Halford & Brough in the Morning - Tomorrow Could Be A Watershed Moment In Hockey History

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason look ahead to the 4 Nations Canada USA finale as well as talk some Canucks trade rumours with Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli (2:32), plus the boys chat with Whitecaps FC Sporting Director Axel Schuster (25:25) ahead of the club's season opener. 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.

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Sarah Valley Frank! Sarah Valley Frank! Daily Face, Frank! Cerebelli, Frank! Daily face-off, Frank! 703 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Frank!

Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program. Frank Sir Valley from Daily Face Off is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Homonuck 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 him online at jason.mortgage. We're a company live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec footwear and orthotics, working together with you and step. Okay. We have an update on Charlie McEvoy courtesy the Boston Bruins, and it includes a very long, very difficult to pronounce medical term that I'm going to try and struggle through. Canee, canee, is that the knee? Is the K silent? Uh, this is from the Boston Bruins medical staff.

Charlie McEvoy sustained an injury to his right shoulder, uh, a chromioclavicular joint. Mm-hmm. That wasn't bad. In team USA's four nations faceoff gaming against Finland on February the 13th, he underwent treatment which was administered by Team USA's medical staff. Upon returning to Boston, he developed increasing pain for which he was evaluated by the Boston

Bruins medical staff. After undergoing x-rays, MRIs, and blood work, he was diagnosed as having an infection in his right shoulder as well as significant injury to his AC joint. He underwent an irrigation and debridement procedure at Massachusetts General Hospital on February 18th. He remains in the hospital where he is being treated with IV antibiotics and his condition is improving.

So quite a thorough update from the Boston Bruins on what's going on with Charlie McEvoy. Very big development of the Four Nations face-off. So we go now to Boston where our next guest, Frank Cervalli from Daily Face-Off joins us now on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Frank, how are you? I'm good, yeah, you guys could have read all that yesterday

on Daily Face-Off. Yes. That would have been great. I apologize for not reading it yesterday on Daily Face Off. Yes. That would have been great. I apologize for not reading it yesterday on Daily Face Off. It came across my desk, and by that I mean my laptop, just right now. So yeah, you were one of the first ones to report that McAvoy was gonna be out for the remainder of the term.

I guess the question now is, how serious is this moving forward, and how much of the Bruin season is he gonna miss with this? Significant, but not over the top. Um, he's I believe week to week. Um, and it's interesting just to hear the phrasing of the report. Look, the Boston Bruins aren't happy.

Um, this infection, I believe stemmed from an injection that was, uh, given to McAvoy before the game on Saturday to help manage the pain with the injury. And obviously he played and was great in the game. Um, and that's a real typical thing, obviously, with big games that players play through stuff and they get help along the way. It's a daily occurrence in the Stanley Cup playoffs. This one just happened to be really unlucky in that

there was an infection that stemmed from the belief is the injection that was administered by Team USA doctors, which is part of the shade that's thrown at the Team USA staff from the Boston Bruins. So they're not happy with- That's why it was worded the way that it was, right? Yeah, I mean, that's my read between the lines.

So it's a totally tough situation for Charlie McAvoy to think that, hey, um, it's a totally tough situation, um, for Charlie McAvoy to think that, Hey, look, I played through with this, this shoulder injury. And it's this other part of it that ends up taking me out of what is, you know, potentially one of the biggest games of his life in his home arena, home barn, on home soil against Canada and the final, and a huge statement to be made potentially for USA Hockey. This could be a watershed moment for the sport, so to take him out, it's an absolute gut punch to him. It's tough to stomach for Team USA, who now has obviously a roster in flux,

and Jake Sanderson likely to be in the lineup. It just changes the complexion of the game a little bit and also with Canada having Kale McCarr back who didn't play Saturday, it's like the scales are tipping. I keep coming back to this question. Should this tournament be played in August and September? No. So what is the reasoning? Because my argument is that first of all, we've had great tournaments that have been played in

August and September and frankly, you know, compared to 1987, the players keep themselves in much better shape now and would be much more ready for that tournament than they have been in the past. My second one is just that it's a lot further away from the playoffs. I'll give you two reasons.

One is the players don't want to do that. Their summer, particularly for teams that play into now very late June is short as it is. And that means you're ramping up training in July. They want their time in the summer to be able to, you know, continue to do it on the typical schedule, especially with the regular season now being pushed back to basically mid October. And the second thing is just look at the sports calendar.

