Halford & Brough in the Morning - We Want Trades! We Want Trades!

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason look ahead to the NHL Trade Deadline with the Toronto Star's Ilyas Hussein (2:15), and how a plethora of No Trade Clauses might hamper a lot of big deals, they chat about the possibilities of EP40 somehow being moved by Friday and if that's the right move (13:40), they discuss how the US tariffs that began today might make things more challenging for Canadian teams attempting to make trades (27:00), plus the boys look at other potential moves from around the league (31:54). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Music 7.03 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. At the commercial break, the dogs said, we're coming back with some really good walking music. And they were right. I'm just gonna throw some headphones on and go for a little stroll around town with this. Swinging your arms wide, smile on your face. Walking around Pleasantville? Yeah. Everyone's smiling. Yeah.

You are listening to the Haliford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. Haliford and Bruff 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. Ilyas Hussein from the Toronto Star is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Starting to like this. This is putting me in a good mood. Might just leave it in the background for the rest Star is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2. I'm starting to like this. This is a mess.

This is putting me in a good mood. Might just leave it in the background for the rest of the show. Yeah, we're just going to have to stop. Let's keep playing the whole time. Hour 2 of this program 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. Just kidding, let him do exactly that.

Visit him on the internet at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step while you walk. I am in a better mood. So as we get closer to Friday's trade deadline, some trades might get held up because of trade protection. Approximately 30% of active NHL players have some form of no trade or no movement clause in their contract.

If you're wondering how big a spike there's been over the last decade, since 2013-14, 480% spike. Yeah, like a decade ago there was only around 50 guys that had trade protection. And now a third of the league practically has it. And our next guest wrote about this in great detail for the Toronto Star. Ilias Hussein joins us now on the Hellford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning Ilias, how are you? Morning guys, I'm good, how are you? We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So what got you interested in this and what led you to write the piece about the spike and the rise in no movement and no trade clauses in the NHL? Yeah, just actually a month ago,

when Luca Dosh just got traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, I started thinking to myself, I was like, how come nobody in the NBA has a trade clause? And then I was looking into the NHL side of things and then all of a sudden I look at the numbers and it was kind of shocking. Like two hun almost get 270 players almost have some sort of NHL trade protection in their college. Um, and then 200 were active playing, but there's a couple of guys who,

you know, or LTIR, like for example, Kerry Price, uh, for the Montreal Canadians who might not have a play again as a no trade clause, he sells his contracts and still active, but he's not an active player, for example, Kerry Price for the Montreal Canadiens who might not have a play again has no trade clause. He sells his contracts and still active, but he's not an active player, for example. And then I looked back at the numbers and I was kind of surprised to see how drastic of a change it was over the last decade. It's 46 players in 2013-14 and I was talking to a couple of sources, GMs, agents, players and they said the boom starts to happen around the abbreviated lockout season and the numbers back that up and it was a bit shocking to see.

Now we're going into the trade deadline and we'll see how much that has a role in it. So what did your findings unveil about why there was such a big rise in trade protection? A lot of it came down to the fact that the NHL has the hard salary cap right like the NBA is very much different league players are making a lot more money on a lot shorter contracts. NHL players typically the big part-time players besides like Austin Matthews is kind of like the only one that has a shorter contract most of those big players seven eight-year deals and they're taking a lot less money so a

lot of any negotiable value amount that goes beyond the dollars is doesn't matter to them it to some sort of degree. How valuable it is, some people say they can't really put a significant number or exact number on it, but it's still significant. But all the players really want is some sort of control that goes beyond the dollar because they're not making that much money compared to players in other leagues. Specifically the NBA is kind of the one that gets brought up the most because they're making a boatload of money compared to the NHL. So after reading your piece, I follow all the major four North American sports leagues closely but I did not realize that the no trade clause is nowhere near as prevalent

in some of these other leagues. Why is that? So the NBA is very much different. There there's a lot more stricter eligibility rules. So then I told the NHL, there is still eligibility rules, right? You have to be at least 27 and have at least seven accrued NHL seasons of service. Um, the MBA is very similar to that.

It's eight seasons and four of them have to be with the same team at least. Um, and you have to be signing that contract as if you were free agent. It's not like an extension. So it has to be past July 1st that you're signing that contract in the NBA. And there's so many trades, there's so much movement in the NBA. It's so hard for players to meet all those requirements. Where in NHL it's a lot more easy because you don't have to be with the same team to be eligible for a no trade. For example, if a player is signing with a new team on July 1st, they can automatically

just ask for a no trade in a negotiation if they're eligible for it, if they played seven more seasons or 27 or older. They still have different variations of it in other leagues. MLB players can veto trades and the NBA has the trade kicker. Basically what that means is when a player gets traded from team A to team B, team A will have to pay out a certain percentage of their remaining base salary. It's a little bit different. It allows for some sort of protection while trading and allows some players to have some money in their pocket when they do get moved. So there is a variation of it.

