quiet do you think that plane ride home from Columbus was last night? Yeah, pretty quiet. O for six on the road trip. And you were badly outplayed on this trip for the most part. Billy Bean would have taken a bat to the boombox in the room afterwards. It would have been awkward to be, like, laughing. on it.

Yeah, I know. You know? I mean, you can see it in most of the guy's faces. You alluded to Besser having zero celebration when he scored yesterday, and rightfully so. What are you going to do at that point, especially if you're a veteran? You should have done the dramatic, ripped the monkey off the back. That would have been great. I hate that.

You know, there's an old NFL films clip when Steve Young and the San Francisco 49ers won the Super Bowl, and he did that. And he was going around on the sidelines. Be like, someone help me get this monkey off. That would only work if they brought out an actual live monkey. Right, which they didn't. They should have done that, though. If they brought out a real live monkey and put him on Bester's back and Bester was forced to remove that monkey, then it would have been good, assuming the monkey didn't attack him. Steve Young has said in the aftermath, he regrets that.

It's like one of the biggest regrets of his career because it's been that clip that's gone viral and it's never left. And he's like, it's just an awkward thing to say. Like, you know, you don't want to, you don't want to have one of your accomplishments, one of your biggest accomplishments. kind of shrouded and like, while I had this negativity surrounding his lame, silly. So anyway. Omar with an ask us anything. Omar writes, he would tell you this for free,

but trading Bo Horvatt turned out to be a bad idea. Many fans at the time, including myself, thought it was time for Bo to go. What is the worst sports take that you had with conviction, but it turned out to be completely wrong? Okay, first of all, I want to address the Bo Horvatt thing. Sure.

There's no telling what would have happened if they kept Horvad. I'm with you on this. The answer to who should they have kept might have been none of them. Yeah. Right? None of them. Get rid of all of them. You know, like, like, I'm just throwing that out there.

I still think it was time for Bo to go. I think what's happened in the aftermath, the way his career is taken off. Like that was all like meant to be like, I don't know if he's doing that in Vancouver. But that doesn't matter though. It's all about what happens in the locker room. Like the statistical stuff is whatever. Like the reason you would have wanted to keep Horvat. is because he wouldn't have been a problem.

Yes. Like, right? Like, whether he was good on the ice or not, who knows. 1,000%, but we just don't know, but we just don't know. But wasn't a problem in the locker room. He wasn't a good guy. No, he wasn't a problem in the locker room. I don't know if he has any of the same effect in the room or on the ice in Vancouver as he does now in New York.

Okay. Nevertheless, though, he wouldn't have been an issue is what I'm saying. So of the two, he's the safer pick because of that. Who are the two? You go with Horvatt and Pedy, right? Yes, Miller and Pee. And then. And then.

then you have traded, you traded J.T. Miller, right? Correct. Right. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Whether he performs as well in the ice as Miller did, who knows. But it's like, that doesn't even matter at this point. It's all about what happens in the room. Yeah. What is the sports, what is the worst sports take I ever had with conviction, but it turned out to be completely wrong? I would say I didn't think Pete Carroll was going to be successful in Seattle. Oh, yeah. Because I really wasn't a fan of the raw, raw nonsense.

And I was a U-Dub fan. I didn't like him at USC. And I thought he was just kind of weasling his way out of USC because they were going to get into trouble soon. You weren't alone on that one. No one thought that was going to work out. He was a failed NFL coach already. And not in like a spectacular failure way,

but he was so whatever in his first tenure. The New England job, like he's a forgettable figure there. People forget that he coached there. He just was kind of a whatever guy. And then he went to college and had a lot of success. And the idea was good college coach, not an NFL coach. And it's why you always have to give certain people a second chance, because the second chance, they take all the things.

If they are a person that learns from their mistakes, and God knows some people aren't. But some people are. And if you're someone that learns from your mistakes, then sometimes that can be a great hire, the second time coaching. Well, Omar, I've had so many. It turned out to be wrong. One of the most recent ones that does stick out and jump immediately to front of mind

was the whole Baker Mayfield thing. in, I think it was two seasons ago where I was like, this is a fraud, this is a mirage, there's no way that he or the Buccaneers or any good. And they went on a pretty nice playoff run that year. And I actually, the reason I say completely wrong is because halfway through it,

I was like, I actually kind of like this guy. And then I kind of became more and more enamored with Baker Mayfield. Like now I watch their games as much as I can because I think he's hilarious to watch. He plays with the kind of swagger. A little, you know little guy's swagger? You've seen those guys around.