College football, NFL, baseball is in full swing with their playoff push. No one in the general sports landscape is going to care about hockey at that time of year. This is a perfect window in the general sports landscape is, is going to care about hockey at that time of year. This is a perfect window in the schedule. I mean, think about, you're right about that. It is perfect. Last Saturday night, the super bowl is done. College football playoffs are long over

baseball, spring training, pitchers and catchers just reported and no one cares. And you had NBA during an All-Star break and Saturday night was up against the NBA skills competition. And everyone hated the NBA All-Star game. Right, which again, directed everyone over to hockey. Which now brings us to Thursday.

Yeah, there's an NBA double header on Thursday on TNT, but I guarantee you the lion's share of, of even casuals in the U S are going to be tuned into this Canada, USA game. Um, I will say that intentionally or not, the tournament's done a nice job of adding intrigue on the off days because all we've done is talk about Quinn Hughes and roster rules and what's going on. Again, I don't think the ambiguity was meant to be intentional

to make all of this, like there's news happening all the time. Not at all. Right. But it's not. I think the NHL and NHLPA are sitting back and slightly embarrassed. I don't know if they'll say that part out loud, but I think there's an agreement that these two sides need to do a way better job moving forward of fixing the roster scenarios. And the fact that it has been so fluid, I think, well part of that, I know part of it is they want to make sure that they're not putting these teams in a difficult spot

by being rigid just for the sake of being rigid. And that would lead to some criticism from others that, Hey, are we just making it up on the fly here? And the truth to that is like, yeah, we kind of are because they don't want to see Canada play with five defensemen on Saturday night in a rivalry game. So if it means allowing them to, you know, sort of shift the goalpost and bring in Thomas Harley on an emergency notice, you didn't even get to practice with the team or participate in morning skate and yet impossibly is

thrown into an enormous game and plays really well. So it's not been easy. And I think in the end, the people who were right are the four general managers in this tournament who were slamming their fists on the table in August, September, October, November leading up to the roster announcement saying, we need 25 guys. And they were rebuffed.

And in the end, they were proven correct. What was the reason for them being rebuffed? It was actually I was told a push from the NHLPA to allow guys to go on vacation. Use this 12-day break for yourself. It's not fun bringing someone to a tournament when you could be off and saying, hey, not only are you not the first extra at this position and you're sitting in the press box, but a couple things need to go south in order for you to sniff the lineup. As much of an honor as it would be to participate and practice and get the jersey and the experience and everything else,

unless you're actually playing in the game, I'd say most guys, and Quinn Hughes is now sort of, you know, kind of basically verbalizing it, if you're not playing, eating popcorn in the press box watching it, it might be cool to see it in person, but it's not really that fun. Uh, when it comes to Quinn Hughes, what do you think is the biggest impediment to him playing? Would it be, um, Canada going- Healthy bodies? Well, well, let's, let me finish here.

Would it be Canada saying like, no, you're not allowed to bring him in because everyone's healthy here. No, you're not allowed to bring him in because everyone's healthy here. Or would it be the players on Team USA and maybe Quinn Hughes going like, well, it's not fair for me to play. It's not fair for me to take some guy who actually could play in this game out of this game for me to just fly in, parachute into the game. So it's none of those things. Quinn Hughes doesn't have the optionality to play. So it's none of those things.

Quinn Hughes doesn't have the optionality to play because the US has 12 forwards and 6 defensemen that are quote unquote healthy right now. So it's the original rules that Canada would be like, no, we have to stick to these original rules. No, no. And in fact, Canada gets no say. When Canada was granted their emergency exception to bring in Harley, none of the other three teams

were brought into the conversation and didn't have any ability to weigh in. They simply made their case to the NHL and NHLPA, which is directed by Bill Daley and Ron Hainsey, and they made a ruling together that this is this is what would happen this is what would be permissible so in this case Canada can bellyache all they want if that were the case I haven't heard anything and and