But the short answer is it's a lot harder or stricter eligibility rules in other leagues compared to the NHL. Is this good or bad for the NHL? It's good for the players. I mean, the players want that control. And as long as the players have that control or the players have the ability for it, they will keep negotiating for it. Is it good for the overall league?

I'm not entirely sure. I mean, it does handcuff a lot of flexibility around deadline day. And I know that's like a big entertainment for fans I'm not entirely sure. I mean, it does handcuff a lot of flexibility around Deadline Day. And I know that's a big entertainment for fans is seeing big blockbusters of trades, right? So it doesn't hurt the players. I mean, they're going to want it for as long as possible. I don't think it will ever be removed in the CBA. I don't know if there's a considerable back and right answer if it's good or bad, uh, but it does limit some flexibility for the teams. And the problem, the thing about that is I, when talking to agents, GMs, they always say

there's a way around it. Like if there's a way that they want to get around a trade clause, they can, they can still trade that player. I mean, look at Jacob Truba earlier this year, he had a no trade clause in his contract. New York ranger said, Hey, if you don't accept this trade, we'll scratch you. can still trade that player. I mean, look at Jacob Truba earlier this year. He had a no trade clause in his contract. New York ranger said, Hey, if you don't accept this trade, we'll scratch you. And then shortly after we'll wave, put you on waivers. And eventually, you know, he didn't really have a choice, but to accept that trade as he wants to plan a child games.

So it, it, it's not good or bad, but it does limit some flexibility. Um, and they can still get around it if they really want to. But the fact that there is this kind of roadblock that kind of handcuffs the league around this time of year is a thing that is something, but the players will still always want them in their contracts. It's funny with the NHL,

we mostly focus on the NHL in this contracts. It's funny with the NHL, we mostly focus on the NHL in this show and there's a lot of complaints about how difficult it is to make trades. Even when you're talking about, you know, like a third line center or whatever, seventh defenseman, and then the NBA, you get all these star players moving all the time. the NBA, you get all these star players moving all the time.

Um, what do you think is the best for a league in terms of its popularity? Do you want the loyalty and consistency of say like Sidney Crosby only playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, or do you want something like the NBA where even one of the greatest ever, LeBron will play for multiple teams during his career? I would say it's a mix of both. Like you don't want to have all in one side of

the basket and none in the other, right? So, um, like for example, in the NBA, one of the greatest players, um, of the past 20 years, Kobe Bryant played on one team his entire career. And a lot of people loathe him for that. Same with Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks. So there are still players who get appreciated in those leagues that play on one team their entire career. Same as Sidney Crosby, same as Alex Ovechkin. But you want to have both, right? Because a lot of attention gets brought to the NBA for example,

because of their wild trade deadline. I mean, think of the players that get moved in the last couple of years on, in or around the trade deadline day. Um, you know, Luca Doncic, Zach Levin, De'Aaron Fox, uh, Kevin Durant a few years ago, Kyrie Irving. You know, those are big name players. You rarely see that in the NHL. You know, the biggest trade trips are depth defensemen, depth players. So yeah, you want both. You don't want, um, you know, the Alex O'Bashkins and the Sydney Crosby, you don't want them

to just be moved all the time, but you do want some big name players, um, to be involved in those trade talks because it does stir up some conversation, some entertainment for the fans and that conversation and those entertainment, it does bring in revenue for the league. So it does hamper the NHL to a certain extent, but you still want those players that you can appreciate for their loyalty. And I think when a lot of people look to the NHL from outside, from other leagues, they think, wow, these players are really loyal. It's completely different than our league.

But that's just because the contracts and the salary cap situation of the NHL has. So, yeah, definitely a mix of both. You don't want just one side, you don't want just the other, you want to have both. Someone texted in during this hit, part of the reason why there's no or there's limited trade protection in the NBA is because You don't want just the other, you want to have both. Someone texted in during this hit, part of the reason why there's no, or there's limited trade protection in the NBA is because there's no NBA teams in Edmonton or Winnipeg. And I had to laugh because that is a part of this

is that every time that the NHL goes into the anonymous polls about what team features most prominently on the no trade list, it's often Winnipeg. Did you get anyone to speak on the record about that angle of it? That the trade protection has a lot to do with the fact that it gets you away from going to undesirable places to live. Yeah, I was talking to one agent about that and

