Halford & Brough in the Morning - What Did The Canucks Get In Braeden Cootes?

Episode Date: June 30, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Sportsnet NHL Draft expert Sam Cosentino (1:59) about the kind of player the Canucks drafted in Braeden Cootes this past weekend with the 15th overall pick, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

With the 15th selection in the 2025 NHL draft, the Vancouver Canucks are proud to select from the Seattle Thunderbirds, Brady Colts. 703 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halford and Brough Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning hour two, which we are now in, is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you.

Visit him online at jason.mortgage. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Our two of the program, we're going to kick it off with a little draft talk. You heard how about Mikhail Samuelson from Out of the Clouds did not expect to see him on Friday night in the opening round of the NHL draft announcing the Canucks pick. I understand it, cause he's like the development guy.

Sure. Other teams, most celebrities. Yeah. Did the Canucks not even bother? Could the Canucks not get anyone else from Full House? Surely there must have been other people available. Uncle Jesse? Oh, they did.

Dave Coulier was a good poll. Yeah. I thought he did a really, Cut it out. Yeah, he did a good job. I thought, you know, it would have been over the moon that they took a couple of the old Mighty Ducks Oh, that was awesome. Was it awesome? Yeah I'm like make the pick they they had the best draft sequence when they took Roger McQueen to Disney to have him meet Lightning McQueen. Oh, that was the best sequence sequence by far, yeah. And his nickname is Lightning.

Yeah, it's perfect. Everything worked out, harmony. What a coincidence. Totally, same number too, 95. All right, to the phone lines, we go to talk all things draft. Sportsnet's very own Sam Cosentino here on the Hellford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Sam, how are you? Yeah, doing great, guys. Just recovering from a couple of long days of TV. I was gonna say like that. Okay, let's like, you know what? Let's start there because this was in a way an experimental draft, right? It was decentralized.

They were trying a lot of new things. I think the hope was that it was gonna move along a little faster than previous iterations of the draft, but that didn't happen. It was a long first round, a very long second day as well. Going into it, working on television, one, were you expecting it to be as long and drawn out as it wasn't to, how did you adjust on the fly to the length of that,

especially the first round of that draft? So my experience goes back to 2020 and it was day two in particular. I was working for the NHL network, but I was working under the CBC studios. And so everyone had set up that morning, you know, there's a small crew there was just basically me in the studio and they were going to, you know, just use me whenever they could or have me in a single shot with the rest of the panel that was in in Secaucus, New Jersey. I think I ended up going eight hours.

I think the crew was scheduled for three. So, and we had no food, like no one was prepared to be there that long. It was wild. I felt like I was in prison there for a bit. So I had an inkling that this thing was gonna be long remotely. And what I'd say to that end is like,

Steve Maher has a way of making things happen. You go back to last year, Drafted Sphere, and it was, you know, like, it was kind of late in the proceedings to get it done. And we were basically booted out of Sphere about an hour and a half after day two ended. I mean, everything was cleaned up and ready to go for a show that night that I think people were starting to

get in there at four o'clock. And what I say to that is like Steve Mayer wanted to make this a really big production, trying to make it as cool as he could based on the fact that he knew the commissioner didn't really want to be there in that vein. The most unique part about the NHL draft is having everybody in one place at one time, seeing the table, seeing people get up from the table, try and make deals, right? So the impetus was, hey, we need more time to prepare for free agency and we also think we can save money if we do it remotely. And so I think the learn pretty quickly after nine hours, basically nine and a half hours,

but that's no longer the way to go. So I'd be shocked if we were done remotely again. That's kind of the, you know, the be all and end all. I'd be shocked if we go down that road again. I'm with you on that one. Okay, let's turn our attention to the Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks select Braden Coots out of Seattle with the 15th overall selection.

For those of us that haven't had the full rundown yet, can you give us your rundown of what the Canucks are getting in Coots? Yeah, so I really am a huge fan of this player and I think I described him on DraftNate as one of those guys who's like a wet t-shirt in a hot day. You just, you can't get them off here, right? Like he's that type of player who's just constantly creating havoc with his willingness to constantly creating havoc with his willingness to track pucks down, throw the body, really good guy on the penalty kill, extremely smart. I think what most impresses me about him though is I talked to coach Matt Odette in Seattle and the one thing he said at 15 years old, they brought him to the Memorial Cup.

Now he didn't play in it because he was only 15, but they felt that experience would be really good for him to be in that kind of a winning situation. So Seattle won the WHL title that year. I think he did get into some playoff games, didn't play in the Memorial Cup, but in between going to the Cup after they'd won their title, they played in the three-on-three tournament and this was a team like full of first-round guys, right, and NHL drafted guys. Well they played in a little three on three tournament and every team wanted Coots on their team. Well, Coots' three on three team ended up winning

this kind of mini tournament within them. And it's from that point on, people just gravitated towards it. And I know in some of the exit interviews that year, they were like, ah, we're really excited to see what Coots can do. He's probably gonna wear a letter for you. Uh, and, and so as it turns out, he was named the,

you know, the captain this year in Seattle. So he's a guy who shoots the puck well, he's got an offensive side to him, but you're really going to like his tenacity, um, and, and the way he really just gets after the game. Like one of those guys that you're going to look and you're never going to be, never feel ripped off by the shift he's going to give you.