Yeah, yeah. You know the little guys that act like they're like eight feet tall? And it's kind of hilarious. That's Baker Mayfield, right? And he's got that really sort of like sneaky athleticism when he runs. He's just a fun player to watch. And I was completely wrong on him. I thought he was going to be a total washout and that he was going to be Johnny Mansell 2.0.

As a matter of fact, I said he was going to be Johnny Mansell 2.0. And I was wrong. There's nothing better for sports radio than someone being wrong. Yeah. That's awesome. Look at me. Look at you. You're a star.

You've never been right. It's incredible. It's true. Okay, we got to go to break. We've got a lot more to get to on the Halifred and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to remind you to reserve your spot for the big football party at the Clayton Public House, hosted by Sportsnet 650. Email info at the Clayton Pub.com. Clayton Public House, good food, good people, good times.

Dan Rosen from NHL.com is coming up next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 731 on a Friday. It's a Pista Friday here at the Halifred & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halifton Brub in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Get out of the penalty box of death and back into the game with a financial fresh start. This is them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program with the midway point of the show. Dan Rosen from NHL.com is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two is brought to you by Jason hominock at Jason.orgia. The most caliente 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.

Jason Homonix on Fuego. In Fuego. Very good. C Bueno. To the phone lines we go, Dan Rosen. HLDA. Hold on. Thank you.

We've now run the gamut of our Spanish here in the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Dan Rosen joins us here now on the Halford and Brough show. What up, Dan? No Spanish here. I cannot speak it. Don't ask me to speak it. I can sometimes understand French, but I can't speak that one either. So English, please.

Okay. Do you understand the phrase the Rangers right now are no bueno? I do understand that phrase, yes. I absolutely do. Were you in the rink for the game? game against Ottawa? What was that experience like? I tell you what, I mean, like, you're watching the first period and you think there's like, so you think of yourself going into the game, right? All right, they just gave up a 10 spot

over the weekend to the Boston Roots. So you're going to learn from that, right? You're going to, there's going to be a reaction to that, okay? And they play the Seattle Cracken and then they lose that game, fine. Okay. But they, it was, it was, you know, a bad play on the winter. goal, but they're tight, it's a tight game. You got Ottawa coming in on a back-to-back. They're starting the goalie, who's their backup goalie, and he's making his ninth consecutive start and playing his 10th consecutive game. He just played the night before in a tight game against Vancouver,

and they travel, the Rangers haven't played, they're sitting at home, and you come out and play like that at the start of the first period, and you commit a penalty that give them a power play, and then you can't kill that power play, and then it just piles on from there. Like, it was one of those performances. And you're like, you're in the building. You know what I thought about when I was in the, you know,

as this was happening and it got to four to nothing at the end of the first period on the goal with like six seconds left in the first period? What if this was your first game that you ever went to? And you paid to go to this game, right? Like, we're spoiled. We go to all these games and, you know, and whatnot. And it becomes, it's a job. and it becomes like, you know, not something that you take for granted, but hey, I've been to a lot of games.

Okay, you know, I've seen this before. I've also seen the other things. We've run the gamut of everything we've seen, right? But what if this was your first game? And what if you paid, you know, a couple hundred bucks to go to this game? And that's the performance that the home team gives you. Like, I would be like, where's my money back? Somebody give me my money or at least give me a free beer or something like that, you know? Like, it was, it was, that's what I thought about.

And maybe I look at it from, you know, if you look at it from a fan perspective, the fans go on the game, they're just so excited to be there, especially if it's your first one and whatnot. But, like, it was quiet in the building until they started their chance. And, you know, and it didn't get any better from there because you think the Rangers are going to have a pushback at the start of the second period. And they do, but they don't, it was only a little bit of a physical pushback. And then they're on six nothing. And it's just like, come on, you know. It was an experience, to say the least. You know what's funny?

The first time I ever went to Madison Square Garden, I was with my dad, and we went to a Knicks game because the Rangers weren't in town, and I went to a Knicks game, and they were down 40 at the half. So I've kind of had that experience at MSD. You've had that experience. I didn't get a refund.

I didn't get a refund. Do you think? No, you don't get nothing. Do you think it's possible that James Dolan changes his mind about the confidence that he has in the leadership of this team and the confidence that he has that the culture is going to change and this all needed to happen because he did kind of give a vote of confidence a couple of weeks ago

on New York radio. Yeah, he did, yeah. No, I don't think he changes anything right now. He's far from being a reactionary owner to, with a quick reaction, right? So if it's going to change his tune, my guess is he changes his tune at the end of the season. I don't think it's a re you make a react. I don't think he is the type of owner that will make a reactionary move.