we had an actual lengthy discussion about Winnipeg specifically because of the recent poll that came out where you know it's always on the top of some of these trade, no trade lists. But the problem with that, with the NHL is there's so much international flavor compared to other leagues. So there's a lot of times where Americans don't want to play in Canada. And Winnipeg is one of those options that comes to the top of mind. But what does help Winnipeg's case now this season is they're really good. So a lot of players might just want to go and play for a contending team. Um, so that helps that case. But

you know, there's a lot of players who are in Northeastern America that don't want to play in Western Canada. But then there's a lot of Western Canadians who don't mind playing in Winnipeg or Edmonton or Calgary. So it definitely is a mix of both. But the international flavor of the NHL does make it so that more players are more concerned about playing in one area and then the other. And another thing is if you're playing in a market like Toronto, Montreal, some players value privacy, right? They don't want to be in a big media market. I'd rather play in a city like New York City or Salt Lake City because when they're going out for dinner nobody recognizes them, right? But

it's hard to do the same in Toronto or Montreal because there's so much attention on the Leafs and the Habs. I mean, same with Vancouver, eh, and with the Canucks, like it's hard. If Elias Pedersen was walking down the street, a lot of people are going to recognize who he is. Salt Lake City, I don't think many people are. So there is a lot of impact on America, Canada, the markets, and the international flavors as a whole does want more, does cause more players to want some sort of protection in their contract. NHL no trade clauses have surged 480% in just over a decade.

There's a good article up in the Toronto Star right now. I recommend everyone go check it out. And yes, one, thanks for writing it, and two, thanks for joining us today. We really appreciate it. Yeah, no worries. Thanks for having me on. I was blessed to talk with you.

Thank you. That's Elias Hussein from the Toronto Star here on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. So one of the things that we wanted to talk about today was the other teams besides the Canucks heading into the trade deadline. And we had a conversation with Greg Wyshinski about that earlier in the show, if you want to

download our one of the podcast. Um, besides the Canucks, name one team that comes to mind when you're like, I wonder what those guys are going to do at the deadline. The one that jumps straight to mind, I think I've asked at least our last four or five guests about it. All the NHL insiders is Miko Rantanen and the Carolina Hurricanes. Yeah. are going to do at the deadline. The one that jumps straight to mind, I think I've asked at least our last four or five guests about it.

All the NHL insiders is Miko Rantan and the Carolina Hurricanes is what's going to happen there. Cause that has the potential to be one of the greatest blown busted gambles in recent NHL trade deadline history. Like Wish, you know, kind of astutely pointed it out in that hit in hour one.

If you entered into this deal, just with the idea that Carolina got a extended negotiating window with Miko Randon, the price that they paid for that was astronomical. And if they're forced to move him, I think we're all gonna be looking at Eric Tulski and saying, maybe you're not the managerial genius we thought you were.

Cause that's a wild. What if, what if, what if, what if there's my burrito. What if they keep them and then don't do anything in the playoffs and then he walks away. That would be even worse. That would be catastrophic, would it not? You give up Marty Natchez for what?

A month and a half, two months of Miko Rantanen and the same playoff fate that you've had the last five or six years. If they go and utilize it as a half, two months of Miko Rantanen and the same playoff fate that you've had the last five or six years, if they go and utilize it as a rental, they would have to win the cup for that thing to pay off a few walks. Anything short of that is a disaster. As a Canucks fan, depending where you stand on this issue,

would that almost be like a good thing for the Canucks? Because let's say Carolina keeps Rantinen, regardless of what they do in the playoffs, let's say Rantinen walks away. Yeah. So they got all that cap space. They've had interest in Pedersen before. Now they wouldn't have Naces to trade, but they might be able to put together some sort of interesting package for Pedersen.

Am I too focused on finding teams to trade Pedersen too? One, yes. Oh, so you're not worried about it? Oh, I'm extremely worried about it. My worry would be that the longer this season plays out, the worse it's going to be to try and get a return. If this season continues with 20 the worse it's going to be to try and get a return. If this season continues with 20 more games of the performance that we're seeing right

now, the interesting trade offers, as you put it, are only going to be interesting in the assortment of garbage coming back the other way. Yeah. It's not going to be good. I have wonder if we need two months of Pedersen not playing hockey games in order for there to be time for people to talk themselves into maybe trading for Elias Pedersen.

I think that the theory of maybe like having some time away and allowing everyone to breathe and they'll be like, okay, is this a distressed asset that now that everyone's had that exhale, we're able to go after it? Maybe. I don't know. I honestly don't know how much damage has been done to the asset. I know that there's been some though.

I know that there's been some. I think there's been a lot. Right. In terms of the asset value and the trade market. I think that the Canucks would be, it would be in their best interest to move on from this as soon as possible. Because this is going there's two issues here. One is the player himself.