What kind of team did he play on this past season for Seattle? Because a lot of people will look at his point totals and go, well, 63 points in 60 games. It's at least a point a game, but I mean, we're seeing some guys put up some huge numbers in junior hockey these days. Coots did lead Seattle in scoring. So it suggests to me that Seattle was not a high

scoring team and maybe on a better, more talented, more offensive team, Coots has the potential to put up bigger numbers. Well, yeah. And I think if you look at his, I think he had 11 points in the under 18. So back together with the, you know, the best in class available from the CHL, uh, at that time. And that's kind of, I think that

bolted them into the top half of the draft. Like I had Coots probably, if you go back maybe two months ago, probably somewhere in that 20 to 25 range and a really good under 18s. And they proved the, what he could do, but getting back to Seattle, so they won the title in 2023, graduated some players, traded a couple of guys, and now they're sort of bottom to mid cycle coming back up through that junior cycle that we talked about. So the point production doesn't concern me at all. Like, he's not going to go into the national hockey league

when it happens, you know, within the next couple of years and be a 70 or 80 point guy. He's not going to be that, but what he is going to be is one of those guys that you can play in a matchup situation. His basement to me is a third line guy who's just going to hound pox, who's going to work really hard. He's going to bump the body a little bit and he's going to give you that secondary scoring. So I'm not looking for a guy who's going to work really hard. He's going to bump the body a little bit and he's going to give you that secondary scoring. So I'm not looking for a guy who's going to come in and put up big points. I'm looking for a guy who's going to be a

character guy. He's going to be a role player and who's going to be a guy I think Vancouver Canucks fans are really going to come to love. Um, was it, do you think a tough decision to pass up on a guy like Victor Eklund? I know a lot of people in this fan base were hoping for Eklund to be drafted in the spot that

Kutz was and Eklund ended up going the very next pick. Yeah. I mean, listen, no, I don't think so. I mean, I love Eklund too. I think, I think the world of Eklund, he too is one of those kind of get after it type guys, but he's much more slight of frame with room to grow. I mean, to a certain extent, if you look at his brother, his brother's by no means a bigger player. Kutz is slightly bigger than that, but they're slightly different players. Like when I look at Eklund, he's

a little more kind of in the weeds he'll find quiet ice for you he'll go in four check and he'll go in track pucks he'll do all those things really well he probably leans a little bit more to the offensive side of the game than Kuz does so I mean listen you have the the Swedish connection there so I could see why people are drawing that line but I think you're gonna be really happy with K But I think you're going to be really happy with Coots. I think you'll forget about Eklund once you once you start tracking Coots. We're speaking to Sam Cosentino, Sportsnet NHL draft expert here

on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. A little more inside baseball when it comes to the draft, Sam. So going in, did you and the rest of the guys on the panel get a sense that there wasn't going to be a lot of movement with regards to trades and moving draft picks? Or were you surprised at the lack of movement on the draft floor? You know, I'm one of those guys every year who looks at how many teams have multi picks in the first round. And the more there are, the 10 I tend to think that more movement that there's going to be. And so I put my foot in my mouth for about a decade.

I didn't do it this year. What the interesting dynamic to all of that is, like, are we gonna get more trade action if we're all together and we're on the floor and people can get up and walk over to another table as opposed to like texting and going in the GM's what's up chat and trying to go back and forth that way.

I don't know, it seemed to me in the couple of people that I talked to that they had some stuff that was pre- preconceived if you will and sort of set up where the framework of a deal would be done. But everyone gets there and they're waiting to see what happens and then of course you're going to get, you know, Carolina is always known to move back. Kyle Dubas, you knew he was going to do a trade back scenario and then he traded up again so that was kind of interesting. The New York Islanders, I love what they did in moving Dobson.

It didn't sound like it was going to be a fit there anyway so to see those picks go. But again that was seemingly done before. Um, I, I don't know. I, you know, we had eight going into it. We had eight picks, eight teams rather with multi first round picks, two of them had three picks. So if you look at where those teams were in Nashville, not really good last year, kind of trying to get moving here on the fly a little bit. Pittsburgh is quite obvious where they are back to the downturn in their cycle to try and get back on top again. So you know, you had an expectation for sure with Pittsburgh. I don't know, I'm not going to even predict that anymore. I

would like to think though that if we were alive and in person, I would like to think that that would have sparked more deals. How many of these guys or are we going to see any of these guys in the NHL next year? Great question. I think you'll see Matthew Schaeffer get games. I don't know if he'll be able to stay there. It's pretty rare that the first overall pick goes back. But we saw it with own power a couple of years ago, right? And based on just 17 games played last year for Matthew Schaeffer in the league and another, you know, exhibition games, prospect games, another seven or eight there. I don't know. It would be pretty tough for me to see him sustaining. Knowing Matthew the way I do,

if he's given a little bit of rope, he might end up taking it and they might have a hard time sending him back. So we'll see how that plays it. I think Misa, Misa's got an opportunity I think. You know, like the situation in San Jose where they're going young there and they're going to try and stagger Smith and Celebrini, and then you bring Misa in a year later. So if you think about the long term and having those guys, you know, you want to stagger their contracts a little bit. I think you'd have a chance to play.

