Halford & Brough in the Morning - The NHL Draft Combine, Also Known As Tamper Town

Episode Date: June 10, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss all the latest wild news around the Dallas Stars with DLLS_Sports' Owen Newkirk (2:05), plus the boys discuss NHL trade rumours following the draft combine with The Athletic's James Mirtle (27:37). 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.

Music Seven o'clock on a Tuesday! Forgot it was Big Band Tuesday. Quickly reminded it was Big Band Tuesday. You're listening to the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650 you complaining about Big Band Tuesday no I just forgot I don't know why well because there was no our one Big Band music right we had the intro song then we had the ESPN and what better way to bring in Owen Newkirk there was some swinging tunes from the 20s? You are listening to the Halifred and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650

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We are now in hour two of the program. As mentioned, Owen Newkirk is going to join us from Dallas here in a minute. A little stars talk to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominock at jason.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 him online at Jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec footwear and orthotist working together with you in step.

Our next guest comes courtesy the Power West Industries hotline, Owen Newkirk here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning Owen. How are you? Man guys you are alive this morning between the big band Intro and I don't know what you have going on I think you skipped the mimosas and you went right to the scotch at 7 in the morning lack of sleep a lot of coffee And a little nip in the coffee. It's been a good morning so far. There was the summer. Yeah Okay, so the last time that we spoke with you it was ahead of game four of the Western Conference finals

So the Dallas Stars were still playing hockey Peter DeBoer was still the head coach of the team and Jason Robertson was not embroiled in seemingly every hockey rumor on the internet Oh, that's changed. What have the last couple weeks been like in Dallas, Owen? Oh, you know, really nothing going on. I don't know how we've had managed to fill time on our show on a daily basis, right? Yeah, it's been to say dramatic is probably an understatement because of obviously the coach firing last Friday. I think and of course the end of the season. Let's not forget that since last we spoke, we had a game four and a game five and that was it. And you know, this, this whole, I would say two week period has kind of gotten

to the point where we've had some bad takes and even on our show because Jim Neal has never fired a head coach with a term left on his contract for hockey related reasons. Now I have to add that qualifier because he did terminate Jim Montgomery's deal back in 2019 but that was for stuff that happened off the ice. It wasn't a hockey related thing the stars were playing well obviously Monty has done really well since then to get things straight and and has done very well in Boston and now St. Louis. Interesting point if you guys are curious about

that because when Jim was talking, Jim Nill now there's a lot of Jim's in this equation, when Jim Nill was talking on Friday when he did his press conference announcing the Pete DeBoer firing, and then he spoke again on the Starz flagship radio station yesterday afternoon, the ticket in Dallas, he kept mentioning Jim Montgomery. And it dawned on me on Friday, and again, kind of thought about it this morning, and we talked about it on the show yesterday, Jim Neill is not petulant because that's a negative connotation, but he is determined that the Jim Montgomery hiring back in 2019 was the right one. And he probably was right. It was, sorry, I said 2019,

it was 1819 was his first year in Dallas. And, and the frustrating thing I think for Jim Nill was is that he felt he had to fire Montgomery when he did because of whatever happened when nobody really knows. And Nill, to his credit, said he's, for the sake of Monte's family and his young kids, he was never gonna divulge any of that. Fine.

But he's still, to this day, I think very much like I got it right. That guy's a great coach and he should still be the Dallas Stars head coach. All due respect to Pete DeBoer, who's a phenomenal coach. But I think there's some frustration in Neil saying, I went through this, I found the next guy, right? Neil mentioned on Friday, he's looking for the next Scottie Bowman, the next Pete DeBoer, the next up and coming coach that could be the guy that everyone talks about for the next 15 to 20 years as an NHL head coach. And he rightly found a guy very capable in Jim Montgomery and for circumstances unbeknownst to him and out of his control, that had to end prematurely.

So I think that there's some underlying frustration there knowing he he unearthed the guy he was looking for. And well, he says that everybody he's looking at is on the table, right? New old, whether it's a retread or somebody out of the weeds, he's willing to consider all parties. But I think he wants to find that next year Montgomery. Okay, so I need to backtrack a little bit here to the final days of Pete DeBoer's employment in Dallas. So there was the game five, the very, very shocking removal of Jay Gottentger after the two nothing goal. Then there was the post game media availability.

