Halford & Brough in the Morning - What Do The Canucks Still Need?

Episode Date: July 4, 2024

In hour one, Mike & guest host Jamie Dodd look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they look at the latest moves around the NHL as well as what the Canucks might do next lineup-wise (6:00), they talk a bit of Whitecaps (20:00), plus they look at the Pittsburgh Penguins offseason as well as the future of one Sidney Crosby with The Athletic NHL's Sean Gentille (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.

da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da Chance here for Vancouver, and they're on the board. Who else? Brian White. Long run for high. Nobody's going to get that one. Whoa, that fan. What is he doing? What is that wild doing? I thought this was America. Huh? Is this America? I'm sorry, I thought this was America. Celebrate the independence of your nation by blowing up a small part of it. All right. Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Thursday. Happy morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Thursday.

Happy Thursday, everybody. Happy Independence Day to our American listeners. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, featuring Jamie Dodd for the remainder of the week. Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Our resident Dooley and American, Andy Cole. Good morning to you.

Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brougham of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff

that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paidler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling.

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That's what you're waiting for. The guest list today begins at 630. Sean Gentile, NHL writer for The Athletic, is going to join the program. We'll talk to him about the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sidney Crosby's extension continues to be hanging out there in the ether. What's going to happen with the longtime captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins? What's happening with the Penguins in general? Very interesting team to watch as the Kyle Dubas experiment continues in Pittsburgh.

So Sean's going to join us at 6.30 to talk about that. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk, MLB Network, and the Cinephile podcast is going to join us for a little baseball and movie talk. And we'll talk to Adnan about, well, Jamie and Greg's beloved Blue Jays. Yeah. Who got those City Connect jerseys off,

wearing them last night. Offense really exploded, wearing black. That was pretty good. Offense goes dark when they wear the dark jerseys. Beloved slash despised Toronto Blue Jays. This iteration of them. Yes. Yeah.

I'd agree. But it's all okay because Vladdy made the all-star game. That's going to make up for everything this season. Adnan Virk is going to join us at 7 o'clock to talk about that. 730, Sean McAdoo, better known as Down Goes Brown, also from The Athletic. We'll talk to him about his experiences in Vegas at the Sphere for the NHL

draft. He's also written a lot about NHL free agency. His experiences? It was right there, Alfred. Come on. You're on fire today. Two dad jokes bright and early in the morning. We're not even three minutes into the show, Laddie. Save some. Save some for the rest of the show.

7.30, Sean McEnroe, Down Goes Brown from The Athletic. 8 o'clock, what an experience for you. You get to talk to Thomas Drance. What a thrill. What a thrill. What a career highlight.

Thomas Drance from The Athletic Vancouver and Canucks Talk, the show that normally features Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance now being filmed in by Brendan Batchelor, who we also have on this show. It's very incestuous what we do here at Sportsnet 650.

We all disappear on other people's shows until the summer comes, and then we all go on vacation. Then we all leave. Then we all just leave. 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance. 7.30, Sean McIndoe. 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk. 6.30, Sean Gentile.

That's what's happening on the program today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. So it's now July 4th.

Means we're well into free agency. And having done this gig for a while, including back at NBC when we were forced to cover the league at large, this is usually the time of the year where the signings dry up pretty good. And that was true to effect yesterday where the Vladimir Tarasenko signing in Detroit, well, it took the hockey industry by storm. I like you describing you being forced to cover the whole league. I'm pretty sure that was just your job.

It felt at times like they were paying you to cover the whole league. You know, it was funny. It was the one time that we actually got a good run there because, you know, NHL in the U.S. It's not a primary sport. Basically, it's whatever doesn't happen in baseball and football and basketball, you kind of get your glow. So on July 4th, that was the day that the Minnesota Wild quite famously signed

Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. And I remember trying to juice the headline a little bit by combining their total salaries together in the headline. And it ended up being like $198 million or something like that. And it actually drew the attention of the desk. And I was like, hey, bruv, we got it on the front page of NBC. He's like, yeah, because it's July 4th and nothing else is going on. I'm like, oh, yeah.