I really do. I don't think we're going to find anyone who's going to be sustainable for a full season of games. If I had to pick the one guy, I would pick Michael Mesa. Sam, this was awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it. Enjoy a little bit of downtime. Of course, free agency starts tomorrow, so there's not that much downtime. But we appreciate you taking the time and great job on the draft this week. You did really good work. Thank you very kindly. Take care guys. Yeah.

See you later. But that's Sam Cosentino, Sportsnet NHL draft expert here on the Haliford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. So for people wondering about the goalie that the Canucks picked in the second round, which I was surprised they took a goalie considering that, you know, they're trying to lock up Demco long-term

and they've already got Lincoln and locked up long-term, but you always need goalies. So we'll ask Kevin Woodley about that. Cause we've got him at eight o'clock. Yeah, that sounds good. A reminder, and it's not really a reminder cause I haven't mentioned this yet. We're going to do what we learned at

7.30 this morning. Done this a couple of times in the last couple of weeks. I know it throws a lot of you regulars off. You wake up and you hear the What We Learn music, and you're like, ah, I'm late for work, it's okay. 7.30 this morning, we're gonna do them. So get them in right now.

Dunbar Lumbertec's line is 650-650. Tell us what you learned over the last 72 hours in sports. No shortage of stuff to get into here. There's all the stuff that happened with the Vancouver Canucks at the draft and the NHL throughout the draft weekend. You had the BC Lions, you had the Vancouver Whitecaps, you had Canada at the gold cup.

So there's a lot to get into there. The reason we're doing what we learned at 7.30 is because the general manager of the Abbotsford Canucks, Ryan Johnson, is gonna join us at 8.30 this morning. We'll talk. I mean, again, we tried this last week, it didn't work. I'm pretty sure it'll go through this week. And if it doesn't, I'm going to be at a loss for words,

but Ryan Johnson is expected to join us at 8.30 this morning. I mean, I'd respect it. It'd be very funny. It would be a good bit. Yeah. Matt Damon reverse type bit would be good. Yeah. I want to talk a little bit more about the draft

and the draft format. Okay. I would describe that draft as one long FaceTime conversation or Zoom meeting. Okay. I would describe that draft as one long FaceTime conversation or Zoom meeting. Okay. And I hate FaceTime and I hate Zoom because there's always like, well there can be glitches sometimes, but also there's that like, it's just awkward. Yes. It's always awkward.

It's always awkward. Like you talk. No, okay, I'll talk. You talk. I couldn't watch the draft. I had to tap out after the 30th communication breakdown. I did flip it on back when the Canucks were set to pick and then I watched the Islanders make picks 16 and 17. I thought the Isles had a really good draft. But then I had to get on with my life.

This thing had been going on too long and one can only take so much Kevin Connolly, who was the Island, of course he was the Islander's celebrity picker. Still doing today? Still dining out on Entourage? Hey look, it's E. E loves the Islanders. Okay. That's awesome. I mean, the NHL's ability to get high end celebrities has never been their strength.

How long did the first round take anyway? 10 hours? Roughly. Yeah. It actually went to Saturday morning. My thing with the draft and I just keep on, like you gotta keep this thing ticking along. I just keep on saying like, you gotta keep this thing ticking along. Uh, most fans only care about the picks their own teammates after you get out of

the top five and then you're like, I've never heard of this guy. This is most fans. If you're a hardcore draft guy, congratulations. But most fans are going to get a little channel flippy if it takes 15 minutes for Columbus to pick at number two and you've got these celebrities going on, like the reason I, you know, a dog, like the mighty docs, like I would just make

the pick, just make the pick. It was like that Simpsons clip, like just eat the damn orange. Right? It's like, it's, they're going out there. Orange is a lot like a good marriage. They're bombing and you know, like they're just, yeah. The level of disrespect towards a Vancouver icon like Joshua Jackson. It was too much.

It's a lot. Charlie Connolly tripled deep this way into my heart, okay. How awesome would it be if the draft lasted, like they were just like, this thing we're doing in two hours. Yeah, it was four and a half hours. That was four and a half hours. Four and a half hours.

I worked the draft. Ridiculous. I was here for four and a half hours. For it to be that long. So I don't understand why they decided to decentralize the draft yet. Because they thought it'd be like the NFL, right? No, no, just let me finish.