not only that it wouldn't matter so I don't think there's any fear of that I think the true answer is that there and there's also probably no I don't think there's any fear of that. I think the true answer is that there, and there's also probably no, I don't think Quinn Hughes is thinking about bumping someone out of the lineup or feeling the press box if you don't have an authentic chance to play. And so that's basically the fluidity of the situation. There's one other layer to it though, which the NHL and NHLPA still have not decided on yet is because the U S has three forwards currently that are banged up, Matthew Kachuk, Brady Kachuk, and Austin Matthews. If the U.S. dips to 11 forwards, essentially two of those guys end up being unable to play, would the U.S. have the availability to go 11 and 7 and use Quinn Hughes in that game, the league hasn't decided yet,

but I think the odds are stacked against it because I think those guys are very likely to play and it becomes a moot point. We are speaking of Frank Saravalli from Daily Face Off here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I wanted to dive a little bit more into this US team and USA hockey and then what this has meant from the American perspective, this tournament, what happened on Saturday night. I know on the latest, frankly speaking podcast, you talked

with USA hockey executive director, Pat Kelleher, and you were talking about the road to this point. And I heard Tony Granado talking on the TNT broadcast very passionately about how this was such a great watershed moment for USA hockey and what this could mean moving forward based on your conversations and what you've heard around the tournament. How big is this and again, it's only been a handful of games, but how big is this tournament been as a sort of I guess maybe the greatest team

that some are saying that the Team USA has ever put forth in an international tournament. Well, yeah, I mean, look, this, I think it's an undeniable fact. And Mike Arruzzione had said it himself, and obviously someone that closely tracks. We'll get Frank back real quick here. We'll get Frank back real quick here. The roster rule stuff is quite entertaining.

I look at it from a neutral perspective. I'm not deeply involved in the tournament. It's given everyone a ton of material on three off days. I just feel like the NHL and the NHLPA would be looking for any possible way they could to get Quinn Hughes into this game. Except that they might be going against their own rules. Well yeah, exactly. Exactly.

And I get what Frank is saying about how they might feel like they've got some egg on their face and they might be embarrassed, right? Oh totally. Because you know, you're talking. Everyone's saying your guys are just making up the rules as you go along and they're like, yeah we kind of are. And then they aren't even making it up

because they still don't have a ruling and if he can go 11 and 7. Anyway we got Frank back on the line now. Frank Sarra we got dropped right at the start of your answer there just talking about this USA hockey program this team that they put forth and how important it is for this program. Huge. Look Mike Iruzioni said it with his own words last week when I talked to him that this is the best collection of American talent ever assembled on one roster and you don't really have to think too hard or squint at that statement.

Look at the 2016 world cup team that didn't win a game. Look at the 2010 Vancouver team or even 2014 and Sochi good teams. at the 2010 Vancouver team or even 2014 in Sochi, good teams. Um, there was a silver medal in there in Vancouver, but that's the whole point of the conversation is that for a while, I think the U S got to Salt Lake in Vancouver and said, Oh man, second place. That feels so good to get to that level. But they've been there for 22 years now and 23 years now, and they've got to take a step further. They haven't won at the top level of men's competition in best

on best since 1996. That's an impossibly long time and it's go time. It's time for them to stop talking about the incredible strides that have been made. You can point to all these other successes. World Junior back-to-back gold, five gold medals in the last nine years. You could talk about the Olympic women's gold and world championship success or the under 18s and all these different levels, all various important milestones, but you got to, you got to get, you got to win when you get there. And I think it's a massive moment, not just for USA hockey, but for the game as a whole

in this country. Um, this is the opportunity to convert and to, to bring in new people, but you got to win to do it because there's so few sports that are left that you can say, hey, the US doesn't have a dominant presence in. And hockey is one of those. And this is an incredible opportunity to make a statement and then double down on it at the Olympics next year. Frank, we only got a couple of minutes, but are you hearing anything Vancouver Canucks related?

We were talking about Drew O'Connor just resigning and wondering where is Brock Besser in all this? Anything else? I know you had some thoughts about Elias Pedersen's Four Nations, so just feel free, anything you're hearing about the Vancouver Canucks. Well, it's been really quiet on the better front. I don't believe there's been any

significant Progress or process even in terms of the negotiation I was surprised a little bit surprised on the Drew O'Connor signing because they had just worked on load players in that pay range that are playing at the bottom of their lineup. And I think he's a, you know, a quality fourth line center that is now back in the pay range of the guys they just offloaded. So, and signed for a multi-year deal. So that part was a little bit head scratching. And when it comes to, to Pedersen, I mean, seems to have stirred up some conversation or vitriol on social media again.