And actually, I think it was Jeff Merrick. And I heard him say it. And it resonated with me. And it made so much sense. He said, James Dolan is like the guy at a baseball game in the fifth deck who's calling balls and strikes. and he's 100% confident he is correct as an owner because that's his faith, right? And it makes sense. Like he has that much conviction and that much faith in his decisions and what he believes in

that he is not going to be a reactionary owner on the fans making chance, you know, because they're frustrated. And I think the fans have every right to be frustrated. It is within their right to do that, to chant those things. but I don't see a reactionary move based off of that. And the team itself, if we're being honest, the team itself as you go into this season, to me they were short at least one top six forward and at least two top nine forwards.

And that hasn't changed. They're lucky actually. Noah Labba has come along and he's played quite well and positioned himself as a number three center and I think that's the right spot for him. but now in the same game you lose your two most indispensable players in Adam Fox and Igor Shus Durkin. A team that was already short on skill and now you lose your two most indispensable guys.

I mean, I don't see how they survived that and they clearly haven't. Which way are the winds blowing when it comes to Artemi Panarin? Good question. we don't hear much. I mean, Chris Drury is not one of those general managers who is present in front of the media and, you know, he's just not that. This is not what he does.

So, you know, you don't hear much, Panarin at the start of the season said, you know, I'm focused on the season. It's not what I want to do. You know, I don't know what's happening. I mean, the way things are going right now, if the Rangers are able to get a deal for Panarin, I think you have to make the deal.

I mean, it does remove more skill from the lineup, obviously, but they don't look like a team that's heading in the direction of the playoffs right now, unless things take a dramatic turn. They do a complete 180. I think you have to entertain this. Now, that's the key thing here is that open air and has a no move clause. So he's in control of it, and he very well could say, sure, I'll waive my no move clause.

I'll go there or there. and you've got to work within those parameters. But I think you have to look at it in that way. The thing with Panarin, though, I think he's 34 years old, still got a ton of skill. He's still an impact player. He's going to be for the next three years, I think, at least that, a very strong impact player. And I would entertain the idea of resigning him because if you don't, you're going to have to replace that ability. And where are you getting it?

You know, like, I'm not saying you can't get it, but where is that coming from? And he's been their leading scorer every year he's been there. He's done a seven-year deal. He's been their leading scorer for six straight years. He will be their leading score again this year. He's delivered on his contract. We're speaking to Dan Rosen, senior writer from NHL.com here on the Halford & Brough show on Sports 9-650. I want to turn our attention to Buffalo here for a minute.

Sabers win their 15th in their last 17th last night. Yeah. Tage Thompson with the hat trick. We played the audio earlier on the show. very good piece that you've got up on NHL.com right now. Profile on Tage Thompson. I learned quite a few things in reading it. One of

the things is I didn't realize just how good a year Thompson is having and how integral he might end up being to the U.S. Olympic team because I believe it's him and Clayton Keller are the only guys that weren't on the four nations team that are going to be on this Olympic team. And the way he's

playing, I wonder if he might be less of a guy on the periphery and more of a front line driver because he is having an outstanding ending season right now. He is having an accident. By the way, Clayton Keller also wrote about him. Utah came through Madison Square Garden, so I was able to catch up with Keller, wrote about him, that story went up on Tuesday,

then Buffalo came right after them, wrote about Tage Thompson, cut up with it. So both of those guys who were on the U.S. World Championship team last, you know, last May and then now on the Olympic team got caught up with both of those. With Tage Thompson in particular, so having a fantastic season.

And what I learned, too, in reporting that story and in talking with Lindy Ruff and in talking with Bill Garen and Mike Sullivan actually too, because that's, you know, Rough coaches him, Sullivan and going to coach him, Garen scowdered him a lot, is they didn't select Tage Thompson because he can score goals. They know he can score goals. They know he's a presence because he's so big and, you know, and he has the really good hands and he can operate in and around the net area and just be so good and he's got a good shot. they selected him because of his improvement away from the puck, his improvement in the checking game.

And that is a key thing because I don't know if Tage Thompson plays a top six role for Team USA. You go into this tournament, you think to yourself, well, we got the Kachucks and Eichel. That line was really good at the Four Nations. You got Matthews. You got Gensel. You got Jack Hughes. You got Dylan. I mean, you got a lot of guys, right?