Why they think to decentralize the draft yet keep all of the stuff that made the original centralized draft so long and cumbersome. Nobody, and I repeat, nobody cares what the executives have to say to the players after they draft them. We know they liked them. That's why they picked them. Yeah. If they didn't like them, they wouldn't have picked them. That's such a good point. It's like, we're really excited to have you here. Oh, I thought you'd be not excited. What's

the player going to say? We're just talking for one champion to be like, you know what, honestly, we didn't really want to pick you. We didn't have any better options. Exactly. The players like, cool. The one player is like, I know what? Honestly, we didn't really want to pick you. We didn't have any better. And the one exactly the players like, cool. The one player is like, I'm actually not excited to come to your city. I hate it. I wish you had to think like a Sabres draft pick. Yeah, but he didn't even say no. So that was the whole point of the decentralized draft was getting away

from all of that ridiculous pomp and circumstance where 18 executives come to the stage and then they shake the hands of the player. And it's a really long drawn out pick. They had a three minute clock and nobody stuck to it because afterwards they decided, well, they still need to meet with the executives. No, they don't. Nobody needed to see Daniel Breyer chat up his draft pick. Nobody needed to see it. Everyone knew that the flyers liked the guy. They picked him.

It was it was incredibly pointless. I don't understand why they needed to put that in there. It almost feels like they were trying to spite. And you brought this up earlier, spite the entire idea and not even try and make it decentralized draft work, because it could have. They could have sped up the process. It should have been you go up, you get picked,

you get the stage all to yourself, just like every other draft. You meet the commissioner, you get your hat, you get your jersey, you sign some autographs, you go off to the side and there's someone waiting to interview you, and then you're done. But honestly, like, this might sound crazy, but in terms of getting these things going, I could do completely without

the draftee getting interviewed. Oh yeah. They don't. Completely. No. Because if it's your player, you can, you have so many ways to go and see that you can go online for an interview with him.

The, the, the team always has their, their media group there and they're, they're going to put out tons of content on the social media channels. For a national broadcast, I don't want to see the Columbus player that got drafted. I don't need to see him interviewed. He's 18 years old. They never really have anything interesting to say.

If they do, I'll see it eventually. What I want is the next pick. Yeah. You know, like I'll, maybe I'll maybe take like, I, I would like to hear a guess from the GM that made the pick. I think, cause then you can get into other stuff, right? You're like, you like that pick and then, then the question should be what else, give me something newsworthy, not about the pick because you made that pick. And yeah, he's a guy that gets in on the four check. All right.

We like his size or, you know, he's not the biggest guy in the world, but he's got a great, great motor or whatever. Like, okay. Good hockey mind. Awesome. That's amazing. Um, but we don't need a lot of that.

We, it's the first round in the NHL draft. We know these kids are pretty good. Yep. Very talented players. all of them. Like most people for the draft, you know, it's equal parts, yeah, the players, but it's also equal parts news. There needs to be more interviews of GMs about

like, what else are you thinking right now? And the GM should be told, don't answer with, well, right now we're just focused on the pick that we just made. No, bring news into this. Give us something, less awkwardness, more actual news. Each team should get 30 seconds and the draft should be over in a half an hour.

Honestly. Like that would, that's my dream scenario. Why do you need so much time? Why? Why? You know, if they go back to, if they go back to in person, forget it with 30 people, 30 members of the team going up on stage.

Like, you know what they need to do is they go, they go, what did baseball do to make baseball quicker? We're like baseball games are like two hours now. And you know what? People like it. We have no attention span these days. No. You know, I, I, I just, I'm watching this thing and there are so many technical

issues. I'm getting secondhand embarrassment for some of the players because they're like, like, I'm sorry. I didn't, I didn't hear what my new general manager said to me. I'm like, I'm 18. I'm already awkward. They should do the Oscars thing where they have an orchestra and a pit beneath them

and they play them off. Yeah. With the first overall selection we picked, da da da da da da. Anyway, it was a long- They're gonna go back to the old way next year though, right? The old way sucked too. Okay, well maybe a better version of the old way.

I wanna put that out there by the way. Yeah, yeah. The old way sucked too. The old way needed to get picked up. Like, you need to pick up the pace. I know they had a marginal success and I stress the word marginal at the Sphere in Vegas. And I know all of these nerdy goofball draft knicks

out there thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread and that's cool. But it wasn't that great. It was fine, but the bar was so low. Just get to the meat of the sandwich and just make the picks and Give the kid two and a half minutes to go up on stage and shake the commissioners head of them going up on stage now They just keep them at the table at the draft and they just bring a guy with a mic up some who do you pick?