I mean, the stance hasn't changed. It's been the same thing that I've said for six weeks now, eight weeks. If Pedersen doesn't figure it out and doesn't begin to put the pieces back together in his game, I don't see how the, you know, some people would say, Hey, there's huge risk in trading Pedersen. What happens if, you know, he goes somewhere else and turns back into the 40 goal, a hundred point player that we know we can be, I think there's way bigger risk from the Vancouver Canucks standpoint of

shouldering that and having the no trade clause kick in on July one and not off loading the deal, if you can forget the return, think about the risk of what happens if his game doesn't get put back together again, it's a shifting scale. And I think it's certainly of note for the Canucks to consider, not just before March 7th, even though this tournament did nothing to help his trade value. But just in terms of moving forward of how you build your team and what you're going to be centering around, quite literally as the backbone of it. I can't imagine there's not significant and serious internal questions as to whether or not Pedersen can be that guy.

Will it still be easy to find a taker for Elias Pedersen and not just a taker of the contract, but someone who's actually willing to give up something for it? I think that's becoming harder and harder because think about what I just said in the risk of taking on that deal with that term and dollar amount remaining. The other part of this, and this came directly from a rival GM, it would be hard for anyone trading and giving up significant value for Pedersen to really feel good about the deal. Everyone can see his play. They understand whatever they've internalized, whatever issues have gone on with this team internally.

I think there's significant trepidation, I really do. Frank, this was great, but as always, thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. I don't need to tell you to enjoy the game tomorrow night. I'm sure you will, but have a good time anyway. We'll do this again next week. Thanks to you guys.

Thanks, Frank Cerrelli from Daily Face-Off here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Just a little bit of pushback. I don't want to get into argument with Frank about Drew O'Connor, but I think the connection to see Drew O'Connor as a significant upgrade on a guy like Danton Heinen. So yeah, they got rid of Danton Heinen, but I

think they just like Drew O'Connor more. He's big, he's fast and he's now paid about the same as what Danton Heinen was getting paid. Yeah, Heinen didn't work out. That was- There wasn't really a fit for Heinen. No. He never found his spot in the lineup, and it's not like Drew O'Connor has a definite

spot right now, but I just think they like his size and speed. What is going to be interesting to watch with Drew O'Connor is if he can develop a scoring touch. Because if he can't, he's going to be in the bottom six. But if he can, there's that potential for him to either once in a while go up there in the top six and maybe play, like what were the lines yesterday at Canucks practice?

There was a bunch of guys that weren't there. Yeah. And there was a bunch of guys called up from Abbotsford. Like Baines had PD spot on the top line, but Sherwood was there. And what Sherwood has done is not only, you know, provided a physical presence and he's been good on the four check as

the F1, he's also put the puck in the net, right? So Drew O'Connor was on the second line with Hedl and Besser. So those guys, their number one job is obviously, okay, go be the F1 or even the F2, just get in on the four check and go turn some pucks over. And then your other guys can go to work, but you still have to be able to put the puck in the net. If you get those chances and you will get more chances if you're playing with good offensive

players. And that has been the big question with Drew O'Connor. We've seen it a few times. We've seen a scoring touch and a scoring touch needs a little bit of work. Okay. Uh, we're going to go to break and when we come back, we're going to talk to white cap sporting director, Axel Schuster here on the Halford and Brough show on sports net six 50. There's a lot we can get into with Axel. Obviously we will discuss the pending sale of the Vancouver white caps.

We'll ask for updates there. We'll talk about the moves made in the off season, including the new manager, Jesper Sorensen. We will also talk about two big games that the Whitecaps kick off their season. It begins Thursday night in Costa Rica for their CONCACAF Cup match against Deportivo Saprisa. And then they will begin the MLS season. That's right. The MLS season begins this weekend.

They will begin in Portland on Sunday, a rematch of the thrashing they gave Portland in the playoffs last year. Five nil. So we'll talk to Axel about all that coming up. Eight o'clock we're going to talk to Randy Jen and we're going to do what we learn. So we're at the midway point. There are still 90 minutes to go. So don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd. And Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to two on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 733 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halford and Bruff's Sportsnet 650. Halford and Bruff of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier

destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program. Actual Schuster is gonna join us in just a moment here. Hour two is Bratty Bay Jason Hominuck 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 him online at j 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 him online at Jason.mortgage. This truly is a global show today. At eight o'clock, we're gonna go to Madrid, where Randy Janda is gonna join us ahead of tonight's Champions League clash between Real Madrid and Man City.