Then there were the exit interviews. And then based on what I've heard, and we just had Greg Wyshinski on the show and he kind of corroborated what he's heard as well, that there was a bunch of things either said or done in those sort of three separate moments that really turned from, well, Peter DeBora is our coach too. Well, we can't bring him back as our head coach. Given how close you are to the team and everything you've heard, did you hear the same about the final days

of DeBoer's employment? Yeah, and that's why I brought up the comments I made before was because I knew I had a point somewhere, I just meandered off into the Jim Montgomery world, but the point was that we were adamant, right? And this sounds like a very frosty take now, but we were adamant that Pete DeBoer was going to be the star's head coach this coming year in 25-26 for the exact reason why we talked about, which is, Neil has never fired a coach with contract term left. Lindy Ruff had his four-year deal end. He was a

lame duck coach after winning the division in the conference in 2016. Looks great. And then they had a really bad injury year. I think Lindy was frustrated because he didn't get an extension with a year left when the team was number one in the West and thought that he deserved it. So that kind of petered out that Ken Hitchcock made his triumphant return. It looked really good until February, March when they went through an epic collapse and missed the playoffs entirely. That's when Montgomery was hired, et cetera, et cetera. Rick Bonus came and filled in because he was the assistant coach, but then got elevated. He was there until his contract ended. You

know, Nils never done that. So this is a bit of a departure from what he's always done, which is to send a guy off. Now, why did it happen? Right. It's because there were more than one thing. But I believe that let's say all the things you guys just laid out didn't occur. The stars lose game five, Jake Otter gets pulled, but there's no miscommunication on the bench. There's no post-game comments about he can't beat Edmonton over two seasons in the playoffs. There's no doubling down in the end of season media availability. Let's say all of those things didn't happen. I still think there's a chance that Tom Gellardi and Jim Neal sit down, have their conversations and say, we need to

go another way. And one of the comments Neal made on Friday that really stood out to me was he and Pete DeBoer were chatting post Four Nations and DeBoer told Neal that this was really a grind. They were missing Miro Haysken and Tyler Sagan to long-term injuries. They had other minor injury issues, which of course lots of teams have, and the schedules condensed even more so for Dallas than most teams because they had the global series in Finland at the beginning of November and they spent a week there. So in addition to everybody else being condensed for the four nations, the stars had an extra week of of jaunting around Helsinki and north of that and that really felt

like the grind was there. And this was the comment that Neil said that I absolutely underlined in my head immediately. He said, D'Bour told him that he was pushing every button. And that was a clue of when you're pushing every button in your third year, it means that you're running out of buttons to press. And it's not that Pete D'Bor is a bad coach. He's a fantastic coach, but he is a pretty stubborn coach. He is very calm for the most part until you saw in game five on the bench he kind of lost his composure which is something we've rarely ever seen from DeBoer as the Dallas Stars head coach. Then you factor in so I think there was

there were questions already there built up over three seasons even though they've been really successful more points and point percentage over three years than any other team in the NHL in the regular season, lots of playoff success up until the third round. But you have the combination of running into Edmonton and looking worse than you did the previous year against Edmonton when you feel you have a better roster, but you certainly didn't perform that way. And then you go and you single out your franchise goalie who's at about to start an eight-year extension and it wasn't just on Jake Ottinger. In fact, the reason why the stars made it past Colorado and Winnipeg

were large parts because of Jake Ottinger and you can sprinkle in a little Miko Rantzen in there too. On the other side you go, lots of other parts have blame in this failure to get past the Oilers. And to single out Otenger, it sounds from what I've been hearing that there was a lot of discontent from the players. And I'm sure, guys, that it was boiling up more than just that. That that might have been the final straw, but it wasn't the sole factor. Pete DeMore didn't get fired because he pulled Jake Ottinger and then blamed him in the media. But it definitely maybe helped sway the final

decision. Have you heard how Ottinger was in the aftermath of that? Because it was a pretty, it was pretty wild. It was bold and a bit unprecedented. I don't really remember a coach ever doing that the way that it happened. And then like you said, doubling and even tripling down afterwards in his criticisms of Ottinger? Well I only know what I've seen publicly and that is Jake has been a consummate professional. He came out and spoke after Pete DeBoer. He was the first player of our end of season media availability a week ago saturday so it was the saturday before nil announced that he

fired the board and he did exactly what you would expect a guy that is you know we call him minnesota nice because a he's from minnesota and he's extremely nice jake ottinger is i don't know

how many goalies are as comfortable as he is talking. He was front and center game five in Dallas in the morning skate. He talks every day game seven against the Colorado Avalanche. He's available smiling, chatting, having, you know, general merriment. He's just that guy. So I would I'm not going to speak for Jake Otter as to how he was behind the scenes. I would only speculate from my standpoint that as any proud professional athlete, I

think you'd be very disappointed to not, to see your coach not have your back a little bit, especially when you're a huge reason why you got to that third round. He, public facing, Jake said all the right things. He talked about how he can get better and grow. He said that his relationship with Pete was fine, didn't create any talking points whatsoever. But from a human being standpoint, I can't imagine that that all sat well with him. But I actually wonder if it sat worse with some of the other players Because they see the guy that they go to war in front of take all the heat and go wait a minute This is on all of us not on on on Otterger. You can't just do that. I think that really ruffled feathers It's not just honor. I think the whole the whole group which is the Stars group is a pretty tight one

I know we say that as sort of a cliche, all this is a really tight group. It is, and they spent time bonding over in Finland and they did a lot of stuff throughout this year and the last three years as they built up to this. And so when one of their guys, who they think is probably one of their more important key players, gets singled out,