This guy go to the next run to the next table. Who do you pick this guy next table? Who do you pick it'll be over in ten minutes. It gets to pick the future draft picks. That's very good. Well, we don't have to go that far. I mean, it just speed it up. Come on, let's go. Coming up on the Haliford and brush show on sports net six 50. We are going to do what we learn as a reminder, get them in Dunbar lumber. Text line is six 50, six 50 hashtag it WWL and tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Also, NHL free agency begins tomorrow,

July 1 coverage of NHL free agency. 2025 is brought to you by homes by David L. Young of Dexter realty here, there, everywhere. Visit homes by David L. Young.com. You're listening to the Haliford and Bref 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 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app Is what we learn time Oh God, this is always dead.

It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. 7.32 on a Monday. Happy Monday everybody. Halferd and Brev, Sportsnet 650. Don't freak out. It's not 830 in the morning. It's 730. We're just doing what we learned earlier than usual. You are listening to the Halferd and Brev Show on Sportsnet 650. Halferd and Brev of the morning is brought to you by Jason Hominick 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. That wasn't very smooth. What do you mean? Your read. What was wrong with it? There's a little, little hiccup there. Oh. Okay, though.

Nobody's perfect. Okay, let's do some what we learned here. Okay, I will begin. In your mind, did you, sometimes you just battle through the mistakes, and sometimes I think like, that was perfect, you think like that was perfect. No, I just think I'm battling through it. Oh, okay.

And I think maybe now is not the time to point out the error, like when we're on the air doing the show. I think it is. No, I know you do. Yeah, I'm very aware. Well, I know you do. Yeah. I'm very aware. Well, I battled through that one. Hopefully nobody points it out on air.

There he is, pointing it out. I thought I was gonna get through free base this morning, but alas. Nope, we're not gonna let you. You can't say free base. Yeah. And we'd be like, is that the right word? It's like the spelling error in the group chat

and no one ever lets you forget it ever again for as long as you live. It's like the spelling error in the group chat and no one ever lets you forget it ever again for As long as you live it's like the great tweet So my what we learned is that we had some very interesting developments on the Sydney Crosby front and the Colorado avalanche front and a lot of people Trying to connect dots between the two over the weekend we begin with Crosby in the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday the weekend. We begin with Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins. On Friday. The Penguins, through their general manager, Kyle Dubas, said that they have no intention of trading

number 87, despite rumors suggesting otherwise. They might be asking, wow, why did Kyle Dubas have to go out and publicly address this? Well, speculation began earlier on Friday that Crosby might be on his way to an undisclosed team. Some suggested perhaps the Colorado Avalanche. Former Penguins teammate of Sidney Crosby's, George Lorac, tweeted out just prior to the draft that quote, there is a good chance Sidney Crosby plays somewhere else next season.

And then I think Kevin Weeks tweeted out a photo of the Colorado skyline, the Denver skyline. Yeah. Which got a lot of people talking on X. Well, when the Avs made those moves. I was going to get to that part. Right? I think. Oh, I apologize. Yeah, that was the two parter. Yeah. Yeah. So on Friday, Pat Brisson tweeted out the the chatter regarding his client, Sidney Crosby, was a baseless rumor.

And then Nathan McKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche even tweeted out that it was, quote unquote, fake news that Crosby was about to be traded. So that was the Pittsburgh side of things. Just a bunch of baseless rumors, right? Now, the interesting part is that the Avs didn't do anything baseless. As a matter of fact, the Avs got down to business trading center Charlie Coyle and winger Miles Wood to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a purely cap clearing move.

They got a couple of picks back in return and a prospect by the name of Gavin Brindley. Brindley. Coyle had some value, which is why they were able to unload miles. Wood's terrible contracts on Columbus. So what they ended up doing was dumping about 8 million in cap space in a single trade. So people put two and two together. They're like, there's the cap space for sit or something.

I don't want to start baseless rumors and be on the bad side of Pat Brisson here. But it sure seemed as though something was happening in Colorado to clear some space, followed by a bunch of rumors out there that Sidney Crosby would be playing elsewhere next season. I think that Colorado is primed to do something large. This summer, you don't clear nine, you know, I think that Colorado is primed to do something large this summer. You don't clear nine. You know, you don't get nine million in cap space to just sit on it and, you know,

accrue more daily by papering guys that we can get to. So he's going to the ads and it's pretty much what's happening. I can't. The more the more you team says, we're not doing it. This is baseless. It's not going to happen. It's going to happen. Everyone throughout time has shot this down emphatically. Why would you though? He wants to play with McKinnon. The story goes that Sid is going to play out the rest of Malkin's tenure in Pittsburgh, and then he might consider it.