And I think you could make a fairly valid argument right now that if he's going to rediscover a game, his game, it might not be in this market on this team in this city. The whole change of scenery, which a lot of people have talked about, and there's probably some validity to it. There's also the managerial aspect in which a management group that historically has done a fairly decent job of cleaning up their own messes is now tasked with cleaning up their biggest mess so far. Because this is. Yeah.

Of the failed signings that Rutherford and Alvin have had right now, this is the biggest mistake that they've made without question. Mikheyev is a drop in the bucket compared to this. So is Kuzmenko. Any other deal. Like this is a profound problem. You know, as much as you say all this, I 100% agree with it, but in the back of my mind, I'm kind of like, yeah, but I wonder if they're going to gamble on keeping him and just being like, hopefully we can turn this around. Because if they do trade him, then you're in a situation where you have very little down the middle.

This is why it's such a tough situation and probably, and understandably, a lot of people are listening and going like, Bref definitely wants Pedersen traded. Canucks luck, he regains his form and becomes a superstar again. No, no, no. Like JT Miller? Honestly, I just care about the Canucks, right? And regardless of whether or not Pedersen regains his form outside of the Canucks,

like it doesn't, like it does matter, but if the Canucks trade Pedersen, what are they then left with? You have to trade your way out of it, and you have to trade your way into it. You rob Peter to pay Peter. How are they gonna find a legit top six center? You trade Besser, you trade Pedersen,

you take the bounty of assets in return, you try and find one. I'm not saying- Yeah, like, you wouldn't win the first. Hold on. Real difficult, man. Yeah, it's extremely difficult. You know what's extremely difficult?

Trading your way out of your problems that you created, which is what they're- I know. I mean, I don't, this does not seem like rocket science, but I'm not agreeing with any of it by the way. I think it's a crazy way. I'm honestly glad it's not my job, but that's what. To do it, it's real, it's a, they're in such,

such a tough spot because there is that temptation to keep Pedersen and hope, hope, hope, hope, hope that he can turn it around. But if they do do that, and then next season Pedersen is the same, then is that a risk that they're willing to take? I doubt it. Because then he's untradable. No one's gonna take him because then you've had like the,

I guess you could still have the, change the scenery argument, but then you'd have the, well, he had an entire off season to get into shape, get stronger, try and figure out what's going on between the ears, and he's still like this. And at the same time, you're looking at what that would do to the spirit of the team. Okay. All I'm saying is that I like to try and base some of our ideas and theories here in fact, and I often say, and I'll say it again, that a pretty good indicator of future behavior is

what's happened in the past. This is a management group that has done the Rob Peter to pay Paul as it relates to rebuilding the blue line to get what they've got right now, which by the way, if you've got a top, let's just go top three, Hughes, Frohnick, Pedersen. Well, two of those three were completely rebuilt via trade, right? That was Frohnick and that was Pedersen.

And that came at the expense of the forward group, right? But they've done this before. They've tried to trade their way. And it's not trade their way out of it, but it's trading. I like the Peter Paul analogy because it makes sense, right? With this one, I think that you can go to another instance of past behavior, which is when they've realized

that a deal isn't working out, they move on. They haven't really shown the patience to let's see if it works itself out. Yeah. They just haven't. But this is a different category. It's a bigger category. What's the largest category?

Five? What's the category five? It's a category five. It's the biggest category you can get. So pretty much it's a no win scenario regardless of what they do. What do you mean? Unless PD begins his his form which seems slim at this point? I don't know I don't understand the question the Keith Patterson. He doesn't regain his form

It all goes to hell or they trade him they get less assets back. They lose the trade Can't figure it out Rate him and they can't get the assets back and then he regains his form with the other team There's all these three scenarios and none of them like these are like a dolly wall of scenarios I'm just saying nothing looks good. What is that? Well the highest upside scenarios they keep him and he regains his foot Yeah, that side is that is the only one like Ramon Texini says you might as well rebuild at this point if you trade PD for a Meh package, how is it even possible to create a real contender?

Um, other people texting in, Rager, he's 26. There's so much time for him to figure it out here. Yeah, Rager, but on the other hand, he's 26. There's so much time for him to continue to struggle like this here. Like it's, it's, a, from a marketing perspective, think of, think of if they bring him back and he still stinks, just think of how ugly

that could get at the arena. As people walk around and they're just like, I hate this team. This is the worst day of my life this is brutal and how much did I spend to get in here like a thousand bucks to bring the family you're right and all the way oh by the way there's tariffs now and I don't have a job anymore but at least the music's happy ticket prices going up next year you're right right, the song does make everything better. Okay, we got, we're at the halfway point of the show. We got a lot more to get into as we go along.

We got an open segment coming up, if I'm not mistaken. Brendan Batchelor is gonna join us at eight o'clock. We will look ahead to tomorrow night's game. 730 puck drop at Rogers Arena against the visiting Anaheim Ducks. That's at eight o'clock and then at eight 30, we're gonna do what we learned. Get yours in, Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650-650.