I think the rest of the team took offense. You're listening to the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Jason's trying to utilize his microphone and it's not working, but he wants to know about Jason Robertson. It is, and I mentioned this earlier in the call, seemingly every time you type in anything

regarding Dallas Stars rumors or what the future might have. And so Jason Robertson's name popped up tied to a number of teams. I guess the first question would be why and to do you see the possibility of Robertson being moved to this off season? Yeah, I think the possibilities there, but it came out of nowhere to me and I thought it was kind of surprising when that first popped up, partly because

Jason Robertson has been nothing but a top 15 scorer in the NHL since he's been a regular three years ago. And he's a guy that, or four years ago, excuse me. And he's got one more year left. He's an RFA after that. Dallas still has control. They're under no pretenses that they have to move him at all. I think where this rumor started is the idea that you brought in Miko Rant and then signed

him to a huge contract and now your cap space is tighter than it would have been. Yeah, the cap's going up the next three years, but not as much as Dallas probably would like this year. And so if you had to quote unquote trim the fat, and that's the wrong expression. It was more of if you have to make hard decisions to open up some other possibilities in your roster, you know, that's a guy that would certainly bring in a lot of return.

But then you go, wait a minute, why would you not bet against your talent? This is one of the guys that scores goals and you guys know how hard it is to score goals. I mean, heck, Jason's trying to use a drive through microphone to talk on the radio. That's hard. So. It's very difficult. It works nowthrough microphone to talk on the radio. That's hard. So-

It's very difficult. It works now though. Oh, look at that. It's much better than the Makeda doughnuts. I'm just sitting there going, why would you, again, my first question would be, okay, if you actually want to entertain this nonsense, which okay, it's always a possibility because when you don't win the Stanley Cup, GMs have to think, what can I do to make the team better? What are you going to do to make Jason, you know, to make the team better?

And I've seen ridiculous things that say, oh, well, let's go get your first round picks you use to get ranted in or, you know, traded for Cody Cici and Mikhail Granlin at the deadline. Well, if you think you're in a win now vote and the stars are very much in that window, getting some first round picks that will be available three or four years from now is not going to help your window. So that's to me, that's preposterous. So it would have to be a huge player. But again, I just don't think that that makes your team better. And there's this big conversation guys about Dallas stars toughness or apparent lack thereof because there was no major on ice response to when Ropey Hintz got slashed by Darnell Nurse. And then when he missed game three and he

came back in game four and he got cheap shotted by Evan Bouchard and nobody did anything. The push from management, Jim Nel has said this, he said it on Friday, he was asked again yesterday, he doubled down and said, you know, when he was in Detroit, they were winning a lot of games. And when they weren't winning Stanley Cups, people were questioning if Detroit was tough enough until they got over the hump and won a couple Stanley Cups in back to back years. And so I just think that one of the things about being a really skilled team and Gullardi said this a week ago Friday, the week before De Boer was fired, when he kind of tossed cold water on the work firing feet, De Boer, was we've evolved our team from a tough,

hard to play against defensive team, aka boring, although effective, to a more skilled team, aka a lot more fun, is instead of clawing and scratching just to get into a playoff spot, Dallas has been pretty comfortably fighting for a division. And that's a much better place to live all year because you get toward the trade deadline. That's not a question of, should we make a move if we get to the playoffs?

You're probably gonna make it. How do you bolster to win a cup? So I think it's more about how this group evolves and gets over the hump rather than saying, well, we've got to break it all down. We've got to bring in a bunch of knuckle-draggers and we've got to punch our way to a Stanley Cup because there's no guarantee that's going to be. But as far as going to the Robertson talk, I'm not saying it's not going to happen. I just think it's, I think it's a really bad decision because he's, he's very well liked. He works hard. As you guys saw,

he scored goals in the last couple of games. He was coming off an injury for game 82 and he had one deflected off the heel of his stick. That was his first one of the playoffs. Then he scored in game four, then he scored two in game five, and you're going, this is Jason Roberson. There were plenty of other people that had trouble with their offense, and I wonder if they might look at some other changes,

but personally, I think it would be a mistake to trade him. Oh, and we got about 60 seconds left here, so I'll ask it real quick. It's a big question, but hopefully we can get it done quickly. Right now, if you had to guess, who's gonna be the next head coach of the Dallas Stars? Oh my gosh, that's like the worst way

to set up a guy with 60 seconds, because I could give you about 60 minutes. There's a lot of names. One close to you guys, I heard yesterday, and I really think this is intriguing, is the Abbotsford head coach, Manny Mjulce came up. I think that's really, I know he's about to leave Abbotsford to the Calder Cup final cause they just knocked Texas out, but that's kind of the ilk. I wouldn't be surprised that.

I wouldn't be surprised if Jim Neal took a huge swing at David Carl in Denver, maybe try to convince him to come out of a very good cushy situation for him as a coach. There's a guy in Milwaukee, Carl Taylor, was an AHL assistant in Texas for the Stars AHL affiliate a number of years ago. I think Carl Taylor is a phenomenal up and coming coach. I like him. I know that Steve Ott has been brought up as a former Dallas Star. Neil Graham, the Texas Stars AHL head coach, has been in the as a former Dallas star. Neil Graham, the Texas star as AHL head coach, has been in the organization a long time. I'm gonna waffle on this one guys, cause I just don't know.

