Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Quinn Hughes Trade Talk Is Heating Up

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they talk the Whitecaps falling short at the MLS Cup final (3:00), plus they discuss the latest Quinn Hughes trade chatter (28:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Whoa. Wait a minute. Huh? Hold up. What? Oh, okay. Did we just lose a fucking Canucks? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Here's a two-on-one chance for the Canucks. Atu-Ratu, left wing, shoots, he scores! I do believe there was a conversation at least one between the Devils and the Knoxabout, Quinn Hughes. This is my nightmare!

Shaheed, from the goal line, near right-side numbers, up the field, 10, 20, looking for a gap, he's got one, he's off to the races, look out. This could be hit, 50, 40, 30, they're not going to touch him. 10, 5, he looks back. Touchdown! Seahawks! Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford.

It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning to you. Good morning. And Liding, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a debt freedom hat trick. One, no more interest, two much lower payments and three. Financial peace of mind. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling Day recycle you get paid. Visit the Middle 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studio. Now's the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out. Visit kintech.com. It is time now for the Duick Morning Drive. It's our guest list brought to by the Duick Auto Group. We begin at 7 o'clock this morning.

That means the first hour. is all uninterrupted Halbro. Mike Tanier is going to join us at 7, our NFL insider. From the two deep zone, we'll go over everything that happened in a busy Sunday in the National Football League, including another big win for the Seahawks against the Falcons in Atlanta. Mike joins us to talk NFL at 7.7.30, Aisa Raymond is going to join the program, the radio play-by-play voice of your Vancouver Whitecaps.

He and I traveled to Miami this past weekend for the MLS Cup final. While the match ended in disappointment for the caps, There's still a huge reason for optimism for the future, potentially on the stadium front, Jason. We'll talk to Ace about all that at 7.30. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Ingole magazine. It's going to join the program. Canucks are back in action.

Tonight, 7 o'clock, Rogers Arena against the Detroit Red Wings. We'll look back on both games this weekend. And we will discuss the Quinn Hughes trade rumors from this weekend. Kevin's going to join us at 8. Speaking it of 8 o'clock, that's what we're going to be doing today's giveaway. for Halford and Brough's 12 days of Christmas. Listen every day until December 16th for your chance to win a prize. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. 604-280-0-650.

That number again, 604-280650. We won't announce the prize winner or the prize until after it has been awarded. So call in at 8 o'clock this morning to be the latest winner for Halford & Brough's 12 days of Christmas. We got a big show. We got a million things to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance?

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.com. You can see you warming up over there. I'm doing a little stretching. I'm just doing a little stretching. Doing a restretching because I got a bunch of things to get through in the next. I don't know how long this is going to take. But this is one of those shows where it will be impossible to give every big story it's due.

There was way too much that happened this weekend. So I thought I'd list everything I could think of. Oh, I just remembered the Kansas City Chiefs are a disaster. Add that in there. Okay. Just to let the list. know that we're aware of all these things, even if we won't be able to get to all of them today. Okay. Go off, young king. Don't call me that ever, ever again. It's already off to a bad

start, but I'm going to need a little bit of your help here. The Whitecaps played an MLS Cup on Saturday and lost in painful fashion to Lino Messies, Inter Miami. Halford, you were there to experience the heartbreak in person. I was. How was it? It was great. We don't have time to hear about it. Good to hear that it was great.

We have to move on. We will revisit this later. MLS Commissioner Don Garber kept hammering away at the white caps untenable. It's untenable, Halford, stadium situation. And right after he did, Hastings Racecourse announced that horse racing was shutting down on the site where the white caps might build a new stadium. seems relevant. Sure does.

Sticking with soccer, the World Cup draw took place Friday at the Kennedy Center in D.C. Canada will be in a group with Switzerland, Qatar, and maybe Italy. FIFA made up a peace prize to give to Trump, and he seemed to enjoy the medal he got to wear around his neck. Wayne Gretzky represented Canada, the draw, and mispronounced a bunch of country names,

including the very easy country name of Jordan. A tough one. As in Michael Jordan, not Jordan, it's just Jordan. Jordash. And to conclude the festivities, the village people showed up to perform YMCA because why the hell not? Still with soccer, we learned the World Cup schedule on Saturday. The United States got all the cool games because, of course, they did. I've got my eye on England, Croatia, down in Dallas, which could have been played in Toronto before FIFA did the math and went, let's go to Dallas.

The first game at BC Place will be June 13th, and it's the one everyone's been waiting for, Australia, versus either Slovakia, Turkey, Romania, or Kosovo. At least the Aussies travel well and will be fun to party with. Canada will play at least twice in Vancouver versus Qatar and Switzerland. And if they win their group, they'll play at least once more at BC Place, maybe twice more. That's a lot of soccer, Jason.