Hashtag them WWL and let us know what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. You are listening to the happiest show on earth, the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Mick Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays 3 to 4 on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 734 on a Tuesday! Happy Tuesday everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. I don't know where you're finding this stuff, but keep it going, laddie. It's my job to make you sound as ridiculous as possible

in reading these ads. 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.

Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominock at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him on the internet, jason.mortgage. It sounds like the music that was playing when Homer was being chased by the pimp in New York.

It does, actually. It's a very deep cut. More and more of our show is becoming inside jokes. That's for the best really. Fewer and fewer people are getting them. Hey Doug, how's your stock portfolio looking this morning? Excellent. I've diversified. You shorted it?

Yep. You called it? Yep. I did. Things are looking up. Yeah. From a sports perspective, have you seen the Canadian dollar? Don't say this, but it's now at 69. Nice. Okay. Not nice.

Don't say it. Not nice. Not nice. I wonder what Canadian owners are thinking right now. Because, you know, the the dollars are gonna go down as long as this goes on because they're probably gonna have to lower rates again in Canada when you say this goes on you're referring to the tariffs of course the tariffs yeah yeah the music again yeah yeah we got a light in the mood by the

music back out played the whole show by the way what did I say a month ago he wants this is what he wants. Yep. He wants tariffs, and I know he had the 30 day reprieve, but this is what he wants. No, stop. Bring it down. Yeah, yeah.

Stop. I don't know how long this is gonna last. I'd say a month. Yeah, well, who knows? He'll be pressured. I'm sure there's a lot of people. He'll be pressured into stopping in a month from now. That's my prediction.

Well Jason, noted economist Andy Cole figures he'll be 30 days. Hey, just watch. Just watch. There's going to be a lot of people being like, hey Donald, I'm one of your rich supporters and I've noticed my stock portfolio is down. He's like, want me to create another crypto reserve?

Yeah. Anyway, it's fascinating to watch. It's frustrating to watch. And I do feel, I just want to throw it out there that I feel for any listeners right now who are worried about their jobs because there's going to be some pain in Canada. And in the States.

And in the States. Lots of folks are going to lose jobs. I care less about them right now. I care about Canadians. Sorry about the price of eggs, America. And, you know, this is tough. I, you know, trying to predict what Trump is going to do is, is very difficult.

And maybe one of the lessons that we're going to learn from this is, you can't trust friends. You can't trust them. We believed we had a friend and it turns out then they got a leader that doesn't treat friends very well. I was going to say- That's our bad, right? Don't trust any friends.

That's a lesson for kids. If you've got a really good friend at school, you can't trust them. I keep waiting for one intrepid reporter at the White House to ask how you could do this so close to the NHL trade deadline, throwing it into arrears. You know it's Friday, right? We're only a handful of days away. We don't need economic uncertainty going into Friday's deadline. Halford, you know how I like need, not like need to be right?

You never really gave me credit for predicting that Trump would mention the Four Nations hockey tournament? Yeah, well, it went even further then. The one debate that we, we had it via text, by the way, the group thread, which is a whole different story, whether he would show up or not, and I was like, it's probably not, but you were right, the phone call, which I'm still waiting

for the released audio. Apparently that's gonna be part of the Four Nations Face Off docu-series that's gonna be released. Cause I guess that they've got the full unedited phone call. I've only heard anecdotally that it's Trump talking about like golf and then some other stuff. And then eventually gets back around to the fact that they're playing in the final of a

of a fairly important tournament against Canada. But you were right. He was there, front and center. They brought out one of those old Cisco landline phones with the speaker on it, and then just like held it up in front of the room. Yeah. Right?

I don't know how else you'd do it, but I mean, I guess they stole it from like the teleconference room next door, and they just, they had had in the middle of the room And then they broadcast Trump's called the team Yeah, really seemed to motivate them too because they oh wait, they lost the last game of that tournament So does this mean the Canadian teams are gonna have a hard time making moves at the deadline because there's I just I'm not actually curious. I'm like does this actually I mean I said it jokingly so we could pivot to the

Deadline talk, but I don't know. It's not great timing this actually. I mean, I said it jokingly so we could pivot to the NHL trade deadline talk, but I could, I don't know. It's not great timing for anybody. Let's just put it that way. Yeah. I mean, when the Canadian dollar is low, it's not good for Canadian teams. Yeah. And it got to a point, you know, a few decades

ago where Canadian teams were moving because of the low dollar and I'm not saying it's going to get to that point, but it makes it tough business-wise. Think, you're the connects right now. Okay. You've got a team, which is struggling. You've got a low Canadian dollar relative to the US, which you pay your players in.