I could argue that it should be Peter Labulette or John Tortorella. It should be, you know, Jay Woodcroft. It should be Glenn Gullitzen or the guys I named previously. How's that for a not answer? There were a lot of answers in that not answer. So you did very well. Oh, and this was great as always. Thanks a lot for taking the time to do this today We really appreciate it since there's so much to still be figured out in Dallas. I'm sure we'll be doing this again soon

Well fellas anytime especially on Big Band Tuesday. I'm a big fan now. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. That's Owen Newkirk Dallas stars D LLS podcast and pre and post game host here on the hell for the rough show on sports net 650 lots There is there a world where the stars? Make mal holter that coach sure and the stars make the playoffs and the Canucks miss I don't know if I just knows his audience and he just Unfold in front of our eyes this next coming season. Like, I mean, I'm not saying the connection to miss the playoffs next year, but it's possible.

And the Stars obviously probably making it, like it's unlikely they would miss next year. If Malholtz is the coach, what are the optics there? I guess it's possible until we find out what happens. If I was Neil Graham though, I don't know anything about this guy, but I heard Elliot Fried Freeman talking on 590 about him and they're like, the Stars are going to lose this guy if they don't give him a promotion. It would be tough to be Neil Graham and go out to Manny Malhotra in the Calder Cup playoffs and then lose the head coaching job in Dallas to him. He'd be

like, I think I'm done with this organization. Thank you very much. Right. I get the optics of that for Neil Graham and the Dallas organization, quite frankly, would be tough. Like, well, you did lose that Calder Cup semifinal, Neil. I'll say that we'd bring in the guy that beat you. Right. I'll say this. I'm going to make sense. I brought this up yesterday and I'll reiterate it. There's probably not a coaching candidate around right now

that's got more intrigue and upside than Manny Malhotra. And part of it has to do with hot, hot, hot. Yeah. And part of it has to do with the fact that he hasn't been burned at the NHL level yet. There is that unknown factor that works in your favor. He was not a retread. It's you know what you're getting with and the guys that he mentioned there, Peter La Villette, John Tortorella, Glenn Gullitzen, Jay Woodcroft.

They've all had at least one tour of duty in the NHL. When you talk about maybe breaking slightly outside of the mold and getting someone in that's not part of the recycling program, it's hard not to look at Melhotra and the resume right now between nearly a thousand games played as a player, the direct jump to coaching. He's been behind two NHL benches. And the important thing to note about this Calder Cup run is that he's not leaning on a bunch of 30 year old age old journeymen to get them there.

Right. He's working with young players, guys that will have a future with the Vancouver Canucks. And that speaks to his ability to not just connect with young players, but teach them and the NHL more and more because there's so many young guys breaking in. It is a bit of a teaching league. Now, does that fit Dallas? At first blush, I'd say no.

That feels like a team that is. Yeah, they need someone to help them get over the hump. And maybe that's why they go in a different direction there, but. Again. It was interesting though, Owen said that, you know, they'd like what they're doing there, but maybe they just want a different voice, which is

translation for the stars didn't like Pete DeBoer. They hated DeBoer. They were tired of him. They were tired of him. So which, which kind of brings me back to Neil Graham. And I never thought I'd talk about, I never heard of this guy until three days ago. Can you imagine if they're like, we want to keep doing the same things. We just want a fresh voice, but not you guy in the actual organization.

Yeah. To me, it would just, that's, to me, if I were going to pick guy, probably going to go with the AHL head coach. I would agree. But maybe, you know, it's like, well, man, he did beat you, Neil. The only reason, and I know we're up against it

for time, but when he, what he said earlier where he thought he had found his coach in gym Montgomery, not just for that year, but like the future, like he was going to be our head coach here for a long time. If you truly believe that Malhotra is the next sort of big thing in coaching, the guy that's ready to make the leap, the next Spencer Carberry, if you will,

I mean, look at the year he had, right? Yeah. Then you go out and you make the move and you don't worry about the optics, but I'm kind of with you on this, kind of feels like an AHL promotion guy. Before we go to break, did you want to get in something there?

No, I just wanted to say that James Myrtle is going to join us next and talk about all the gossip at the scouting combine, which Jim Rutherford and Patrick Alvina, I guess we're in a part of because they didn't go. Right. So we'll talk to Myrtle. He's got a piece up at the athletic right now.

I forgot about that. The scouts come back. There's this kid we could take 15th overall. I'm going to stop you right there. I forgot about that. The scouts come back, there's this kid we could take 15th overall. I'm gonna stop you right there. You know what, we're good. Before we go to break and talk to Myrtle on the other side, I do need to tell you about Jan Pro. From showrooms to stock rooms

and everything in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disinfected for a free quote. Visit JanPro.ca. What was the buzz from the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo as it pertains to a busy off season across the NHL with free agents and trades? James Myrtle is going to tell us next. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Mick Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets. Weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts.