So does Tage Thompson play a top six role? I don't know. If he doesn't play a top six role, you know he can score goals, but he's got to be able to do a lot of other things. And that's why he was selected for this team, because his improvement away from the puck, and we're really seeing it, I think, in this stretch here for the Sabres, where he's scoring a ton of goals,

but he's not giving up anything, and he's been really good in that capacity as well. And Bill Garon said, listen, the World Championship going there. He told me this, going there, was an obvious plus in the direction for Clayton Keller and Tage Thompson. Winning there was a key because neither one of those guys that's had that opportunity in the NHL to showcase how that they can be in a pressure-packed game, and that's what that tournament is.

It's single elimination pressure games. And then winning the way they did in a 1-0 overtime game, tight-checking, 1-0 overtime game. No, it's not the Olympics. It's not going to, you know, the talent level of the Olympics is going to be way higher, obviously. in a game like that, but those guys showcased a lot to USA hockey by going and performing the way they did. And that it was a tight checking game. Thompson clearly had to play a strong game.

And he didn't play a total risky game. He played a very smart game. And that's what he's been playing now for the Sabres too. So with that win, yes, the Sabres move into the first wild card in the East on 56 points. It's tight underneath them, though, with all the different teams that are still very buying for those two playoffs. Boston holds a second right now. One of them, a team in your neck of the woods, the New Jersey Devils, who have had their, like the Rangers, their own share of drama over the last couple of weeks. There was the booing of Luke Hughes on multiple occasions. There's the Dougie Haunt Hamilton drama.

There's this undercurrent, the not getting Quinn Hughes in the trade that eventually saw him go to Minnesota has somehow unraveled this team. What have you made of what's gone on in New Jersey over the last few weeks? is they are six points back of the playoff bar right now. Yeah. Well, I mean, at least they've won their last two games, so maybe they've stabilized. Tom Fitzgerald came out,

and, you know, he took it on himself. He talked to the media, which I think was the right thing for Tom Fitzgerald to do because there were a lot of questions, obviously, and he did not duck any of the questions, and some of them were tough questions that he had to handle the other day when he did speak to the media. The, the, you think about it, right?

Like, so Jacob Marshroom gets left in that game, you know, by, it was, to me, it was like Sheldon Keith was just saying, it's on Markstrom. And he, I think after the game, he said, we gave up nine scoring chances and they scored on all of them. Like, that's, whoa, that's an indictment on your goalie, huh? That's not, that's not going to be very good for your goal. He can't feel good about that.

The Luke Hughes thing, you know, like a lot of things have piled up on this team. I don't know if it was not getting Quinn Hughes. I think it was just things that just been festering and building. and plus they've had injuries and whatnot, but they have a chance here to stabilize, and maybe they are stabilizing here a little bit because when you break down the roster, there's a lot of talent on this roster.

It's a good, deep roster with what should be strong goal-tending. And if they can get it all playing in the right direction, I think the Devils are one of those teams where you look at it, they can climb. The Flyers are ahead of them right now. The Flyers are falling. The Capitals are ahead of them right now. not 100% told on Washington.

The Maple Leafs are ahead of them right now. They've been hit or miss all season, right? The Panthers are ahead of them too, and I think we believe that the Panthers are going to keep climbing. So it's an interesting thing, and you get the Boston Bruins ahead of them. They've won five in a row. Has any team been streakier this year than the Boston Bruins? It's like they win five in a row, they lose five in a row.

They win five in a row, you know? So there's a chance here for the Devils. There is. Because even the Pittsburgh Penguins, they're ahead of them. Like, what do you mean? make of the Pittsburgh Penguins? Like are the Pittsburgh Penguins are going to be a team that can carry this all the way through? So we'll

see, but the Devils, if they are stabilizing right now, it's a good thing for them because they got a lot of talent and their team that can go on a hot streak. In terms of being real or not, and last one for you here, we're speaking to Dan Rosen from NHL.com. The New York Islanders, they've got to be the surprise of the East

still. Second in the Metro, 57 points. They've been without Horvad for a couple weeks. We're going to see them here on Monday in Vancouver. Is there been enough time elapsed now 47 games for the season that we're no longer asking the question if it's for real or not? Yeah, I mean, listen, they go into Edmonton and they win a 1-0 game, you know, and they get a late, you know, a third period power play goal from Anthony DeClair