In the next three years, the salary cap is expected to go up quite a bit. That's tough. That's a tough situation. I don't even know if we can assume that the Canucks will in two to three years be spending to the cap. I have no idea. How many teams will be spending to the cap?

I don't know. It's a great question. It is a great question. It's a lot of money. I know even there. How many teams will be spending to the cap? I don't know. It's a great question. It is a great question. It's a lot of money. And I know even there are some American teams that in the less traditional hockey markets or the smaller markets or the markets where teams aren't doing that while they're like, no, we've

got like a budget and it's not going to be the upper limits of the cap. We got so used to during the flat cap, just everyone spending to the cap pretty much. It was an anomaly when you didn't spend to the cap. You know. It was like Arizona and like one of the Ottawa, they wouldn't spend to the cap and they would be

laughed at and mocked for not spending to the cap. It's going to be different for sure. And it's only a couple of years away because it's going to be exponential increases over the next couple of seasons. Oh good. We've got a bunch of crazy texts into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line at 650-650. If you want to send in your totally off the cuff and unrelated text into two guys that don't care,

text into 650-650 Dunbar Lumber Text Line. Metro Vancouver's trust or choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at dunbarlumber.com. Let's continue our conversation about other teams leading into the NHL trade deadline. I'm going to name some teams and you pick which one you're most interested in. Buffalo, St. Louis, Edmonton, and Florida. All very different situations.

Florida first because they are the defending Stanley Cup champions. They just made a fairly massive move acquiring Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for Spencer Knight. Did you see Spencer Knight last night, laddie? Pretty impressive. 41. Young laddie out there. 41 saves and a 5-1 win over the Kings.

What was the shot, 41 to 19 or something? Yeah, they got roundly outshot. He played great and they won 5-1 on that too. Anyway, back to your original point. Florida yesterday also put Matthew Kachuck on long-term injured reserve with a groin injury. They did acknowledge it was a groin injury. And then also said he's not going to play for

the remainder of the regular season. So his cap. Did they say that for sure? Yeah. Did they confirm it? Yeah. Okay. So his cap space now is up there and I would be

very, very interested to see what Bill Zito is going to do. Bill Zito is a very good general manager. I think he's done a masterful job in Florida. I think he's leveraged the thing. You know it's always like Florida's a non-traditional hockey market and it's different but he's kind of leveraged the pluses that it has and made it a really desirable place because he's brought the pieces in that were willing to entertain those things, amazing weather, you're not the center of attention,

but has also made a place where you can win because there's so much talent there. So guys are ready to go and pack their bags to be there. And then with the Jones thing, very familiar with the players, Zito was the assistant general manager in Columbus when Seth Jones was a member of the Blue Jackets. So he was able to leverage his previous relationship

to get that deal done. Jones said he only wanted to go to two places, Dallas and Florida. Florida was one. So now with all of this happening, I would not be surprised if there's another big name out there that'll be like, yeah, I'd be okay with going to Florida.

I mean, why would you not? They've got a great team. They're gonna get Kachak back for the playoffs. They've got an opportunity to go to a third consecutive Stanley Cup. Um, so I think that they're going to be a very fast, the list of the four, that was the one that jumped out to me right away.

Um, Buffalo and St. Louis are interesting just with all they've got to sell. If you go onto Kipper's trade board, for example, the, the list is populated with tons of Sabres and tons of Blues. And I know there's a lot of talk in Toronto, for example, about getting a guy like Braden Shen, who has a previous relationship with Craig

Berube, has success in the playoffs and might add that something to the Leafs lineup. And then maybe if you get Braden, maybe you go out and get Luke. Maybe you get Luke. Um, but to me, I gotta, I gotta admit, maybe this is just, uh, you know, the Buffalo Sabres are our sad club brothers and I just wonder

what they're going to do. And I also wonder, is Kevin Adams the right guy to do it? Well, that's the big question there is do you let a guy who might not be your general manager beyond this season make fundamental moves at the deadline. Does Terry Pagula often forget that he owns this team? Oh crap, the hockey team. Oh my God, I forgot about the hockey team.

It just feels like we've been talking about the Sabres and whether or not they're going to make some trades for a while now. They continue to stink. The return of Lindy Ruffa's head coach sure hasn't worked. No. Um, so you're looking at, all right, well, who are some names that could possibly move?