I heard that the Mammoth are discussing some stuff and some stuff that might not necessarily be considered small. I think Utah is in the middle of a lot of things. Low-key, I heard another team, Seattle. I think Seattle is really eager to take a step this year. Seattle! Ha ha ha ha! Stop it, you're killing me! Ha ha ha!

Seattle! Ha ha ha! Chelsea! Ha ha ha! 732 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody Halford, bro sports net 650. That was Elliot Friedman from the latest 32 thoughts podcast followed by Homer Simpson. No, that was also Elliot. When he started that clip and he said the mammoth are off to big things. I was like, what league is he talking about? I totally forgot that Utah is now the mammoth

Totally forgot. Yeah, they'll always be the hockey club to me a Hockey club guy till I die it. Oh, what's a mammoth again a retired elephant, right? Okay. Yeah It never gets old got his gold watch. Yeah, so ready to call it a day. Yep Okay, Myrtle is patiently waiting on hold here. Let's get through some business. You are listening to the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Haliford and Bruff the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program.

Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominock at jason.mortgage. 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 power West industries hotline. We go. Our next guest is the senior NHL writer for the athletic James Myrtle here on the Haliford and Bref show on sports net six 50. Good morning, James. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. So does that mean Seattle is like a punch line out there?

You just play home or laughing at them? Anytime they try and do something? Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. We make fun of them a lot cause they're so boring. They haven't done anything interesting. What's the most interesting thing about the Kraken?

That they screwed up the expansion draft and now they don't know what to do. It's there, you know, I think that they're gonna, they're gonna have a hard time keeping fans, I think, here pretty soon. I've said that a few times and then I get in trouble. But I don't know. I know Seattle is a sports town pretty well and I

know hockey's not at the top of the list there. And if they kind of, if no one finds anything interesting about them, we'll see about the future. I know you were just in Buffalo at the Combine and I really enjoyed your piece in the athletic. It was, it was gossipy. I love the hockey gossip. Let's start with Buffalo because from what you wrote about the Sabres, it sounds

like a lot of guys want out of Buffalo. Yeah. And I mean, I not a huge surprise, but it's, it sounds like they've got a bit of an uprising on their hands that Kevin Adams, the GM there is going to have to try and find a way to, to quell and get people on board. I mean, when you miss the playoffs 14 years in a row and you're in Buffalo and you have players that

are coming up as free agents that have options, it's going to be a problem for them. And you know I had some executives that I talked to with other teams that said you know what, Buffalo's got a lot of talent there and they had the youngest team in the league last year, they finished with, what they have like 85 points or something like that, 80 points, they're not that far away, they're not like in last place or something like that. And they've got some good pieces coming. Owen power, obviously one of them on the back end, they need to be patient.

The problem with that approach is if you have players like Alex Tuck, who can be a UFA in a year, who doesn't want to be there, he can't really afford to be patient. You know, and there's been a lot of talk about JJ Paterka, one of their best young forwards, potentially wanting out or looking at an offer sheet. Uh, Bow and Byrom is frustrated because he's been playing on a third pair because they have three really good lefty and then not very good righty.

So I could see a trade happening there. And, um, yeah, I mean, the Sabres got to be really careful because they could end up spending a lot of, a lot more time in the wilderness if they screw this up. I guess the issue with offer sheets is that if Paterka were to sign one, then the Sabres could just be like, okay, we're going to match and you're here.

Yes, yeah, that'll be the debate, but they could try and build some sort of poison pill offer sheet that's like a one year deal at a huge number. Like we've seen that a couple of times before, you know, like what if he signs a one year offer sheet for 9 million or something like that. And then all of a sudden his qualifying offer the next year is this huge number.

And you know, there are ways that you can make it difficult on the team if you don't want to be there. I imagine you asked a lot about Mitch Marner and who might be among the highest bidders for him and who might be the most likely to land Mitch Marner. What did you come up with? Yeah, it's funny in the piece I talk about the nine most intriguing teams around the league. And I had some people complain on social media in the comments that, oh, well, you know, most of the nine teams you talked about Mitch Marner,

it's like, well, it's kind of a, it's a pretty big story right now. You know, it's not a very good free agent class. And then there's one of like the 10 best players in the league that's going to be UFA, which, you know, there hasn't been a free agent of Marner's caliber since Panarin in 2019 was the last time. So it's been a long time. It's been six years. And, um, you know, you hear different

things yet. Like some people were telling me that there could be teams that are, you know, not contending teams that are, have been struggling for a long time, that really feel like they need another piece to put them over the top, that those teams could be offering 15 plus million dollars. And one of the teams that I was told that about was Anaheim. There's another team that's missed the playoffs so many years in a row. I think they're at seven or eight now. And they've got a lot of young kids there,

but they don't really have, they took a step forward last year, but they're still a ways away from playoff contention. So you might get teams like Anaheim, San Jose, Chicago, just throwing in a huge offer. Because with the way the cap's going up every year, it doesn't really matter what the cap hit is for them in year one.