Right. And that was sort of- Which is boring. We want it now. But that was, and that was even coming down from the original, which was he was going to be a lifetime penguin. Yeah. He wanted to join that pantheon of guys who had played for one team and one team only throughout his entire NHL career. He probably wants to win a cup from the beginning. I do wonder if there was a reinvigoration at the four nations

and there'll be an even further one at the Olympics because it's very a couple of things were very clear with the international play one Crosby is still very much a factor at best on best and two he's gonna be leaned upon heavily at the Olympics so whatever he doesn't get you know scratching that itch of playoff hockey with the Penguins I do wonder if this might satiate him as you said for this year play out the Malk you're and then next year Decide to switch teams, but there's your what we learned with Sidney Crosby and the Colorado Avalanche moocow me. Oh

Double moocow Trust me Does basketball Ben have a what we learned? I do. Okay. All right. LeBron James. I have to do a basketball one. Yeah, of course. You're back.

I'm back. Yeah. LeBron James. I thought you were going to talk about the rocket mortgage classic. The thrilling three man playoff. Which by the way, I decided to watch over the NHL draft. Yeah.

I'm like, all right, I go see the South African kid. He looks pretty good. I never heard of anybody. I look at the leaderboard, I'm like, is this even golf? I don't know who any of these guys are. I still can't pronounce his name. Anyway, okay. LeBron James. LeBron James.

LeBron hops into his $52.6 million contract. Yes. For the upcoming season. He's 40 years old, turning 41. This will be his 23rd campaign. He will be the first player in NBA history to play 23 NBA seasons. Unbelievable. It's remarkable. I have some questions for you.

Okay. One, is this a good idea for the Lakers? Yes. Okay. I think that they needed to bring him back and they're happy to not renegotiate anything. For LeBron, great. You make a million dollars a week salary-wise. That's crazy.

Before any endorsement. And he gets to play with the Lakers, his sons under the organization. Yep, I've heard. Second question, are the Lakers going to be any good this season? The West is so tough. It's just loaded and they're talking about getting Deandre Ayton as their center to fix their center problems. If anybody knows Deandre Ayton, he is the fourth player to be a first

overall pick that gets bought out by the Portland Trail Blazers. He's not very good defensively. If you have Ayton, Donsich and LeBron all in a line up together, that's a recipe for disaster in my opinion. Will they still be a playoff team? I think that if you have Donsich and LeBron, you have to be a playoff team. I just can't sit here with a straight face and say no. Okay.

They have to be. I learned a lot there, Ben. Thank you very much. Let's move, double move cow, Ben. Just a single move. Jason, you're up. I learned that colleague, our colleague, Ian McIntyre, has a new article up on sportsnet.ca where he uses

Jim Rutherford's words against him. And he starts it with a quote from April 21st, 2025, which was the end of season press conference that we were referencing earlier in the show. And Rutherford there says, based on the list of free agents that we've looked at, we're going to have to do better than that. So it's probably a trade.

It'll be expensive, but it will also be very expensive, not to get a top six center. So we're going to be open to do whatever it takes to get that player. And then IMAQ notes more than two months later, the Vancouver Canucks are still trying to make their big trade for a center. And on Tuesday, they'll be looking at free agents as plan B.

So we've mentioned a few names out there. Uh, well, first of all, they could always circle back on Pew suitor, but I, that was mentioned a few names out there. Well, first of all, they could always circle back on Pugh suitor, but I, that was never what they really wanted to do or they would have just signed him. Sure. Michael Granland is out there.

I think there's going to be other teams interested in him. The St. Louis Blues are apparently targeting him. Number one, number one on their list of wants. I mentioned earlier in the show, a guy like Jack Rosalvick, but then you're going, okay, well is that a second line center?

The Jack Rosalvick, the type of player you wanted. I think there were estimates on his contract that maybe it's like three years and 12 million dollars. I think the estimates on Pugh Souter were, God, it might even be like, he might be like $20 million in total money now, Pew suitor, four years, $5 million cap hit. What are they going to do? What are you going to do, man? Because the- Do you want to have this conversation again about the 2020, no, about the 2026 first round?

No, I don't. Cause I don't, I think that's a non-starter. But I don't think you can ask the question, what are they going to do? And then say they have no options and then not say, well, that option doesn't exist. But it just doesn't make any, the, the, the logic doesn't add up.

Bro, if I had a question for you, like the 2026 pick, this team's not bad enough to be in the McKenna sweepstakes. That's kind of where I'm at. I'm sure. They lost 13 games in overtime last year or shootout. If they win half of those, they might be in a playoff spot or right on the cusp. Like they're not bad enough to be in that basement and they're not good enough to be a competitor. Let me work it. Hold on.

It's a hell of a bet you're going to make. Let me work it this way. Let's say that you take that unprotected pick and you throw it out there and you use the logic that Ben just threw out there. And then you say, and hey, if we're bad enough that we're in the lottery, we're all getting fired anyway. Well, I don't I don't accept that. I don't know if you accept that. I don't know if you should accept anything

has happened over the last while with this team. But we do come in every morning and talk about it still. Like there's reality. I don't think it's realistic that they would trade it unprotected first for next year's draft. It would just be reckless. I don't think. Most, most teams that.

But sometimes they just. They just. Just to make the big move. You just protect it. You just, you just. You take a risk. You gotta be a little reckless out there. No, you don't.