Dylan Cousins. Alex Tuck. Alex Tuck and then. JJ Peturka, his name has been out there. Right. The big difference between Buffalo and St. Louis Though is that Buffalo is dead last in the East on 54 points They will not be making the playoffs because they're nowhere close to it

st. Louis Because it's such a turtle derby in the West they're kind of not kind of there They're smack in the middle of this thing. Not because they're playing great hockey. They're a 500 hockey team with a minus eight goal differential, but in the West, that's a playoff team. That could get you into the second wild card. So maybe Doug Armstrong looks at it and says,

no, we don't sell off any of these pieces. They've got the coach that they want now in Monty. They've got the piece. I mean, here's the thing. Armstrong's the guy that's committed to all these pieces in St. Louis. He was the one that resigned Shen and made him the captain. He was the one that made Kairu and Thomas the frontline guys

and the highest paid guys on the team. These are all Armstrong's moves. It would be a little bit like the Alvin Rutherford dynamic where like if Armstrong was going to move these guys, it would be him kind of rectifying his earlier mistakes. Like I made a mistake on this guy, we're moving him out, whatever.

But at this stage, if I'm the blues, I'm probably thinking like 20 games, well 19 for them, cause they have 62 played, 19 games left. Like let's see if we can get in. Yeah. You know? I mean, the competition isn't exactly intimidating, right? I don't right now.

If there's four teams. I know Drantax likes Utah is this, you know, this incredible team and they might be playing the best hockey of the four teams, but I don't even know how you'd rank the most likely to make the playoffs. You could go to. Yeah, I was just going to ask you. Dom's model or Money Puck.

Dom's model. A few weeks ago, I probably would have said the Canucks, but I don't think so right now, especially with Hughes' health and it's possible Demko might play soon, but that's such a wild card. Hughes' health is the. If Hughes was healthy. Why I think Hughes' health and goal-tending

overall is the, or the, cause like, Pedersen for me right now is like, he's a fixed factor. If Hughes was. Like, he is what, what he is. The other ones, I don't know what they're going to be. If Hughes was healthy, I would give the edge to the Canucks of those four teams because I would say that they've got the best player of the four.

I'd take a really easy out. Sure. They've got, they've got the fewest games played them in Calgary have 60. So they do have slight games in hand and Hughes is the best player in any of those four teams. I'm like, he's probably enough of a driving force to get them in.

The problem is, is that Hughes is nowhere near 100% and that's an issue. Calgary to me feels like they had their moment, which was the first couple months of the season, and now they're just clinging on for life, and they're struggling to score. Utah does make sense, but with Utah, it feels like they're a great team in theory,

because they're young, and they're exciting, and they're new. They need to put it into practice. Also, their home rep, for some reason or another, being at home has been no advantage to them whatsoever. They have a sub-500 record at home. It hasn't been this huge lift. This new market, a new crowd,

and the excited Utah fans hasn't translated into a bunch of wins. It's hardly a place that's difficult to go into and get points out of. And St. Louis is just really uninspired. If I had to say it right now, I'd probably, and it kills me to say this because I've got no faith in it happening, but I think if I was to take, you know, just look at it objectively and take my fan bias out of it, I still think the Canucks are going to squeak in. Somehow I think they're going to squeak in. And I don't think it's going to be very impressive. And I don't think it's going to be this stirring, rallying cry to make it. I think they're gonna squeak in. And I don't think it's gonna be very impressive, and I don't think it's gonna be this

stirring, rallying cry to make it. I think that they're just going to be the least bad out of the four remaining teams. They're gonna be like the caps from last year though, they'll get in and be like, oh, they are overmatched. There is that concern. There is that concern. No, really though, there is that concern.

Like what is the good matchup for the Canucks in the first round, is there one? Edmonton, I think, if they can get it. Yeah, but. But I don't think Edmonton, I think, if they can get it. Yeah. But I don't think Edmonton's gonna win the division. Let's say that they go in as the second wild card. I think it's gonna be Edmonton, LA. Say you go in as the second wild card,

I mean, you're playing Winnipeg in the first round, no matter what, if you're the second wild card. I mean, Dallas is eight points back of them for second, so. Yeah, what's the difference between Winnipeg and Vegas right now? 10. Yeah. So you're playing Winnipeg between Winnipeg and Vegas right now? 10. Yeah. So you're playing Winnipeg.

Winnipeg's finishing first in the conference. The Canucks squeak in in their first round opponent is Winnipeg. Now, hey. I mean, I kind of wanna see it. I wanna see it. Oh, I would too. It's all Canadian.

I would too. It'd be fun to play Winnipeg, but man. I don't know if you know this or not, but Winnipeg historically has not come up huge in the post season. Yeah. Yeah. They've kind of come up small in the biggest moments. But it would be a real big ask to be like,

okay, please go take care of this team. Who's probably going to win like 60 games in the regular season. Has been an absolute dynamo. Has the best goalie in the league. It's a tall order. Is Thatcher-Demko their long shot for the hope

of getting into the playoffs and pulling an upset, or at least putting a scare into a team like the Winnipeg Jets? Part of me says yes because of what we always go back to. It's like when you talk about Lankton versus Demko, it's Demko because he's got the highest ceiling. He's the most talented guy. That's what I mean.