It matters to them what it looks like two or three years from now. You know, if the cap's 120 million three years from now, all of a sudden the $15 million contract probably looks okay. You know, assuming you're, you're getting one of the best players in the league.

And the other thing too, talking to people about Mitch Warner around the league, a lot of the executives I talked to don't seem that worried about the kind of the playoff performance piece of it, because most people seem to believe that if you get him out of Toronto, it's going to remove the whatever's going on there, the bad mojo or whatever you want to call it, Toronto, it's going to remove the, whatever's going on there, the bad mojo or whatever you want to call it, and

that he's going to perform better. So there's going to be a lot of teams interested. You know, I think at least half the league's going to be in on the bidding for Mitch Marner. And I would be shocked if he comes back to Toronto. Have you heard anything about what Marner wants in a destination? Like what's most important to him?

He, he ideally would want to be with a contending team where he plays a prominent role, obviously, and to not be in the spotlight to the same extent. So, I went through the list of all 32 teams and talked to people with a bunch of those teams and you know, and that's why there's no, you know, he's not going to go to Vancouver or Montreal or somewhere like that, you know, and the teams that as far as I could tell were at the top of his list are going to be Vegas, Tampa, Florida, maybe to a lesser extent, you know, like an LA. I think I could potentially see Carolina being a factor because they've got so much cap space, maybe not as sexy of a market to go live in,

but certainly a contending team where he would, he would help them take another step. We're speaking to James Myrtle from the Athletic here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. I did want to ask about Anaheim, one of the rare people who actually cares about Anaheim because I do think it's an interesting off season for them. Like they made a pretty pivotal coaching hire with Quenville

and I actually found that the remarks from the owner, Henry Samueli in the aftermath were more interesting than the Quenville hire because he kind of said like enough's enough of us being on the outside of the playoff picture looking in and we're ready to take that step. And I always get intrigued when an owner or general manager says that they're ready to take a next step because usually it means they're going to do something big and potentially foolish, but big anyway. And I know that Pat Verbeek has been kind of waiting patiently to do something as well as the general manager

What do you think about what did you hear from the combine about what the Ducks might do? Well, I mean Marner was the number one thing that people were saying but what they're gonna do is they're gonna spend more aggressively Than they have in the past and you're right Like I look at this free agent class as kind of I I think it's going to be like a big game of musical chairs, except there's going to be like 20 teams that want to do something big and there's only five chairs. So if you don't get Marner or Ehlers or it, the

class thins out really fast. So if you're Anaheim and you miss on the top, let's say four free agents, do you take your 15, $20 million and spend it on, you know, that second and third tier? You know, are you gonna go give $6 million to Pia Suter? You know, like, because there's gonna be just be a lot of teams

that wanna spend money, that wanna get better, that aren't gonna be able to. So the debate for them is do you just sit with the cap space or do you spend it on what is available? And the thing that I heard in Buffalo talking to other teams, I didn't, I didn't see Pat Verbeek there. I don't know if he was there.

Maybe he was, but I didn't run into him. But people were talking a lot about them and just saying they thought that Verbeek was under a lot of pressure to make something happen and to make the team take the next step. And that's a market where you miss the playoffs that many times, you know, talk about attendance issues in Seattle, you run into attendance problems and you know, the ducks have an older

arena and they're kind of in a suburb. And. Well, they're putting billions of dollars into it and there's got a big development there. So I don't know if you heard about that, but they're doing a big reno of the arena and it's's got a big development there. So I don't know if you heard about that, but they're doing a big reno of the arena. Yes. And it's part of a larger development.

The last time I was there, yeah, it doesn't surprise me. The last time I was there, it looked pretty tired. Yeah. And Reno run down and on the side of a freeway. And so I think they need that, but they're going to need a contending team or at least a competitive team to help generate more interest and success for a project like that.

Um, we talked about this earlier in the show and I read it in your piece and it kind of makes some sense. Brad Marshon to Toronto. Do you think it could happen? Yeah, I think it could happen. And I actually, you know, I've obviously, I've looked really closely at the leaf situation and what

they should do and they're in a really tough spot, you know, and they, I actually think it, it sounds bizarre, but I actually think Marshawn probably makes the most sense for them as something to do. You know, I don't think Sam Bennett's going to come to Toronto. I don't think he's going to leave Florida and he's going to get an incredible number too. But you know, in an ideal world, the Leafs would add another really good center, but I don't think they're going to be able to. And you look at what else is available. And I just think that, you know, watching the way Marshawn's played in these playoffs and watching the way he carries himself off the ice too. You know, when he came through Toronto in the second round, just the, the swagger that he has

and the experience that he has and the way that the younger players on the Panthers and even some of the older players on the Panthers talked about what he's brought to that team. The way that Paul and Reece talked about what he's brought. I just think that the Leafs need to do something bold and it's going to be hard to do

that in free agency. But if you bring in Brad Marchand, the captain of the team that's tormented the franchise for so many years, even if you have to overpay him, which I think you would, I think that's something bold that really changes the culture and changes as, as Brad Tree Living talked about in his end of season press conference, changes the DNA of the team. That's one of the few things I look at in a free agency that would really do that for the Leafs. And they've got money to spend with Marner leaving.