If you make the playoffs next year and it's unprotected. It's fine. It's not in the lottery, right? But if you don't make in the playoffs next year though, I think they could make the playoffs. Yeah I think they have train wreck potential to be perfectly honest. Yeah, I think that's I think they're much more likely They just didn't make we've got okay. How much worse could I got with my school tending in defense though? Well, what if Demko gets hurt? Youankton. Lankton is not bad. What do you, okay, then you're going to play the hell out of him? Yes. And you got to believe that Seelaw's can take a step forward at least maybe.

And you don't have, you don't have better scoring goals. You don't have suitor scoring goals. Although you've obviously acquired a center with his unprotected pick because someone's jumping on that. A hundred percent. Exactly. Yeah. And the thing that we haven't discussed yet.

What if the Canucks finish like fifth worst in the league? That's not gonna happen though. Are you totally that confident in this team? You're that confident. Let's go to the standings. What if Quinn gets hurt? Okay, but then that's a huge what if though. What if you don't make it?

It could happen man. But if he plays a lot of minutes. If you don't make the pick, don't you agree the likelihood that Quinn leaves is higher? You're not taking a step forward. You're not trying to improve his team. Quinn is in my mind, I'm fully prepared for him to leave already.

See. Do you, do you really, do you really think if, if they traded that the recklessness of that, of that just. I love it. I don't think anybody in the textures, please prove me wrong. Other than Jon Tavares leaving the Islanders, I don't know of a captain in the Salary Cap era

who has left his team or said, trade me because I'm not going to resign here after not winning a cup in that place. I don't think it's ever happened where a captain of a team has said, I'm going to leave you. I think. So, so Quinn is going to go, well, that's never happened.

So I'm not going to do it. I just think it might be. I don't know, what does it matter about the history of it? Precedent shows that this doesn't happen. I think the Canucks are preparing for Quinn Hughes to leave because they've clearly hinted at the possibility. And they're also in the mix for Bowen Byrom, which is Quinn Hughes insurance. But one good year could turn it all around. I feel like they're almost

operating with the understanding that he's gonna leave. So back to the pick, again, I think I don't think it's, I don't think the organization we view it nearly as recklessly as you are right now I think that they would view it as you take risks When you need them and if you're gonna make a big move It's gonna take a big set of brass ones to do it and what is bigger than you advocating for it Are you advocating for them to trade an unprotected pick in? 2026 with Gavin McKenna there? Yeah from an entertainment standpoint. Yeah. Oh no. No. No. I think I am

Entertainment standpoint. Well, what is if they get an actual game-changing? I don't know who who I don't know. Well, we'd have to explore that wouldn't we it would have Michael Rossi Well, who are you talking about then who's available I Don't know I don't know what would be available when you put that kind of pick on the table because it would be a big game changer Like for the Canucks to make the playoffs next year so much would have to go, right? That is it would be an absolutely huge risk to trade that pick I mean if Demko is healthy if PD has a bounce back, if, if, if

there's like all these ifs, if all those things have a rookie head coach. Yeah, like if all those things happen, then maybe we have a season like we did a couple of years ago than awesome. But like that is like if you're betting on that, that's a bad bet. Just to play devil's advocate, they were one point off of Montreal last year who made the playoffs as an eight seed. So I don't think that this notion that it's like a huge leap that they could get into the playoffs is that far fetched.

Well, I don't think it's a huge leap to suggest they could be a bottom five team in the NHL. That's I mean, I think that brings up a good point. How do you have to be wretched? You have to be several games below 500. You have to be a 75 point or less team. Last year, it was 70. I have one of the worst top six four groups in the league right now. But Bruff, more things have to go absolutely wrong for this team to be a bottom

five team that has a chance at McKenna than things that have to go right for them to be a playoff team. Like everything has to be a colossal disaster. That's how we look at things here on the Hufford and Brass show. Everything has to be a colossal disaster. Everything will. That would never happen to the Canucks. Have things ever c things here on the Hufford and Brough show. Everything has to be a colossal disaster. Everything will go. That would never happen to the Canucks.

Things ever caved in on the team before? Well, with the strength of this draft coming up, I think it would just be a huge mistake to trade that pick if it's unprotected. It would be a huge risk. They would have to get back a bona fide stud player for that to be palatable. Otherwise, it's just this incredible risk when there's a very good chance that they will be a bottom feeding team next year if things don't go well.

Yeah. Right? Like they have. How are they going to score goals next year? They won't unless Pedersen has a bounce back. There we go. Like they don't have any goal scores. Mm hmm.

I mean Kane might pop in a few but. Yep, Kane will score a few. Yeah, but I mean they really don't have any goal scores. They're going to play probably pretty boring defensive hockey with great goaltending and that They're going to play, you know, probably pretty boring defensive hockey with great goaltending and that's probably going to win them some games.