to win that game. Maybe they got a little lucky with shots going off the post and, you know, Bouchard shot, I don't know how it did. I don't know how that didn't go out. I don't know that not go in the end of the net. But, no, I think there's been enough time here for the Islanders to showcase that they are for us to believe in the New York Islanders. Like, they're not a dynamic offensive team, but they score enough, and they've been

really strong and stingy defensively. They've been good away from home, good at home, but they've been good away from home as well. I think, you know, this team is for real. And you look at the Metro, other than the Carolina hurricanes, there's question marks with every team. So the Islanders are looking at it with their start to the season, and now as they've built it through the middle of the season, why not us? Like, it's a why not us year in the metro beyond the Carolina hurricanes,

and the islanders are taking advantage of it. Dan, enjoy all the action this weekend. 13 games on Saturday and a couple NFL games as well. So it's a good time to be on the couch. Enjoy this weekend, buddy. All right. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

See, Dan. Dan Rosen from NHHL.com, senior writer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. The listeners have done such a good job with Ask Us Anythings. I want to keep reading a bunch of them. Unbelievable. Mike and Nanaimo ask us anything If you guys were playing in a golf tournament

And had to choose between Ricky D or Drance As your caddy Who would you pick And why? This is a debate between So I have to, I can't carry Carry my own bag

Right This is a debate between Being inundated with too much information And then none at all Right Drans would be a year Like the wind is 8 miles per hour

No Nine. Wait. It's eight. Right. And then Rick would be like, what's golf? And then Rick would hand you the driver. I think I would probably choose Drance.

Because I do feel like Rick would get me disqualified somehow. Yes, that's a good point. Or conduct detrimental to the course. No, I just think he'd show up and I'd be like, all right, let's go. He's like, I didn't bring balls. Yeah, right. Right? And that would be, you'd just be DQed if you ran out of balls.

Adam writes in, I just spent a week in Mexico. Congratulations. Melancho don't. It was amazing, but the whole trip, I couldn't watch or even listen to the Canucks games on the radio. Okay, you don't need to keep bragging. Yeah. Okay?

Yeah. Real good flex there, pal. Adam asked, would you trade your sports fandom for a tropical paradise. No. Forever? No. I wouldn't.

I like sports too much. I love sports. Love it. Keeps me going. Sometimes it's all I have. And I think I'd like to spend more time in a tropical paradise. But when I am in my final day and down to Mexico or something, I'm like, all right, let's get out of here. Ziawata, huh?

Yeah, let's get out of here. I'm done here. Also, it's too hot. I do enjoy the occasional unplug, like five to seven days where you're just completely out of touch with everything is going on in the sports world. I can't recommend it for extended periods of time beyond that. But when there is a certain gratification of being surprised by something or not knowing something and having someone tell you, like, oh, I totally miss that. It is a nice, it is a nice feeling. I know exactly what Adam's talking about.

Yeah. Where you're like, I don't really need to follow this day to day. I can have someone, you know, either shoot me a text or call me and let me know what's going. It's a nice refreshing feeling to be surprised by something and not be right on top of it. But only for a certain amount of time. After that, I start going into withdrawal. Lincoln and Surrey asks us anything. Would you rather have the health and athleticism of your 20s in your 40s?

Okay. or the knowledge and experience of your 40s in your 20s. Knowledge. Knowledge for sure. Yeah, me too. For sure. Like I'm, I've lost some athleticism,

but my athleticism in my 20s. But my athleticism in my 20s wasn't like so spectacular. Yeah, fair, fair. Right. Valid, I'd be out, you know, ripping it up in the beer leagues right now. No one has said.

You should have seen him when he was younger. No one has said that. No. You know, I have fallen off. and I didn't have much to fall off from. Short cliff. Yeah, no, I get it.

Right. But man, the knowledge and experience of your 40s and your 20s, I would be stuck in this dead in industry. That's for sure. If I could see and know what I know now. I was really reactionary in my 20s. And I don't mean like flying off the handle, but I always believed that everything needed an immediate response.

Everything. Oh, God. Emails, phone calls, texts. Isn't that the one, oh, okay, that's, that, that's what you mean. No, no, no, that was part of it, but everything. Like, basically, if something happened, it's like I didn't have the patience or the wherewithal to sit and let it marinate for anything more than like a minute, like something had, everything had to be instantaneous.