So I think that they should be in there with a really high bid. Let's talk about the New York Rangers, because according to your piece, a lot of the execs have looked at the Rangers situation and gone, oof, that's a tough one to deal with. You already mentioned Panarin, he's only got one year left on his deal before

he's an unrestricted free agent. He's 33, Zabanejad 32, JT Miller 32, Chris Kreider 34, Trocek even is 31 years old. What are people saying about the Rangers situation and the fact that a lot of their key players are on the wrong side of 30? People are saying they're in trouble. You know, they had such a bad season and trying

to pivot with that group is going to be tough. Their cap situation is, is tighter than anybody. And they've got some RFAs, Keandre Miller, uh, Will Cooley, um, that other teams are going to be interested in. The blue line's a problem. I mean, you guys saw Susie out your way and, you know, they acquired him at the deadline and are

already trying to get rid of him. Yeah, he had a real tough year in Vancouver and I don't think it got better in New York. No. So it's not often that you see someone acquired with term that comes in, you know, in March and you're already trying to get rid of them. And that's what, you know, one team I talked to is like they're

already trying to trade this guy that they just got. So they're in trouble. I don't think any other team has a cap situation as bad as theirs. I mean they basically have, I think they have like eight million but then they have four RFAs that they need to sign and not a full roster. I know Krider's $6.5 million is something they've been trying to move out for six, seven months and that'll give them some breathing room. Also trying to remake the blue line is going to be a challenge. It just feels like they've got issues all over the place and that big Shisterkin contract, they're going to need him to be amazing.

Otherwise it's just, they're not going to have a chance next year. It's crazy how quickly things change, especially for the New York Rangers. I mean, it wasn't that long ago that they sent out that famous letter to season ticket holders. Like we're going to have to rebuild. And then everyone was throwing bouquets of roses

at them for how well they rebuilt. And they were able to attract guys like Panarin and they got Truba there and Truba's already been shipped out and now you're in a situation. Like what was that, four or five years they went from, all right, we got to rebuild. They did rebuild and now they're like, I think we might have to rebuild again.

Yeah, I don't know if they didn't really rebuild the right way, I think is part of the lesson there, right? It was kind of like trying to shortcut it and I think you can do that and you can make your team a good team, but can you make them a great team that's going to win a championship? And I think the answer is probably no. You know, so. Yeah. Now, now they're just stuck. Like they've got, you know, as you said, older players, a lot of no movement clauses. The thing that could help a team like New York is

with the cap going up, if all of a sudden there's going to be a bunch of teams that can't spend to the cap and we go from having 20, 22 teams spending the cap every year to only having eight or 10, that'll give them an advantage every year. And the other thing is that they don't have a problem attracting free agents. So when there is a better free agent class, you know,

maybe like 20, 26, maybe they can get another star to come in there. But I think for this season, they're in a really tough spot. You know, the thing with the Rangers is like, I know what you're saying, but how different would things be if Kako had panned out or Lafreniere had really panned out? And I know he hasn't been terrible, but I think most

people saw way more upside in that pair of young players than actually delivered. Yeah, no, that's fair. Yeah. But, you know, I just, I don't know, it just, it feels like what happened last year was inevitable because the year before, you know, they had that great record, but it really didn't have a lot of

foundation to it. You know, like it was built on high shooting percentage and getting really fortunate in a lot of games and they kind of doubled down on that and it blew up on them. And we've seen that happen so many times around the league. Uh, James, one more team I want to talk about

and that's the Florida Panthers. Uh, you wrote that no one you spoke to expect Sam Bennett to be available in free agency, which means he's going to resign there according to a lot of people. Um, the one guy that we haven't talked much about is Aaron Echblad. Um, not with you at least.

We spoke with Greg Wyshinski, who was covering, I was covering the Stanley Cup final right now. And he seems to think that Aaron Echblad is gone out of Florida. Um, is that what people that you spoke to were saying, and if he is, where do you think he could end up? So if they signed Bennett, it's probably going to

be eight, eight and a half million. You know, it'll be a haircut from what he would get on the open market. And that creates a really tight cap situation for Florida to the extent that I don't know that you can fit Eggblad in. It would be really tough. You know, he would have to take a big time

hometown discount and he'd have to move out other pieces. So, you know, and it seems like the logic that a lot of people are saying is that, well, you know, he would have to take a big time hometown discount and he'd have to move out other pieces. So, you know, and it seems like the logic that a lot of people are saying is that well, you know, the Panthers came in to this season with a blue line without Seth Jones, right? And the other pieces that they had. So couldn't they go in the next season? You subtract Ekblad, Seth Jones becomes your number one. I mean, he basically is their number one in the playoffs right now. And then you're looking for a defenseman at the deadline again. And I think that there's some logic to that. So Ekplan has said during the finals that he, I mean, he's a

lifelong Panther and that he wants to go back. So there's always a chance and that, you know, maybe they come up with some crazy eight year deal where they get the AAV down or something like that. But in Buffalo, I was getting asked by other teams, hey, what about Ekblad? What do you think's going to happen there? Do you think he's going to be available? There aren't very many defensemen available in free agency. He's one of the few guys you can say is a top pair D that's going to be available. Him and Gavrikov are the two.