Right. Thanks, teammate. But now it's another july 4th uh so the the red wings signed tarasenko yesterday say what you will about the deal i guess he's a david perron replacement in detroit we're not going to spend too much time on that actual signing i think it is kind of interesting that the florida panthers speaking of things that historically happen every july uh the stanley cup champions slowly being whittled away in free agency. And it's such an odd dynamic because in the span of a week this year,

because of the compressed and condensed NHL schedule and how late the Stanley Cup final dragged on, within a week of hoisting the Stanley Cup as a member of the Florida Panthers, several guys then bid them farewell in free agency. So Montour, Ekman Larson Stolarz one of Lattie's favorites Ryan Lomberg Kevin Stenland and now of course Vladimir Tarasenko so their Stanley Cup defense is gonna look a lot different especially on the blue line yeah I mean losing Ekman Larson and Montour is like two big losses for that team especially given how well those

guys played in the play well and especially Brandon Montour. I mean, Oliver Ekman-Larsen was good for them as well. They did fill the bought-out former Canucks defenseman slot on their blue line almost immediately, though, by signing Nate Schmidt once he was bought out in Winnipeg. Is there another guy that got that covered? Is there another guy that got jettisoned from Vancouver? We can pick him up on the cheap. It's, yeah, 800K. So Nate Schmidt, we're going to be watching the playoffs next year,

and Nate Schmidt's going to be logging huge minutes for the Panthers, and everyone's going to be like, what? So I didn't realize there was actually a market for Nate Schmidt. Now, according to some, there were several suitors interested in his services, but he wanted to reunite with Paul Maurice from their time together in Winnipeg, so he made a beeline for Florida. But it'll be interesting to see what happens with Florida moving forward. And again, we kind of laughed at the red wings yesterday and actually someone texted in earlier talking about

this show this show talking things into existence because yesterday we we called out the eiser plan talking about how we weren't exactly sure what the detroit red wings were doing very quiet on the free agent front prior to yesterday. Having really only signed Tyler Mott and then extending Patrick Kane. Not necessarily the hallmarks of a team that was looking to get over the top and get back into the playoffs, but now they bring

Vladimir Tarasenko in. And that was sort of the big signing from yesterday. A couple other ones that came along. I thought it was interesting. Not necessarily that Carolina signed another guy, but they've apparently come to terms with Jack Roslevic. Not a name that's going to jump off the page. Don't yell at me for bringing it up.

The only thing I'm interested in, because we missed so many things that happen in free agency, Carolina is doing all those long-term low AAV deals right now. So they signed William Carrier, one of my favorite deals, the six-year 12 million dollar deal where you can be like i'm making 12 million dollars of course it's spread out over the next half decade and plus so that's a two million dollar cap hit they did the same thing with sean walker five years 18 million and to a lesser degree with goss despair three years 9.6 so i'll

be curious to see how those turn out and then and this one kind of caught my eye, Jack Johnson went back to Columbus. Wow. So if you remember, Jack Johnson's had a very eventful career. He's played in a lot of different markets. He actually requested, I don't, there's not many guys that go back to a market after requesting a trade out of there. Yep. But he requested a trade many moons ago. That was also the place where that very unfortunate scenario unfolded with his parents, where they were basically embezzling money from him, and then he had to declare bankruptcy,

and then it severed ties with his parents. I don't know why you'd ever want to go back to the place where all that bad stuff happened. I just think it would bring a bunch of bad memories, but I guess it just goes to show that if someone's going to sign you to a deal in the NHL, you'll pretty much go anywhere. He just saw what a well-run organization it was and said, that's where I got to go to continue my career. There's never been any dysfunction here.

They've always hired good general managers and coaches. Made great coaching decisions, and they're going to make another one? I'm sure. Any day now. Speaking of the coaching in Columbus, there was a report out there that they were going to sign Todd McClellan to be their next head coach. John Bucciagrasso from ESPN put it out there.

A couple people kind of raised an eyebrow and said, yeah, it sounds like this deal is going to get done. And then it didn't. Are we wondering, and this is the dogs, I can loop you in on this as well. Are we wondering if the Columbus Blue Jackets are waiting until July 10th when Joel Quenville officially becomes able to be reinstated as head coach. Does it feel like that's happening right now? For the record, just so we don't get sued, I have no intel on this whatsoever.

Like they already went with the Mike Babcock rap. Are they going to do this again? That's what I'm wondering. Like your Brady Kachuk scoop. You could have some info on it. Sorry? Like your Brady Kachuk scoop. That wasn't a scoop.

When we play the rap horns after something, it signifies it's a hot take. have some info on it. Sorry? Like your Brady Kachuk scoop. That wasn't a scoop. We played the, when we play the rap horns after something, it signifies. It's not a scoop. It's a hot take. Zero intel. It's fake. I don't know.

I heard a rumor somewhere that he's getting traded. Okay. Reports out of Vancouver, Brady Kachuk on the block. So back to this Columbus story. I do wonder if that's what's going on here.

Well, Don Waddell was asked about that pre-free agency i think and he didn't exactly slam the door he kind of was like well you know the nhl has a decision to make on those guys and it's like uh so are you considering it because i don't think any team should hire joel quenville least of all the columbus blue jackets who just went through the mike babcock experience i think it would be utterly baff, but that is pretty much what that franchise does at this point. That's what I'm kind of wondering.