And right now, we're gonna go down to Costa Rica. Joining us online is White Cap sporting director, Axel Schuster now on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Axel, how are you? Good morning from Costa Rica. I'm very good, how are you guys? We are well, thanks for taking the time to do this.

So tonight, or sorry, tomorrow, Thursday night in Costa Rica, it's the CONCACAF Champions Cup opener against Deportivo Soprisa. That's going to be the official start to the White Cap season. Set the stage and the tone for our listeners here Axel, how has Costa Rica been so far and what can viewers expect tomorrow when the White Caps take on Deportivo in Costa Rica? Yeah, we arrived after a seven and a hours flight yesterday evening, so I haven't seen

so much from Costa Rica. I can tell you that it is sunny and warm and also a little bit humid, but nothing that we haven't expected. We go to breakfast here soon and then we will have a training session in the stadium and after that we probably have a little bit of a better feeling how Costa Rica is to us. But more important, we feel good. We travel with our best possible group here and we're ready to kick off the season. Where is your level of optimism with how the club is going to perform on the pitch this season? I don't know if you saw it or not, but MLS had all of its preseason predictions and its panelists come forward and a lot of them had you guys either right at the playoff bar or below it.

So are your expectations maybe higher than some of the ones from MLSsoccer.com? You know, we are used to that we fly a little bit under the radar and we are happy with that. It's always good to get a little bit overseen and then surprise everyone. We ourselves think that we will end higher. That's our goal. We have made the playoffs now three times in four years. We made it the last two years straight and last year we still made the playoffs although

we only made two points in seven games at the end of the season. So we know that this group is good enough to easily march into the playoffs and if you get everything together we actually even think that we can finish higher than in all of our seasons before. What were the biggest challenges for you in the off season in some of the departures and some of the players you added? You know, at the end of the day, I think the biggest challenge was to find the right coach. Not that it wasn't an unsolved challenge, but it was definitely the challenge that was on me and on the people in the club. Because we made this move, because we had the feeling that this group needs new energy, that the club needs new energy, that everyone needs a little bit of new energy

to do the next step. So it was important to find somebody who doesn't do a revolution, but continues where we have landed at the end of last season and with his new approach, with also giving players a new life to push this group to a better position in this year. And on top of it, it's finding the right pieces.

We are a team that now competes or goes into the playoffs every year, so to become better, it's becoming more complicated because if you start at the bottom where we have been when I arrived in the club it's obviously easy to improve things. If you are competing with the top six teams in the league then obviously then the air is a little bit thinner and your decisions have to be done in the right way because you don't want to lose anything and at the same time you want to become better and you also compete for players that are now more attractive to other clubs. So we had to go through this a few times, but overall we are feeling good.

We want to add one, two, I would say two more players and then we feel very good. Well, tell us a bit about the new coach Jesper Sorensen. I know you've already done some media about him. You've had some press conferences, but I'm curious. Um, how did you settle on Jesper Sorensen? Not that you settled on him, but how did you

decide on, on Jesper Sorensen and maybe that you settled on him, but how did you decide on Jesper Sorensen and maybe talk about some of the conversations that you had with him and some of the ideas that he brought to the club? Yeah, look, the main thing that our people should know about him is that he is a wonderful combination of somebody who has taken over teams and made them right away

successful. So he took over a small team in the second league in Denmark and he promoted with them right away, finished first in the second league. And he later in his career took over Brand B, who is the biggest club in Denmark. And they were like in in in 10th position. And fast forward 15 months later, they finished the one point of the championship, they lost the championship in the last match. So he's somebody who has an immediate impact to team performance, and who who can coach teams to success. At the same time, he was a youth coach. He is a player developer. He was

the U 21 national team coach of Denmark, a very good nation with a lot of talent. So his approach is also to make the team better by making players better. I would say this combination is what attracts me and that's the combination that is important, I think, in MLS. And what we have discussed and what his approach is, he says to become a better team, we have to become more dominant in possession. We have to become a team that plays with more confidence and is better in build-up. I think a lot of fans that are listening now, they have been at our home games last year and a lot of them have left the stadium a little bit frustrated