So if he does make it to open market, I think there's gonna be some big time offers for him, and there's gonna be teams that wanna add a guy that's played as many minutes as he had and is able to deliver the kind of all around game that he has for Florida for so many years. I've gotta imagine that it's gonna be a robust trade market this summer, just in light of the fact,

every time- I wonder if Marner's rights are gonna be traded just so some team can be like because like you don't want to wait we really want to get Marner oh we didn't get him whoops yeah there I mean it's so thin in free agency I yeah you mentioned this a couple times with other guys as well that if there might even be an uptick in rights getting traded because there's so few guys that are really desirable in free agency the thing with trading rights is you kind of need to have a bit of a be an uptick in rights getting traded because there's so few guys that are really desirable in free agency. The thing with trading rights is you kind of need to have a bit of a partnership with the player and the team.

And it just feels like the relationship with Marner and that camp and the Leafs is not that great. So I don't know if they're going to be able to finesse that and figure that out. And the other thing too, it gets talked about a lot here in Toronto and fans are like, well, they got to trade his rights and get something.

I mean, you're probably only going to get, Carolina got a third round pick for Gensel when they traded him to Tampa. Talked about a lot here in Toronto and fans are like, well, they got to trade his rights and get something. I mean, you're probably only going to get Carolina got a third round pick for Gensel when they traded him to Tampa. So even for Marner, I mean, what are you going to, you, maybe you get a second round pick. Like it's not going to be an earth shattering return. Yeah.

It's not so much the Leafs I'm thinking about. It's the teams that, that want that certainty before you go into the draft. I mean, we've talked about it with the Canucks here. Um, I don't know if they're going to be major players in free agency. I think they're going to do a lot of trading, but you know, let's say they were targeting Marner and

then the draft goes and they don't make maybe some deals that they might've if they didn't know about Marner and then July 1st comes, Marner picks another team and then they're like, uh, well, we're screwed. Yeah. Yeah. Here you go, Brock Besser. Here's, here's 9 million.

I still, I still wonder about that. Like, you know, the circle back things like, oh, we tried to do some stuff. We couldn't. Let's circle back with a guy like Brock Besser. I wonder if that happens. That's where the mistakes are going to happen in free agency.

That like, there's going to be, I think there's going to be some of the worst contracts ever signed in NHL history in this free agent group. But I think you're right too, Mike. I think there's going to be a lot of trades because you do have some teams, especially contending teams that are capped out, they need to move some pieces out.

And part of the circle back for other teams is going to be, okay, we missed out on frequency. We let, let's go try and get a cap dump. Let's try and get a crider or one of these guys that these other teams are trying to get rid of. And maybe there'll be some value there in those players. James, great stuff as always, bud.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. Okay, thanks guys. Thank you, James Myrtle from the athletic senior NHL writer here on the Haliford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. So I asked James right before we did our hit, I texted him, I said, anything on the Canucks? He's like, no, people weren't really talking about them there.

Nope, there was nine teams, it was nine teams, right, that he had identified as the sort of the big, the big buzzy teams at the combine. That's partly why I was asking about Anaheim because we talked about them, I think it was right after the Quinville hire. And I remember thinking very distinctly that

it was interesting that the owner was so like clear and direct about what they wanted to accomplish this summer. Yeah. I always find. There's so many teams that want to do big things, man. And it's just going to make it harder for the

Canucks. Uh, sorry to cut you off, but like, if you read the 32 thoughts. That's the first time. Elliot Friedman talks about Utah, Seattle, and Montreal as apparently the team's most active during the scouting combine. And you know, like there's cap space out there and there aren't many teams that are thinking, all right, well, we want to take a step back, you know.

That was LA's big point too, was a lot of these teams just have so much cap space. Yeah, they want to be aggressive. You want to do something with it. Yeah. If you're a team like Anaheim that's missed the playoffs and you've essentially promised your fans, like, don't worry, this will be worth it.

All this losing and we're going to try and get some talent in there and don't worry, it'll pay off in the end. Well they saw the pre-agent list, and it's pretty worrying. Yeah! This is the year that they have all the money to spend when there's really nobody on the market.

Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. School's out in summers here. Kick it off with the BC Lions summer camp game Saturday, June 21st at 4 p.m. For details and tickets, visit bclions.com. Speaking of those BC Lions summer camp game Saturday, June 21st at 4pm for details and tickets. Visit bclions.com speaking of those BC Lions, the general manager of the BC Lions, Ryan Rigmaiden is going to join us next. We'll look back at a terrific weekend that was for

the Lions and look ahead to Thursday's game in Winnipeg and what will be the home and season opener for the Bombers and Buck Pierce's return to Winnipeg. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.