The Canucks played twice this weekend. they lost to Utah on Friday and they beat Minnesota on Saturday the latter without Elias Pedersen Atiratu had three points against the wild the new 1C Nikita Tolapila Woods brilliant in net the new starting goalie

Tom Vielander scored his first goal in the NHL. It was a really nice shot and Drew O'Connor played center because why the hell not before the game on Saturday Elliot Friedman reported that the Canucks and Devils have had a discussion about Quinn Hughes. Nothing

is imminent. Repeat. Nothing is imminent. But Hughes got asked about the report after the win over Minnesota, and he referred to Tom Fitzgerald, the general manager of the devils, as Fitsy. Seems ominous. I read an entire blog post about Hughes calling him Fitsy. Okay, maybe not the whole post, but I glanced at it. It's possible it was written by AI. Anyway, a bunch of people got mad at drance for even asking Hughes about the report, considering the Canucks had just pulled out of dead last in the league, and there should have been a parade instead of a very fair and relevant question, according to those fans. Sticking with the NHL, the Winnipeg Jets got blown out Saturday in Edmonton, where the

Oilers might be interested inquiring Tristan Jari from Pittsburgh. The Jets have lost seven of their last nine, while the Oilers have won four of their last six, with all four of their wins by at least three goals. Are the Oilers heating up? Hopefully not. Speaking of blowout wins, the Vancouver Golden Eyes blew out New York, 4-0-0 on Saturday in front of almost 10,000 in the Pacific Coliseum. Vancouver sure needed that win after dropping three straight on the road,

Halford, I know you've been monitoring that. Close. Was it weird that the Golden Eyes went ahead with the noon start time, given the white caps were playing at the same time? I thought it was weird. I also thought it was weird. Let's move to the NFL where the Seahawks blew out another bad team. This time, it was a 37-9 win.

over the Falcons in Atlanta. The Hawks improved to 10 and 3 on the season, but the Rams won two, so there was no lead change atop the NFC West. The Seahawks host Indianapolis next. And guess what? What? There was big news about the Colts

because Daniel Jones tore his Achilles and he's done for this season. Former Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard was thrust into action for the cults. And guess what? There was big news about Notre Dame because the Irish got snubbed and won't be part of the college

football playoff. You know who will be part of it though? The James Madison Dukes. The Dukes. Who will face the Oregon Ducks. Ducks. Dukes. The matchup nobody wanted. The Ducks are favored by three touchdowns, which is so dumb it could only be the college football playoff. Tulane made it too. Tulane. The Green Wave. They'll play Ole Miss, which actually beat them by 35 in September. Why the hell is there a rematch between Ole Miss and Tulane because it's the college football playoff, that's why.

Halford, I'm not sure we're going to have much time to discuss your lads from Leeds. But they fought back to draw Liverpool on Saturday. Liverpool have just won win in over a month. But that's a topic for another day. Let's talk about the White Caps game now. Hot down!

That was impressive. Dunbar, Lumber text message in basket piling in with support. Bring that energy. day. I'm going to be hard match to bring that energy, especially since on the subject of the White Caps, they did lose. It was disappointing. The game itself, though, what an experience, what a time. So first, I do have to shout out the White Caps organization for what they were able to pull off. They sent down several different charters ahead of the game, including one that had myself, the single charter. I had a PJ. They had, they sent down alumni from the 79

soccer bowl team. They sent down families. They sent down media. They really wanted to make this an event and a spectacle. And then when I was able to embark on the unforgettable and iconic Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, I realized like we were in the midst of something. There were the big television trucks outside because this was nationally broadcast in the U.S. There was a tailgate going on. There was countless cameras and streeters and people walking up and celebrities there. Beckham was there.

Steve Nash was there. So as you got closer and closer to, and I'll get to the stadium in a sec, so you got got closer and closer to the actual stadium, and then you saw the white cap support. So it was about between 1,500 and 2,000 estimated white cap supporters that traveled down. They were all congregated in the south end of the stadium. I sat in gem pop with the rest of them. They were loud. They were boisterous. They were excited. They were extremely well-oiled. So you got the sense that you were at something significant. You were in a real genuine cup final. And then for the match itself, it's always the belief that kills you.

It's always the belief because despite the fact that the white caps lost that match 3-1, as Thomas Mueller said in the aftermath, it really did feel like they gave it away, that it wasn't necessarily what Miami did. It was the mistakes that the white caps made. And quite honestly, their inability to finish the chances that they had in a final where you saw a Miami team that wasn't gifted a ton of opportunities but took advantage of almost every single one that they had. Then you had a Vancouver team and in large case, you're pointing to one guy. Not to blame, but he was the one, Emmanuel Sabu,

who had a great chance in the first half and another great one at the second, he just couldn't get across the line. And the White Caps' magical season fell short. 3-1. I mean, when you said, not to blame, I was thinking, Kubas. Like, not to blame.