because although we made the playoffs and we were all the season over the bar, our home game performances haven't been great and a lot of teams parked the bus and we couldn't really break them down. So that's something where what we are working on and that's something the fans will see very soon that we are working on our game in possession. I mean, breaking a team down isn't easy, especially when they're parking the bus and they're disciplined structurally, but is that a scheme thing or did you need to change your personnel in order to suit the new coach and what he wanted to do? Yeah, I would say actually it is a compliment that teams are doing this because it shows that teams come to Vancouver with way more respect than before. way more respect than before. First of all, we need a little bit of a different mindset. And second, yes, we need a few additional players. We have done that already. We have

been very focused on offensive players. Emmanuel Zabi, who played for the US and played in one of the top five leagues in the world and who had comparable numbers to what Hany Mukta had in Denmark before. A player like Jayden Nelson, who was a top prospect in our league and got sold for a million to Europe at some point. We have Daniel Rios, who has scored in every MLS team that he has played in the first season, a very good number of goals.

And if I say we want to add one or two more players, I can tell you that those players also will be players that fit to the style, that will help us in possession, players that play in the offensive midfield area. And I think, as I said before, if we find the right one, two pieces now, then I feel very, very good about our season. We're speaking to White Cabs sporting director Axel Schuster here on the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Okay. So you've mentioned there is a new manager in Sorensen.

Mentioned that there's new signings coming in and Nelson and Salvi and Rios and maybe some more signings to come with all of these new additions. What were the conversations like when you talk about the future of the club, the pending sale of the club, and what's gonna happen with the future of the Vancouver Whitecaps? Yes, I was very clear with them about that this is out

and that they probably will get asked and that they maybe do their own research and that they will read a lot about it, but I also was very clear, and I have met with our supporters two days ago, that everyone, including MLS, our ownership group, myself, we all fully focused on working only on finding the next new and good owner for the Vancouver Wildcats who continues this club in Vancouver and puts this club in a better position for the future. That's the only thing we are working on and we are all optimistic to find the right one.

And of course it's normal and I get it that people always think it from the wrong end first but I can tell that all our conversations so far are going only in one direction and that it doesn't impact anything right now because we are starting in the season, we have signed very good new players, we have invested money in this roster, we brought in a very high-profile new coach and we had our season launch party, we had thousands of people there. So nothing has changed yet. This all happens in the, in the back office

and this work will be done in the right way. And I remain optimistic that there is a future. And there are examples in Vancouver where that's happened before. There's a future with somebody who continues to have this club in Vancouver. Um, are lease conversations, lease negotiations ongoing with BC Place? Because you only got a year left on the lease. Yeah, these negotiations have started already before the announcement. And of course, I would say with our announcement, all the parties have even come closer together. And I would say it is probably a positive that everyone who is a stakeholder, everyone who is involved in this is really open

minded at the table to see how we can find better ways, how we can find better solutions for this club. And it's a part of all of this. And also there, I would say that the things are going silently and we will not share anything, but in general, in the right direction. Is it possible that you could sign a lease extension before the team is sold?

Because if I'm buying a team, I want to be part of those lease conversations. Yeah, it is actually very likely because all of the, this process might take long. So I think that the first comment of the league was that they think that this could be a two year window until all of this is done. I would say nobody needs to ask me. I said that already before in the next six months.

So we obviously have to do this because we cannot run into a scenario where we don't have a new lease and then we have on the last day we don't have any leverage anymore because now we have to take whatever is offered to us so we will continue to do this in the best possible way and I can also tell you that this is operational business done together with my great other executives on the business side of the club. And there's a lot of work that is put into it, a lot of analysis and the same on the other side.

And I'm set before I'm optimistic that we will get to a good outcome. Real quick before we let you go, we did have a listener who's been on since the beginning of the hit, wanted to know about one of your new signings, Emmanuel Sabi and his ankle injury. When will he be available for selection for the squad? Yeah, look, when it happened actually for 24 hours we were pretty concerned, but then luckily it wasn't really swollen the next day and the MRIs also have shown that it is not that bad. They said if the pain is okay for him, then he can return as quickly as in two weeks.

They say a realistic window is somehow in the next two to four weeks. Axel, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the day in Costa Rica. Hopefully the match tomorrow goes well and hopefully the MLS season opener on Sunday goes well as well. Try not to sweat down to there too much. I know that's probably pretty humid.