Yeah. If you, I mean, but they need, I mean, he needs to get healthy and stay healthy. And I'm not reinventing the wheel with that analysis. I'm just saying is he their long shot secret weapon that nobody is talking about right now? Yes.

Right. He would be the wild card. He would be their wild card. He'd be the wild card that if you threw him in and he had, you know, last year's form in a short window. Like if you're talking about what's more likely to happen, Pedersen is amazing in the playoffs or Demko is amazing in the playoffs, I'd probably take Demko.

Yes, you have to. Yeah. So Rich just texted in, you guys are dreaming with six Es and five Ms. So really accentuating the dream just texted in you guys are dreaming with six E's and five M's So really accentuating the dream. Oh, you're really dreaming if you think the Canucks are gonna get in the playoffs rich Go to NHL calm and then go to that tab that says standings And then look at it Did you stare at it. Fake news. Yeah.

I don't know if this is like a projection where you think that like we are trying to talk ourselves into it. It's just, they're smack in the middle of it. Go look at any projection. Their odds of making the playoffs are just as high as every other team that's around them in the playoffs. It's not a dream, it's a reality.

It's a sad, cold reality sometimes, but it's our reality. I mean, I get it. They're not exactly trending in the right direction right now. None of the teams are. You said that you're like, you're a... St. Louis is trending in the right direction, I think. They are, there's six and four in their last hand. Like no one is kicking the door down.

So trending in the right direction, not racing towards the right direction. None of these teams are kicking the door down. I the right direction not racing towards No one is a connection None of these teams are kicking the door down to be like we got to get in they're like they're coming towards the door Slowly knocking on it right looks like no one's home. Yeah, ask you if you want to talk about your faith That's sort of that's the Utah But none of them are kicking the door down. None of them. So it's not a dream.

It's not a dream at all. Oh God, Utah's knocking on the door. Run! Very polite. I'm not home. Why are they all wearing bow ties? Have you heard the news? Yeah.

Answer, don't answer. Cody from Winkler, Manitoba, one of my favorite places. I've been there. Text in. Okay. Sweet. One of my favorite places. I've been there. Okay. Okay. Sweet. One of the flyers.

Hot take Stamkos to the Panthers. Maybe that's another team that bears like a minute worth of chatting about the national predators. The Panthers or the Predators. No, not the Panthers. We've talked about them. But. Stamkos to the Panthers would be amazing for the,

if they were to meet, could you imagine if the all Florida battle was to go down in the playoffs and Steve Stamkos was playing for the Florida Panthers against the Tampa Bay Lightning? That would be amazing. I am all here for, what's the guy's name from Winkler? Cody. Cody, Cody from Winkler. I salute you. I respect what you're doing there. Can Stamkos keep up though? I mean, he looks really cooked right now.

I remember saying he looked cooked during a game against the Canucks and then he scored like twice against them. I was like, damn it. He scored 40 last year. Yeah. Because he's been such a tremendous player for a long, and one of the genuine good guys in the league.

Really? What? Well. Stammer? Stammer's great. Okay, but. What? Why didn't the lightning work harder to keep him then? Because he's kind of washed, like on the ice. Yeah.

But because he's, I'm willing to grant him that this may have been just a night. I don't think he anticipated that he was going to be a Nashville. I don't think he anticipated that he was gonna be in Nashville. I think there's probably a lot going on about finding a new home after 14 plus years in the NHL, trying to get acclimated to new teammates. And it's not working out in Nashville in the slightest.

I'm willing to grant him like maybe give him a year. I think the whole Nashville organization now is just punting on this year. Like this isn't working. Hopefully we can come back next year and put it together. But if someone was to make them available. I think O'Reilly might get traded. I'd like to see, because he's such a good

playoff performer, I'd like to see O'Reilly on the move. I mean, he's proven it. I'll never forget, the one, you know, I have very distinct memories from the bubble. The winning team getting to go to the better hotel was always one of the greatest things the NHL ever did. That was so amazing. You guys remember that, right?

Where you got to move from the Sutton Place Hotel to the Marriott if you won. Yeah, yeah, it was awesome. And you got to take the rooms of the team that you eliminated. It was the best thing the NHL ever did. Anyway, that was one good bubble memory. The other one was how dominant Ryan O'Reilly, remember because when they

played the blues, we spent a lot of time. And Ryan O'Reilly was just a dominant force in that series. In a series where a lot of the other blues failed to show up. He was a driving force. So I think that it would be great to see him go on the move somewhere. I'm not sure that Nashville is going to entertain it, but you never know. Okay. Uh, we're up against it for time.

Batch is coming up next on the Alfred and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.