I mean, I'm blaming him. Yeah. I'm blaming him. Like, that's a bad play around anyone. That's a bad play around anyone. I feel awful. I feel awful for saying it. Yeah.

You got to acknowledge it. Yeah. I mean, he played, he played a, he was a, for 90, for 89 of the 90 minutes. He was brilliant. He was everywhere. He was winning tackles. He was dominating the midfield. He was relentless. Everyone was saying Kubas is having the best game out of any white cap. And then, unfortunately, much like what happened in the blowout loss to Cruz Azul, he had the big loud mistake. And it cost him in a major way. I mean, that was a blowout

loss to Cruz Azul. This was a tie game. And the white caps had the momentum. And I think, I don't know what the feeling was in the stadium, but the feeling when I was watching it was, we're going to win. We're going to win this game. We are the better team right now on this pitch. Yeah, Miami got the early goal, but the white

caps turned themselves around nicely. They tied the game on an alley Ahmed goal, and then Ahmed got subbed out and I was like, is that the right move? Didn't love that move. It kind of felt like they were forcing Ryan Gald in there, but whatever.

I mean, the mistake, the mistake, was Kubas just losing control and being careless with the ball around arguably the greatest soccer player that's ever lived and people were like well that's what Messi does he takes advantage of it was like it wasn't a hard play

that one no it wasn't a hard play that it was on a platter for him and yes it was a nice through ball I suppose I mean he showed his he showed his class there there's a lot of soccer players that could have showed some class in that situation I'm still look I put this out on social

Just one second, can I pivot off it? You know when you talked about what the feeling was in the crowd? For me, personally, I didn't think that the match was lost there because I thought, and I'm not making this up in the aftermath and this isn't revisionist history, when Sabby went double post and out and the third one hit the post, everyone else was like, this is great, we're pushing, we're pushing it. To myself, I said, that's it right there. Did you say like triple post usually aren't a very good sign in these playoffs?

I turned, okay, so I brought my kid with me. So I turned to my kid and I looked at him and I was like, do you remember LAFC? And you just stared at me because he didn't want it. And I'm like, sometimes the luck goes for you and sometimes the luck goes against you. Yeah. A couple different people, including a former Halford and Brough producer, Mike Martineau, texted me this thing. And I hate comparing everything to the Vancouver Canucks

and making everything Canucks-centric, but it was very apropos. Two different people, including Martin Ego, texted me, there is your Nathan Lafayette in 94 moment when Sabi double post and then the triple post after he failed to turn in the rebound. And I was like ready to like turn off my phone because I didn't want to acknowledge it.

Because I had that vibe that they were dominating proceedings and they were the better team, especially coming out of the second half. There was a 15-minute window where they were all over Miami. Miami looked old, Miami looked slow, Miami looked tired. We were yelling as loud as we could,

like, do not let up right now. Keep going at them. Ahmed had finally found his legs in the second half, get the ball wide and go. But as soon as Sabi missed, I was wondering if that was going to be it, and that was going to be the decider. Were you surprised, though,

that when Miami went up to 1, that Vancouver was able to generate so little. I'm sure Miami's, well, did their tactics change at all after they went up a goal? Probably, probably, but... You know what it felt like? You know what?

When we talk about the gut punch, the 2-1 goal felt like a gut punch because it was such an unforced error. And it was like, when everything's going your way and you feel like you've got the game in your grasp and then all of a sudden, it's done? I just don't think mentally they were able to recover out.

after that. Okay, we will maybe talk about this game more often, or sorry, not more often, but more in the show. But I think there's a lot of people that are wondering about the future, both on the pitch and off. So let's start with on. Will the caps be able to bring this same team back next season? What do they need to address who might not be back? Okay, so the most obvious and glaring one is in goal where Takayoka is out of contract and there's sort of been 50-50 as to whether they'll bring them back or

not. That's just the biggest sort of cosmetic change because everyone, he played like every game this year. Like everyone, he's very recognizable. He's been there starting netminder for the last two or three years. The three big ones for me though, outside of Takayoka who was an important part of what they did this year though? Ali Ahmed

Sebastian Bearhalter and I'm going to throw it out there. Yesper Sorensen is there are going to be clubs, maybe big European clubs, maybe some really intriguing landing spots across the Atlantic that are going to be calling for those three, I think. And sometimes, especially if you're a manager of Yesper Sorensen's history, you've got to strike when the ironers hot, right? He's, he's been in Denmark. His whole career, he comes over to MLS for one season and delivers in a major, major way. And you know what a lot of clubs will look at is that he went

somewhere where he had no knowledge of the, or minimal knowledge of the league, very little experience, didn't even understand the matchinations, and solve the puzzle right away. And so they're saying like, well, is there some concern about bringing in a guy that maybe doesn't know our domestic league?