Like if they've already been bitten, so you know why we may as well go for it. It would be, optically speaking, a crazy move, but I do wonder why they haven't just announced Todd McClellan as their head coach, if that is indeed what's going to happen. It's not like they're doing a bunch of other business right now. Everything has been stone cold quiet. Bit of a non-answer too. What Jamie was saying, if that's what they said,

if they were asked about Quenville was, oh, he's not reinstated yet. Sounds like you're just kicking the can down the road. Yeah, it wasn't like we're going in a different direction. It wasn't a flat out denial. No. I don't know. Okay. And then with all of these quote unquote important signings coming off the boards in recent days,

it does leave a whittled and whittled, further whittled away list of remaining free agents that could be signed. Big question here as we circle back to the Vancouver Canucks, your home of the Canucks Sportsnet 650. Is there anyone that you would want to see the Canucks take a swing on? And the answer is Jamie. Yeah, it's pretty limited out there. And I was prepping for the show last night and using Luke Fox, who, of course, writes for Sportsnet, his list of best free agents available.

And as I was kind of copying out and going through it and writing Jack Roslevich on the list, it was, oh, Jack Roslevich's going to Carolina. So I wasn't even interested in him, but that's now one fewer option available on the list. It was, oh, Jack Roslick's going to Carolina. So I wasn't even interested in him, but that's now one fewer option available on this list. So I'll just run through some of the names on Luke Fox's list here. Daniel Sprong, Tyler Johnson, Philip Zedina, Kalen Addison, John Klingberg, Tyson Berry. So that kind of gives you the idea of the type of player that we're talking about here.

Obviously, at this point, if you're still on the market, there's some pretty significant red flags around your game. The only two names that really stand out to me in any way are probably Kalen Addison and Tyson Berry, just because of the puck moving need. John Klingberg, he was just so bad with Toronto. I have zero appetite for that. I don't know if he was just so bad with Toronto. I have zero appetite for that. I don't know

if he's going to play again. He says he wants to, but I don't know. The Barry one, I'm not going to lie. There might be something there. If you want to connect some dots, one local guy from Victoria.

There's also the fact that we discussed this idea, this notion, this concept of if you're going to add a puck mover to your group, maybe it is a guy in a complementary non-full-time role. Is he still good? Tyson Barry? No. Not really. And that's what you would be getting by adding a seventh,

eighth defenseman that brings the attributes that your other six, seven, eight guys don't have. Remember, this is exactly the way that Nashville ended up deploying him at the end of the season and in the playoffs. He plugged into the Vancouver series in the first round and actually ended up doing exactly what he needed to. I think he recorded a power play assisting game five of that series. So if you're going to put him in where you're like, okay,

we're maybe a little bit too lumbering and we're a little bit slow on the back end and we're not moving the puck as much as we'd like, he can be a cheap plug and play guy. He's a Brisson client for whatever that means. There was a deal in place to get him to Calgary at last year's trade deadline. And that was sort of a nod to,

well, we'll move him to Western Canada and he'll be closer to home. Obviously, going to Calgary would have been more of a cap dump for the Preds and he wouldn't have done anything other than played out the string at Calgary. So you can kind of start to connect some dots and move some pieces. It would have to be a very short-term, low-money contract. But at this stage of the game, that's what a guy like Tyson Berry is going to sign. He's 32 years old and his best years

as being top four defense, in which he was at one time or way, way past. And I remember last offseason, the Canucks signed Matt Irwin, also from Victoria, to a deal. And the idea was, okay, some veteran competition for those last spots. And he ended up spending the whole year

in Abbotsford, right? So I wonder if there's something similar there where it's a local guy looking for that contract and at the very least you can bring him in to compete a little bit and maybe he ends up being your eighth defenseman not playing a lot maybe ends up going to abbotsford but i can see that addison is the one with more upside and flaws deep flaws and if san jose is walking away from you given the amount of talent on their roster that's not a good sign. But if you're looking for a little bit of upside, a guy who might be more,

hey, okay, I'll go down to their AHL team and try to restart my career, Addison could fit the bill there. So we got a text in nice and early to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at 650-650. Once again, I love all of our listeners. They're great. They never get on my nerves,

and they are definitely not sarcastic whatsoever. So here's a very genuine, enthusiastic text from a listener. Great. No Whitecaps coverage after a meaningful win, but a segment devoted to a fifth-place jerk. Oh, wait, I'm talking about the listener. A fifth-place team some 4,000 kilometers away.