You were sunny Corleone who just like had to talk up every time and then. Just had to, right? Yeah, yeah. If there was a conversation going on, you had to put in your opinion. and there was an argument going online, you knew I was in there, right? Like everything. Man, that's such a good point.

If there's one lesson that I sometimes still need to learn that I didn't know in my 20s and I just thought about it differently was choose your battles. And I think of my 20s, if someone said that to me, I'd be like, oh, you're just scared of confrontation or you don't have any principles.

I stand up for, you know, anytime I hear something that I disagree with, I will speak up. And you're just like, yeah, you sound like an obnoxious 25-year-old. Some people are we fighting with. No. Learn that very quickly. And it just takes a toll.

Yeah. You know? And you got to get along with people. Relationships are important. Or you just go. You're not as important as relationships are. That's true. You can also just ignore them.

That's a good way to do it too. Let's do one more before we go to break. I don't. I like this one. Yeah. Matt, not on the island. And this is related to a couple stories that we've seen in the news in the last couple of years and one big one recently.

All right. If people could make bets on the show, how much would it take for you to perform poorly to shave radio points? So how much would it cost for us to throw a radio show? So what would that look like? Would it be, I mean, we already screw up reeds and that sort of thing. We screw up, but it would be intentional, terrible takes, I think it would be. But we'd also be elite at showshed. as we call it because no one would know.

These guys are the best show shavers out there. I don't like it when you say the show shavers. Shaving part. I like it. Um, we could make it look like a regular tank show, not intentional. No, no. No, no. You know what you do though.

What? You just go completely opposite to what you'd been before. Like we've been pretty critical of the Canucks. What if we just did a show where we made all the excuses in the books for the Canucks? How much money would that cost for us to do that? To just throw out things that like we totally, totally don't believe in. Or do things like, you know, like high horse. Yeah.

You know, like, so remember the kids, the mites fighting? Yep. If we would have, like you, you get up there and you say, that was disgusting. Outrageous. disgusting. Everyone who was involved from that should be banned from hockey. Just do something like that?

Like how much would I have to pay you for you to be on your high horse for three hours of a show? Probably not that much. 20 bucks? I'm on a take. All right. Yeah, so this story, by the way,

that he's referencing here, The most recent one is this college basketball betting scandal that also has links to the Chinese basketball association. Can I just as a piece of advice, without getting on my high horse with a piece of advice is that if you're ever going to. How dare these athletes. If you're ever going to engage in a betting scandal like this, maybe don't put $148,000 down on a Shanghai Sharks game. That's going to draw some attention. You know, like, there's certain elements of the game that you have to play, and you have to be a little bit more understated.

I like how you preface by saying the next time you're involved in a betting scandal, make sure you do the following. If you're going to have a huge betting scandal. Keep a low profile, man. Right, like the amount of bets that these guys were putting on, it's like, I like Kennesaw State tonight, to the point where I put 200 ground down. You have to make it smaller.

Someone at the casinos is going to notice that. That's right. They have these things where they flag certain weird bets. Who is the guy that, who's the basketball play? Jonte Porter? Yeah, it's like, there seems to be a lot of action coming in on jaunte Porter props. It's like these guys think nobody's watching.

Spoiler alert, they're all watching. The bets just go into the ether. Yeah. You know, like into the abyss and no one sees it. Let it be a lesson. There's billions of dollars coming in on all these props. No, there aren't. And then the game of the companies...

How could they possibly trace me? The game of the companies are like, oh, I guess we're just out a bunch of money. Oh, well, won't look into that. Yeah. The gambling companies are like, well, fair enough. That was a good batch. And this guy keeps nailing Jonte Porter props. This guy is good.

Tipped your cap. Yep, just Mr. Sportsbook. Good job out there, gamblers. Do you think that Biff and Back to the future would have been called out by the gambling community once, like, after like, five or six bets went his way? That's a good question. I always think about that whenever I watched that movie, obviously they never touch on it because who cares?

You'll be banned from every gambling platform. But when you think one of the gambling platforms mentioned, this guy might be cheating. Yeah. If banned is the same word as killed. Yeah. Like he literally got every bet right his entire life. You'd think eventually a company would be like, something's going on here.

Okay, chew on that at the break. On the other side, it's the final hour of the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Rick Dollywell is going to join the program. And then we're going to do more ask us anything. It's in a reminder. The best ask us anything today submitted by the listeners gets a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway.

Hashtag at AUA. Put a pizza emoji into your text. The Dunbar number text line is 6. 5,650. You're listening to the Halford-imbrough show on SportsNet 650.