And this would answer all those questions. This is in no way, no way saying that he's ready to go. But it would be naive to think that clubs would not be lined up. There was an MLS manager that just got hired to manage Celtic in Scotland. Like, it's not that far afield to think that the guy who really should have won manager of the year,

and in my mind, managed the best club. I know Inter-M Miami won at the end of the day, but I thought the white caps were the best club at MLS this year. Bear Halter and Ahmed, both young, both talented. They have options on their contract so the clubs can pick up the option, but there is a January transfer window. Bear Halter's career has just, you know, shot off like a cannon over the last 10 to 12 months. So too is Ahmed's. Yeah. Like, you saw it stages.

in that game on the weekend where their primary focus of attack was get the bald alley on that out wide and let him cook, let him put guys on skates. Is Ryan Gould going to be back? Yep. Ryan Gould's under contract. He talked after the match. Does he need to get a little hit?

Does he need to have an, I don't know, I know the offseason in MLS is about three days, but it never seemed like he got back to 100%. He said it after the match. In the mix zone in the media, he said, I need to get match fit. I need to get 100%. He was never 100% this year.

Okay, give us some gossip about the stadium situation. That untenable stadium situation, the White Caps, by the way, they actually do not have a lease for next season. No, they don't. For next year. It's December 8th, it's December 8th today. They got 22 days left on their lease. Axel did come on our show and guaranteed that they'll be in place next year.

But I get what you're saying. But I'm just saying. What were they saying? saying down in Miami and did it raise any eyebrows that Vancouver mayor Ken Sim was was down there and enjoying himself. Kenny Good Times. Kenny Good Vives was having a good time. He was in the so the one thing about Chase Stadium is there's a lot of parking lots where you can do like proper American tailgating, which they did before this match and the White Caps found their section. So Kenny Good Times was in the White Capp supporters section in the tailgate and enjoying a few adult

beverages. Anyway, the gossip and the rumblings, that narrative and that storyline was prominent and prevalent right up until kickoff. Right before kickoff at MLS Cup final, Farhand Lulogy from TSN had a stand up with Don Garber, where one of the questions

was about the White Caps future, the stadium situation, etc. Garber, for maybe the first time all week, kind of understood that this was not the time to address this, so he did bypass the question and kind of did like artful dodging around it, he's still acknowledged what he's been saying the whole time

that the current situation is untenable that messaging is not changed what was interesting about this is that when you get to these finals where you get a lot of international media popping in there was a lot of international media for this match we'll talk to Asa about it he said the

broadcast row and press was just jam packed the Guardian had a piece on the story and everything there's a lot of people paying attention because it was Mueller and Messy. I yeah was it Mueller or was it Messi and Beckham like that That was not to me. It seemed like everyone was there for the crowning of Miami.

Yep, for sure. And anyway, that's valid. That's valid. That's another topic is there was a lot of people there. Yes. And a lot of media there, right? When they heard the White Cap story,

you could tell a lot of them we're hearing it for the first time. Because if you're talking about, you know, graby headline stealing narratives, the idea that this team goes on this magical run, it doesn't have a place to play in the future. Yeah, that's a good one. That's manna from heaven for editors and for news. news copy people, right? So that was a big deal. It was a big talking point, right? And there

was a certain element of like, check out this plucky team from Vancouver who defied the odds and had this magical year. Did you get any gossip on whether like this thing is going to happen because Patrick Johnston at the province had a big report on the situation and Patrick has been covering what's been going on at the race course for a while now. And I'm just going to read something from his report. He said the city and the Vancouver white caps are close to a deal that would give the soccer team an exclusive window to assemble a project that included a new stadium at the site

of the Hastings race course. So he's all over this story and there's much more in this report but it seems quite obvious that I tweeted this out before. this report came out, I said, it seems quite obvious that the white caps have their eyes on a big project at the P&E. And then this is going to take, obviously, private investment. There's going to have to be investment on the white cap side, hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment.

But there's also going to have to be political will at both the civic level, maybe the provincial level and there's going to have to be you know planning about transportation if they want to do something out there um the first nations i'm sure are going to be involved so this is a massive undertaking and you know a lot of things have changed in vancouver since they built bc place there used to be a lot of land and it used to be i don't know it seemed easier to get things done Maybe there's just more political will, more civic-mindedness among some of the private business people. I don't know. Maybe there was.

But like, this is something that's going to be very complicated to do. But there is a window right now. There is. So the general scuttlebutt, the vibe, the gossip that was going on in and around Miami when it came to the Whitecaps stadium situation was. that the timing of all this sure didn't seem coincidental. The announcement, so we were on the plane on Friday, and when we all landed, we all got service back on our phones. So the first news that came up was obviously the results of the World Cup drawn.

Then right after, a lot of people like, did you see this news about Hastings race course and that horse racing was effectively done? And that it came as a shock to the, I guess, the stakeholders in the horse racing community, who were unaware that this was going to happen. They've not been reading their phones, apparently. Right. So has everyone started to piece this? together, you got the rumblings of like, I wonder how close this is.