Thank you very much. Thanks Axel. We appreciate it. That's White Cap sporting director Axel Schuster here on the Halferd and Braff show on Sportsnet 650. Okay. Adog. Oh my God, what? There are like 10 texts into the show that are saying,

you guys have ruined Axel Schuster for me because of Adog's young boys voice There are some similarities well, I'm good are we gonna talk young boys or what? That wasn't actual Oh my god, I know Can you imagine if we asked him a young boys question? I know can you imagine if we asked him a young boys question? I'm still waiting eliminated from Champions League. Thank God there's there a Swiss team, right? They are Swiss but they speak but they speak like a bunch of different languages

Switzerland one of you should have asked him like have you been to wanked or if to see young boys Just to see what he said Yeah, actually quick question. Oh, I think we Yeah, Axel, a quick question. Oh, I think we can't do the young boys accent. Well, no, you wouldn't obviously do the accent, but you should have asked him. What if we imagine that we had an intern from Munich and he wanted to ask Axel some questions? We could do like a... We need to find one just for this scenario.

We could do a triangle type interview. Yes, that would be you. Yeah, no. Pretending. No, I'm not gonna do that. I don't want to hurt his feelings. I gotta book the guy. He won't come on with you guys again if you do that.

So anyway, moving past the young boys of it all, we said at the onset that we're gonna ask, and I've been in conversation with several people in and around the white caps about the sale of the team and it is going to be, it's gonna be a tricky narrative for them to manage because I think for the casual observers, of which there are many, there's some diehards, but there's a lot of casual observers who have kind of paid attention

to what the white caps are doing in an arm's length. And let's be real, we've seen the team for long enough that we know how the course of action goes is when the summer comes around and there's less local sporting options available, the white caps grow to more prominence in the market and people pay more attention to them. With the pending sale, it's gonna be hard

for a lot of the casuals to divide the team and the on-pitch stuff from what's going on off the pitch, because it's that looming cloud over top of it that there is a possibility the team could move. Question is that. I'll be curious to see what happens with the lease. If the lease gets announced, is it, we've signed a one year extension on the lease, right? Right, we can tack on what we already had. yeah, right? There's a possibility that could happen. Halford, what are your, if you were to put odds in it

following your conversation just now with Axel, what percentage would you say there is that the team still relocates? I don't think it's fair to do that. I've talked to people within the organization who are optimistic, and I think part of their optimism comes from the fact that they probably want to be optimistic. Well, of course they have to be.

Axel just came on our program and said that the number one priority is to, between both the current owners and MLS to keep the team in Vancouver. I do know. I think they're going to go through that, that process of trying to find owners, and this will be MLS directed. And it'll say, okay, we're going to go through a

process of finding owners that want to keep the team in Vancouver, and then we'll see what the price is for that. And then you're going to allow the opportunity, or at least if I was the owners, I'm going to take the opportunity to take it to the market and see what I could get if the team is allowed to relocate. And I would argue that that number is

going to be higher. And ML, there is a history within MLS of relocating franchises. It's not a long one and there's not a recent one, but it has happened. For all those that say it makes more sense for MLS to reap those sweet, sweet expansion fees as opposed to relocate, I get that, but I also get that it's a portable entity. It's a brand, a team, employees, players.

With one year left on the lease. It's portable. They don't own their own stadium. They can just either, as they say liquid. Yeah. And all like they're just, what is actually tying them to Vancouver after this lease is up. The thing that I'm really uncertain on is how

valuable both MLS ownership and everyone else views Vancouver as a footballing market. both MLS ownership and everyone else views Vancouver as a footballing market. Um, cause it is, it has. It's a great soccer city. It has some, it has some benefits. It also doesn't have competition from other sporting outlets like some others do, even

though the Canucks do dominate 90% of the conversation and the sports. But you do see on the, you know. The sports in the city. On the odd occasion when the white caps are good and they're doing well, people like to talk about them. And there's a lot of interest in the club. So theoretically, if the club were to string

together a bunch of good seasons, which obviously they haven't really done since they've been here. But if they were to do that, that interest would grow and you'd be able to. I would argue that they could have built up their brand value significantly more than what they have over the last 14 years. Yeah. Especially when you compare it to the other

cities in the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Seattle, they've had a lot more success. Right. Canadian franchises, you look at TFC, even though they're in lean years now, they've delivered an MLS cup. They have pretty passionate supporters, the Red Army and all that stuff.