But is that going to be enough to get them into a bubble team mix? I don't know. Like, I just think there's so much risk next year that trading that pick would be a huge gamble. That if you were to trade it, you better be getting back a guy that you could slot into your top six right away.

What about the third line? I think we kind of forget that two seasons ago, it was the biggest topic of conversation, how good the Canucks' third line was, how much they produced. There was a down season last year for Joshua. He had a very obviously rough start to the year with what he was going through. You have to expect he's going to be better this year. Teddy Bluger was steady. He is a steady player.

Connor Garland is a play driver. We, you know, this entire station, this entire city was applauding him for how he drove play last year, they could be back together. Well, they could be, but I think right now Garland's in the top six. But maybe you put them with them and then you rely on Heedle being possibly healthy,

hopefully being healthy. You would have to think that with Kane and with the brusk and Pedersen, hopefully playing better, there's enough oomph there to get you some goals and you rely on your defense and goaltending. Can we just, can we- I like your optimism, basketball man. Can we just acknowledge that it's hilarious that it's the Monday after draft weekend and we're already like, could they trade the next year's first round?

But I did so little draft prep solely based on the fact that they were going to move the 50. They're like, I don't know. We every week, we'd be like, should we get a draft guy? And I'm like, well, I bother. They're going to trade that 15th pick. That's just burning a hole in their pocket. Never until Thursday or Friday, where I was like, OK, they're making that pick.

And that's how the market has changed in a hurry. I know. I again, we I think I've mentioned the Waddell comments several times, but I think it was very illuminating last week that he said it wasn't just an unusual market. He's been in the NHL, I think, since it was invented. And he's never seen a summer like this in an off season like this where draft picks just had there was no value. If you had capital, it didn't mean anything because no one was really interested in acquiring picks, especially on the draft floor. Now there's still time and Rutherford

and Alvin have in the past been able to make moves that people didn't see coming. Some of them, yes, right? The endless array of Pittsburgh guys have come in. You kind of saw those ones coming. So it's been sort of a half bag when it comes to picks or sorry, trades that you didn't necessarily see on the horizon. So I am holding out hope. I'm holding I'm getting I'm getting prepared to be very disappointed by tomorrow at the end of the day.

I just I don't know if it's going to save them. Here's the thing. I think the worst case scenario is to finish with plan and whatever one they're on to. And you end up with like Rosalivic and. But that's what's going to happen. What's it going to happen? But at that point, you may as well just be like, all right.

But that's what I'm preparing for. That's what's going to gonna be that that's gonna be a thing at the end of the day That's what you're talking about. No one would be crazy enough to trade an unprotected If you're gonna if it's either gonna be we're but we're done or we're gonna take this huge cut if you're if you're in that mode Yes, we're gonna be talking about on Wednesday. Yeah, that's kind of where I was trying to get at here It's like there's an opportunity to get nothing out of this and just settle on, again, plan N, or take that big final swing and get after it. Plan suit or bring back the suit.

We gotta print out some submissions into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line. We don't have time to read many. No. Psh, psh, psh. How did we get there? Your first round pick-up. How did we get to the entire avenue?

I also never got moocad because I brought up IMAX article as a what we learned right right that's where it all started this is all crazy do you read reckless what we learned humanoid edition brought to you is always by AJ's pizza on East Broadway visit them at three two seven and three two five East Broadway or online at AJ's dot pizza. AJ wouldn't trade the unprotected pick. He likes it on the money edge. He's a smart businessman. Greg in pit Meadows, what we learned, a bit of soccer talk.

Here you go, Halford. Canada's quote unquote golden generation is absolutely choking when the pressure is on, lost to the 106 ranked Guatemala and crashed out of the gold cup. We did talk about that earlier. A very disappointing loss, really disappointing loss to Guatemala over the weekend. Not only how they lost, you know, with a lack of

discipline and as you put it, some questionable tactics and, you know, an opponent that Canada should beat. If they want to be considered you know a top 30 team in the world, you shouldn't lose to Guatemala. It doesn't matter if you have 10 men. For me, the real disappointment is the lack of game against the Americans or Mexico in a meaningful environment. And they blew that opportunity.

If they beat in Guatemala, they get the, was it Mexico next? Or the Americans next? You get the Americans next. They get the Americans next. And then you get the winner of Mexico and Honduras in the final. Right, which are probably gonna be Mexico.

Probably. And Canada needs tests. They need to be tested. Okay, that's the only time we got because we got Kevin Woodley coming up. Maybe if we got some time after Woods, we'll read some more of your What We Learns and messages into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line. But Ryan Johnson is hopefully going to join us at 8.30 to talk about the year in Abbotsford and what a terrific year was for the Abbotsford Canucks. And before we go to break,

I need to tell you about the BC Lions. July 27th, bring the family to celebrate generations of Lions fans at the Family Traditions game. As your Lions take on the Ticats, get your tickets at bclions.com. You're listening to the Hal Frenenbrough Show on Sportsnet 650.