I wonder when an announcement will possibly maybe. I mean, one of the things that Garber said and leading up to MLS Cup was we haven't had a lot of traction on this. We haven't had a lot of developments. We need those developments to start taking place so that this last year, and they hope it would be the last year in BC place, or maybe two years, is we can say, okay, a league that is known for temporary homes, including the one that they played in on the weekend. DC plays with them be a temporary home

with the confirmation that there's a new home coming in Vancouver. That stadium looked like, do you remember, what do they call it, where the Ottawa rough riders used to play? Lansdownfield? Yes. So on the ride from the airport, my Uber driver, I'm like, what's Chase Stadium like? And he's like, oh, you know, it's like a Texas high school football stadium.

And then he paused. And he's like, but not one of the big high schools. And my kid and I started killing ourselves laughing. And then he drove by it. And he was right. It was a mid-sized Texas high school football stadium. The fact a cup final was played there was kind of hilarious in retrospect. Oh, in my rundown a bunch.

I knew this. I actually intentionally did this. I left out F1 because I knew there's going to be people, people, there's a new driver's champion. I was like, okay. Is it Lando Norris? I think so, yeah. We got a long word of guess. Landau Calrissian.

We'll figure it out at the break. I want to talk about the Canucks, the Quinn Hughes situation, the week coming up. for the Canucks, because I don't think the Queen Hughes speculation is going to die down with some of the teams that the Canucks are playing. And if we got some time, I want to talk about the World Cup draw. Yep, I do too. There's a lot of things. Lots to unpack there.

A lot of stuff. Happen over the weekend. I got a medal. Before we go to break, I do need to remind you, it is a Canucks game day, and that means it's brought to you by Panago. Game Day the Panago way, get any large pizza, plus cheesy bread. read for only 2499. Use code Canucks at Panago.com.

And Panago for it, restrictions may apply. You're listening to the Halford Inbred Show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on Sportsnet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.34 on a Monday, everybody, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 6.50. You know, you're a soccer show. and you and your host are furiously debating and analyzing the MLS Cup final during the break, which was what Jason and I were just doing.

Should I say my line? Yes. We were talking about the Kubas turnover, and I said, you know, it's a bad mistake, when it was way worse than the own goal. The early own goal, which I thought was going to set the tone. You know what I thought when they scored that? I liked it. I was like, ooh, that's one of those two early goals.

Miami's going to think it's going to be too easy now. I had the opposite view, oddly enough. I texted someone. I'm getting bad Cruz Azul vibes here. You know what I was getting vibes of, though? The game that went against me is when England scored early in the Euros at Wembley. The Luke Shoggle. And I was like, we're winning in penalties.

Yeah. Close. There's going to be some racism directed toward the Miami players who miss. That, yeah. Not so much. I don't know. Oh, England fans. One more anecdote, because I sat in Gen Pop.

talked about this and we talked about at the lafc match at bc place the 53,000 in attendance the um the plastic cup issue oh no so can confirm that this is an mLS mandate you have to have cans and bottles poured into plastic cups okay but in miami they decided to do it a different way they sold you and handed you the can and or bottle and then pointed towards a table that had approximately 900 million plastic cups on it and like fill it yourself

Really? Yep. Just a table? There's like the pouring table. Just no lids, just cups. On our system? What do you mean? Can you just walk off with your can? Oh, Greg, you're one step ahead of me. So some savvy supporters said, well, what if I just tried to

like mask the can that they've given me put in my pocket? What was the table? well, packed with people? Was it a disaster? Was it chaos? Yes. You kind of had to wait your turn. You kind of could force your way in.

Also, none of the cups fit the amount of beverages that they had, like the size. It was like a 20 ounce cup and a 24 ounce beer, the one that I got anyway. So we're watching this all go down. I'm like, this is a problem. Sure enough, you started seeing people just sliding stuff and not hiding it from security, which was lax. I heard they flew in some Pavko workers to do it. you know I kept waiting for him to pour it

like I was like are you going to pour this can of beer into a cup and they're like no we're like no we're not going to do that I was like all right so anyway it was that stadium I think when we look back on history that's going to go down as maybe one of the saddest stadiums to ever host

a cup final but they're getting a beautiful new stadium's great Freedom Park freedom freedom it's in Miami proper This thing was right next to the Fort Lauderdale Airport. Okay. Anyway, let's see some Canucks. Let's do a little Canucks.

So they played well against Utah and lost. And then they didn't have Elias Pedersen on Saturday against the Wild. And they won. So, you know, hockey. It's weird. I had a hard time getting the game down in Florida, by the way. Oh, really? They weren't just like, they weren't dying to have it on for you.

Quick side note, you know what's irrelevant? In that state right now, the Panthers. Oh, yeah. They're a non-fath. Two-time defending Stanley Cup champions are a non-factor. Yeah, it's December. I know. They're a June thing.