And people will bring up Montreal, what about them? It's like, I think they're in danger of moving too. Yeah. OK, I'll reword it then. Because it sounds like you're leaning towards a relocation. Is there, what do you think are the odds they may actually find an owner in this city that is like, nope, I want to keep giving it another chance.

I still think this is a strong soccer market. There's a difference between finding a local owner and finding an owner that will keep the team local. Those are two different things. Well, I'm asking like a local owner that wants to keep the team in Vancouver. I, I, I, I'm happy to be wrong about this, but I find it difficult to imagine that there will be a guy that's going to pay hundreds of millions

of dollars and MLS franchises are now even at the lower tier worth, what was the Whitecaps value at that 400 million or something like that by Sportico or whatever. And it was one of the lower ones. And it was one of the lower ones. So unless you have a way or a plan to build a new stadium and control the revenues in that stadium. Unless you're just a really, really, really, really rich guy that really,

really loves Vancouver and wants to spend a lot of money on a team that doesn't have a lot of financial upside. I mean, you tell me what I'm saying here, right? Like push back on anything that you're saying. I get you. Push back on, and I would love the listeners to push back on this because I'm wrong, right? Like a lot. And, but right now I just don't see the business case to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on

an MLS team that may or may not be profitable on an annual basis. And also the arena is the big thing. In a stadium that you don't control, in a stadium that isn't soccer specific, doesn't have grass, may not be able to have grass. Now if they're like, if they're able to. This is my sales pitch. If they're able to, this is my sales pitch. If they're able to entice a new owner with the prospect of building, like build from

the ground up and build a soccer specific stadium. Yeah, where would that be? Well, it's not going to be downtown. So wherever it'll be, then the conversation changes. And if there was to be something like, oh, the provisional government's going to include a parcel of land, here's some free land in a very expensive market. Yes, because there's so much land in the Great Vancouver area.

Where real estate prices, yeah. I mean, and that's where the conversation goes. Now, take a step back. This conversation that we're having, it's got nothing to do with like, they're playing Deportivo Soprisa, they're playing Portland on the weekend. I'm gonna be very curious to see,

as one of the drivers in the market of narratives and everything, how it goes as the season goes along. It's why I asked them like, when you go and talk to a new coach, new manager who has never left Denmark in his managerial career to go across the Atlantic and set down roots in Vancouver, are you telling them, you know, maybe rent? Okay.

I, I, I, I really want to bring this up. I know we got a break, but I need to do it really quickly. Someone texted in and said, the business case would be profitable regardless of the soccer if Ryan Reynolds was at the helm and he was given the creative control that he has in Wrexham. Two points here. One, he paid like two and a half million pounds for Wrexham.

Wrexham was a billionth of what this would cost. Number two, Wrexham has the narrative hook. What an incredible story. A small town in Wales, and here's what they're gonna try and do. They're gonna try and get these guys promoted. The promotion, the town, the people in that town, that's the narrative hook.

What is it middling MLS team in Vancouver? What stories are you telling? Like you'd have to win a championship. The narrative hook would be that you took a team that was floundered for the first 15 years of its existence. The local guy comes home and takes them to a title, but here's the thing. Is that worth paying $400 million? And it's a lot, and it's a lot harder to do.

Yeah. A lot harder. Do not see. Yeah. I don't see the magical story in the Vancouver Whitecaps that you had with, with Rexam. Now make no mistake. They got like, and I know we're way up against it for time, but they did get

fortunate with the Rexam story because they kept getting promoted. Like the, the narrative arc doesn't get as exciting if you finish 13th and league one, right? Like. But the risk was lower because the amount of money that was shelled out for. 100% it was lower. If it didn't work out, it was like, well, we tried.

Now it's possible that Ryan Reynolds could go to the, go to MLS and be like, look, I'll buy the team, but you got to guarantee me if this thing doesn't work, I'm allowed to move it. And then Ryan Reynolds is in the position of like, oh, wait a minute, do I want to do this because I'm from Vancouver. I don't want to be the guy that moves the white caps. Anyway, Rand Deep is going to join us next on the Alfred and Bruv Show on Sportsnet 650.