I know. The Canucks hosts Detroit tonight. Buffalo Thursday. Sad Club, brethren, in town on Thursday. And then the Canucks hit the road again, starting Sunday with a game in, Dun, dun, dun, down, New Jersey. I mean, there's been rumors about Detroit as well, so I'm sure there will be some, Speculation.

All of the Quinn Hughes suitors this week. Yeah. Let's play some Elliot Friedman audio. Okay. Because Frege made waves a lot with the Quinn Hughes situation last week. He had some comments about whether or not Detroit and Vancouver could be a dance party. What do they call it? Dance partner.

Dance partner. There is a dance party. There is a dance party going on with Quinn Hugh. right now, a dance partner for the Canucks with the Quinn Hughes trade. And then on Saturday, even though he acknowledged that he stepped into one when he talked about Quinn Hughes in Detroit, on the headlines edition of the Hockey Night and Canada broadcast, he did report that the Canucks and the Devils have had a conversation about Quinn Hughes. Now, I'm going to cut off all the 10.

texts or comments that could come in and it would be like, of course they've had a conversation. Of course. I'm sure the Canucks have had conversations with a lot of teams about Quinn Hughes. Yeah, so you're, so like before, because people are like, there's a lot

of copium going around in the fan base right now because there's still a lot of people that are like, I don't believe he's leaving. This can't possibly happen to us. Mm-hmm. It looks like it's starting to kind of get going

here. This is my nightmare! It looks like, and it might wait until the off season, and who knows maybe there's a Hail Mary that saves this whole thing, but it really does look like this is happening. Partly of the Canucks own doing, they put this

out there. The organization put this out there. Call us on our veteran players. We're not doing well. We're open for business. Now, they didn't specifically say Quing Hughes's name, but it doesn't take the greatest logical leap on the planet to think that if you put a memo

out there that you're looking to make moves, someone might call you and say, what about that captain of yours? And then it doesn't surprise anyone that if a team that employs the two brothers of the captain calls you and says, do you want to have this discussion? I think we should play some audio here like you said. Let's play Friday,

or Saturday's audio first. So the actual report that free chat, just so we can get it out there because we've got some newer audio from the most recent 32 thoughts, which dropped overnight. Do we have the Hughes audio of him calling We got all of it. Okay, all right. Let's start.

Okay, this is Fridge on Saturday. Once Vancouver announced that they were open for business, sent that email around to the league, I do believe there was a conversation at least one between the devils and the Canox about Quinn Hughes. And I stress, I do not believe there is anything imminent. I don't even know that they're anywhere far along. But I do believe that conversation was had about where things stand and where they might be going. Now, also, it should be mentioned with the devils. because of their injury and cap situation,

they're dollar in, dollar out. So if they're bringing in somebody, they're going to have to remove people. And I think that's why there's so much time around the devils. They got a lot going on. So that was Saturday night. And then intrepid Canucks reporter Thomas Drance took that report and turned it around a real quick time

and asked Quinn Hughes about it shortly after their game against the Minnesota Wild. We have the question here as well, if I'm not mistaken. Note just the answer. Whatever the case, it doesn't really matter. here's Quinn Hughes being asked about the Friedman report of conversations between the Canucks and the Devils.

Your name is sort of surfaced and great talks between Knudox and the New Jersey Devils. Obviously that's a big of my fans. I know I'm putting you on this spot, but do you have any sort of reaction to those sorts of rumors? I mean, no, I'm doing what I can. Like you said, I'm on the ice. It wasn't like if there was a call, me, Jim and Fitsy hopped on the call. You know, I wasn't a part of that.

But obviously I'm aware of that, you know, things like that could happen for sure. We won't go too far down the Fitsy Road, I don't think. I mean, that stood out for me. Yeah, we're going down a little bit. Maybe I'm just like a casual, simple fan. I was like, why is he calling the gym Fitsy? Yeah. Seems a little familiar.

Is it because you both your brothers call him Fitsy and you guys talk about it often? Who knows? I don't know. Anyway. I haven't talked my best buddy Fitsy in a while. So to Sunday night, Monday. morning overnight we go and Elliot Friedman adding more context and perhaps some fuel to the fire that is the Quinn Hughes trade situation. I think Elliot's in a very unique spot right now where

he is trying to do his job and to do his best to report everything that he can about the situation because as he points out in the clip, this is a big deal. Copium or no, however you want to deal with it, you're dealing with something because this is, as he mentions, a big deal. Here's Elliot Freeman from the most recent 32 thoughts with a little bit more context on the Quinn Hughes trade situation in Vancouver. There's got to be a Quinn Hughes component to this. And I got to tell you, Kyle, people don't want to talk about it. They really don't.

It's such a hand grenade for obvious reasons. I mean, you saw how careful I was talking about it on Saturday night, but, you know, then Quinn Hughes uses, refers to Tom Fitzgerald as Fitsy in the post game, and people were like, he's a devil, he's calling the GM by his nickname. I mean, so, you know, I mean, we can all see this. Like, it's a big deal, and I think for a lot of people, it's, it's kryptonite. They don't really want to pour gasoline on the fire. But, you know, as I said, once.

the Canucks put the memo out, I think there was a conversation and I don't know who initiated it and I don't know exactly what was said, but I know they talked at least once and I heard it was about, okay, where does everything stand and where are we going? And, you know, I did a podcast interview last week where I talked about Detroit and I do believe that if Vancouver and Detroit wanted to make a deal, I do believe there is a deal to be made there. And I also think they've talked. But I can tell you one team that absolutely does not want to talk about it, and that's Vancouver. Like, they out and out refused.

And I understand because it's, it's their backyard. It's a very, very sensitive thing for them. So all say is this. I think there are talks going on around Hughes. and it's just difficult to handicap how long it's going to take or where it's going to end up. There are a lot of people who like to debate whether or not he wants to play in New Jersey. Like, does he want to go there right now? Is it his preferred destination?

How would it affect his brother, Luke, if Quinn's there on the blue line, be ahead of him? I don't have an answer to this question. but at the very least I think the Canucks and the Devils wanted to try to find out the answer so that's where I think it is I think teams are talking with the Canucks about it and we'll see where it goes

So a lot of texts coming into the Dunbar Lumber text line if you have anything you want to ask or a comment 650 650 is the number Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and Renner Warriors, that's Dunbar Lumber. They've been out of it for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com.

Nate and Richmond takes in, you heard it here first. Hughes to Detroit for Casper, Sandine Pelica, and a first round pick. And I replied to Nate, I'd be okay with that, honestly. I mean, if this is the road they're going to go down,

you would get a good young center in Casper, very good young defenseman in Sandine Pelica and a first round pick I don't know if that's I don't know I don't know if that's possible

but what I do think the Canucks are going to target in this huge trade if it happens is a center yep like what they're going to do I think right now

okay allow me the opportunity to change my mind sure if something else happens okay I think what they're going to do is they're going to target a really good

youngish center and they're going to say okay we made this trade we didn't want to trade Quinn Hughes but we made the trade and now we've got a center group that includes whoever that player is you know the good young center plus Pedersen and Braden Coots and they're going to say that's our future down the middle and there'd be a lot of fans that'd be like I'm on board yeah right and then they're going to say I mean if they could get also a good young defenseman like a Sandine Pelica who probably would be thinking if the Red Wings

acquired Quinn Hughes and they've got cider there as well. Sandine Pelica would probably be like is there a role for me here? There are many organizational roadblocks here now. In this organization and if they were to do that that would be great because they'd have a good young defenseman in the deal as well. But even if they don't get a good young defenseman they'd probably be able to be like well Hormonix is a pretty good player and we've got

two pretty good young defensemen who are playing in the NHL right now and Tom Velander and D.P.D., both of whom scored goals on Saturday. And, you know, maybe Demko gets healthy again because he might

play this week. We can talk to Kevin Woodley about that later. They've got Lankton under contract. Like, I've just seen it happened so many times where there's a move made. You know, the team hits rock bottom. like rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, rebuild. I don't think I've ever seen the rebuild calls quite to this extent, as they are this season.

But with a Quinn Hughes trade, this is my prediction. People will talk themselves into the team again. They will. I mean, I don't think they should do it. I don't think they should do that. And I think they should trade Pedersen. I've been of that opinion for a while. I'll get some disagreement on that.

I think they should. But I don't think they will. and I think they'll try and talk themselves into this retool where they go look you've got this good young center whoever it is that they got in the trade you've got Elias Pedersen and you've got Braden Coots that's a great one two three down the middle for the future yep could you see that happening

honestly no because my biggest concern you couldn't see that happening let me explain why the management group that's being tasked with doing this. My confidence in their ability to pull things off is... Come on, man. They're going to be able to get a good young center for Quinn Hughes. They don't target a good young center. They're going to.

Why would they not? They've been targeting a center for like a year now, at least two years. I could see this... I could absolutely see this group trying to get a more win now ready player or win now ready deal. What is it going to be a center? I, maybe. It would be insane.

With what they've said about, we got to get a center, we got to get a center, we got to get a center. I'm not sure that they view, I'm not sure that they view things the way that you view things. And you view things more pragmatically and logically, whereas I think that they... Okay. Yeah. Okay. I think that they still believe that the reason that they're in the spot that they're in is because things haven't broken their way. And then with a couple changes, they can be right back in that.

But you're proving my point right now. I think they believe that this season went off the rails. when Heidel got hurt. Yeah. I really do. And Dempco getting hurt. Well, but a lot of Heidel. Yes, Dempco.

Yeah. But a lot of it, I think they just, listen to what Adam Foote says all the time. He's like, yeah, our centers. And we got these centers and we got to teach them how to play. And that's why it's gone badly. I think they look at it and they're like, and what do they say all the time? We're in this position since we had to trade J.T. Miller. Yeah.

I think they honestly believe that their team is fine if they fix the center position. Yeah. So I guess what I'm saying, yeah, I suppose if you put it that way, like if we get a center, all will be fixed or will be on a better trajectory. Maybe they will be able to pull it off. I don't know. My confidence in their ability to do things right now is very shaken. Very shaken. Someone texted in, why would Detroit to Nate and Richmond is, he said, why would Detroit give all that up for a year and a half? Sounds like overpayment. Because I don't think that they're 100% convinced that Quinn is. going to go to New Jersey and sign there.

Yeah, you get a year and a half to try and convince them that that's a spot. If you're the Detroit Red Wings and you get Quinn Hughes, you know, on your team and you're playing in your backyard near where you grew up and you're on a team with some of your buddies and, like, you might, like, Quinn would have considered signing here. If anything, that might be an underpayment, like, you could probably get more. This whole thing about Quinn might very well end up in New Jersey But the fit, the hockey fit

Is better elsewhere Probably, yeah And I was joking around with a buddy on Over the weekend And I was like, Quinn is going to go to New Jersey And then he's going to have a fallout with Luke Because he's still going to be a puck hog And Luke is never going to get to play in New Jersey.

Yeah. You think if it wasn't Quinn Hughes, Luke Hughes would be like So am I going to get any PowerPlay time? What is there any role for me here anymore? New Jersey would trade a defenseman as well Like that's part of like the logic behind it

Like the The Heeshier and Nemitz and the two first thing is like Well that's the talking point because A you get your young center B New Jersey moves off a defenseman So then Luke can play with Quinn more readily And of course you get the two first Luke can play with Quinn?

Well not specifically On a pairing? No no no I mean On the same team like so who gets power play one minutes. Oh, I don't know. I'm not going that far down there. Well, you should. Because that's how they typically look at things. I'm just saying that's the starting, start of a talking point in terms of like the kind of package you'd get back with trading one of the best two defensemen in the world, especially

if you're New Jersey and you know you're probably going to have a chance of resigning them. I think the trade, the Quinn Hughes trade, if it happens, is going to get them in a position where they can talk themselves into the team. I really do. I mean, yeah, the returns, the other part of this too is that the, the, the, The amount of speculation in terms of what's coming back in a trade, it's all over the map. I think we can all agree that... A lot of it seems really small.

Like, people are just, like, really undervaluing the fact that they're trading the best defensemen in the world or one of the top two. Like, it's going to have to be a whole. Here's a couple things. Like, no one's going to gut their active roster to do this, right? No one's going to, like, put themselves at a handicap. Like, you can't trade away. They'd give up a top center.

They'd have to. And that's it, I mean, that's... Not a top young center that's... like who's not contributing much right now. He's not your one C. He's not playing 20 minutes a night. He's not a point of a game guy. All of a sudden you're looking at it and you're being like,

okay, it's still a guy that needs to grow into the role. You have faith that he can do it, but he's not there yet. He's not there yet. And then all of a sudden you're saying, now you come to Vancouver and you're being insulated by Elias Pederset.

And eventually Braden Coots will be here and that's great, but that'll all take a little bit of time to get together. Maybe it'll take a year. Maybe it'll take a couple. But you've also lost, your captain and the greatest defenseman that's ever played for your team

and those are not easy things to overcome those are not easy losses to overcome like yay you've solved your center position how's your blue line you're like not as good as it was yesterday you know and that and you have to set about the business of trying to fix that or trying to add another impact piece there we've got to replace

30 minutes of elite hockey on a night and this is where I was kind of going with my answer when you were like what do you think about this I'm like I guess it was a larger scale picture like in order to fully achieve what I think they need to achieve, Hughes and the deal becomes a piece of it,

it's not the solution. That's fair to say, right? It's not the solution. No, I don't think that's fair to say. I think that, I honestly think that they will, with the return that they get on this deal, they'd be like, eh? What do you think of us now? But I'm saying, as an analyst, it's not the solution. And then they'll, you know, be like, he was actually a pretty bad captain.

Yeah. Everyone just runs them out of town. run them down on the way out. We're talking us out of it. Unless it's J.T. Miller. Then you only talk favorably about them when you run them out of town. The great J.T. Miller. One text are Quinn for Jack and Luke.

Oh, man. Okay. That's the first time that joke's ever been made. Do it. Okay. We're up against it for time. Make it happen. Focus.

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Mike Tannier is going to join us for some NFL talk on the other side. A whole bunch of stuff went down in the National Football League on Sunday. We have a very good Monday night football game as well. Lots to get into. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.