Sportsnet, your Vancouver home of all things toronto okay let's do some white caps talk we had an entire segment planned you jerk we're gonna do it now uh the white caps did get a meaningful win yesterday uh for the second consecutive match the white caps put up all the offense which went missing for large parts of may and june seven goals in their last two matches, including three in a 3-1 victory over Minnesota United last night. Tremendous match from Ryan Gould.

Three assists on the evening, the first time that a white cap has done that since back in 2019 when Hwang In-bom, remember him, everybody? Hwang In-bom. I think he's playing for Olympiacos now. He did it in 2019 against the Galaxy. So to give you an idea of the last two matches

and how fortunes have changed, the Whitecaps scored seven goals over the last two matches. They went from possibly being outside the playoff picture to finishing last night's MLS action in fourth in the Western Conference. Minnesota is slumping terribly. So too was St. Louis, who they beat 4-3 over the weekend. So it was great.

And I should mention, congratulations to Brian White, who by scoring the opener yesterday, now becomes the Whitecaps' all-time leading scorer with 40 goals, passing Camilo, who did it with 39, playing for the team over the span of two years from 2011 to 2013. Jamie put forth a really great discussion point here. Putting it all on me. We're doing a good positive Whitecaps segment.

Now we're going to rip them into shreds a little bit here. I like to think that if you're talking about an entity, good, bad, or otherwise, we are in an attention economy. Bruff was talking about this before he went on vacation. So as long as we're talking about something, good, bad, or otherwise, that's the important thing, right? We don't have to put a positive spin. So Brian White becomes the Whitecaps all-time leading scorer

with the goal against Minnesota last night. Then you write, all credit to Brian White on a huge accomplishment, but is he the most anonymous, quote-unquote, all-time great in Vancouver sports history? It is funny because White's been with the Whitecaps for three years. Yeah. He came aboard with, I will be honest, incredibly little fanfare.

I follow MLS, and I'm a Whitecaps season ticket holder, so I'm there all the time. I knew very little about Brian White when he came aboard. I knew that he kind of scored some goals for the New York Red Bulls. I knew that he was an American player and a striker, which is actually a bit of a rarity because a lot of the Americans now are like defenders. Sure. It's just an easier pathway for them to make it in MLS. But he scored at a decent clip and then came to Vancouver

and almost instantly found success with Ryan Gould. And I do think that's part of the reason why he's sort of played in anonymity despite becoming the franchise's all-time leader is that a lot of people have seen Gould as the catalyst and the driver and the table setter and the crosser for a lot of the finishes that Brian White has. But I did want to ask a question of all of you, and this includes the dogs, so be on the ready here. When I say Vancouver Whitecaps, who's the most recognizable, popular, famous player?

Who's the first player that pops to mind? Alphonso Davies. Okay, Laddie? Camilo. You already mentioned his name. Right. Camilo. Yeah.

Jamie? Camilo. It's probably Ryan Gould. Okay. Or maybe Camilo is the other Jamie? Camilo. It's probably Ryan Gould. Okay. Or maybe Camilo is the other name that jumps to mind. If we're talking MLS era. We are talking MLS era. Yeah.

That is, that's, those answers are pretty important because two of the guys mentioned have not played for the team for, I mean, in the case of Camilo, it's been 11 years. And in the case of Alphonso Davies, it's been close to it. I think it's not a decade yet, it's creeping up on that right and it kind of says where the white caps are at with regards to individual talents because I mean I was talking to Brough about this um a few weeks ago that Ryan Gould by all accounts should be the face of the franchise, the star, the guy that everything the Whitecaps are publicly based around. He's a fantastic player. He's worth the price of admission.

He's got great industry, as we like to say in the industry. Work rate? Yes. I like industry, though. But he's a tremendously hard worker. He's got a ton of skill. He's an amazing playmaker. It would be great if

he got a little bit more recognition. The Whitecaps have put that push on him. They had a big push last year to try and get him in the MVP consideration, to get him some votes for that. He is going to the All-Star game this year, which is a great feather in his cap. But I think one of the things that's happened over the last few years

is every star player that the Whitecaps have had, in terms of individual success, it hasn't translated to a lot of team success. Yeah, that's a huge the last few years is every star player that the Whitecaps have had, in terms of individual success, it hasn't translated to a lot of team success. Yeah, that's a huge part of this. I also think the MLS broadcasting situation is not doing them any favors, right? Because I think it makes it a lot harder for casual fans to, if they hear about Ryan Gould,

like, hey, I want to watch this guy play, it's a lot harder for them to do that in a casual way. You have to be kind of already invested in the team. But more than anything, it is team success, right? At a certain point, there has to be a sustained run of success from the Whitecaps for guys like Brian Wright and Ryan Gall to really get their credit. And again, I think part of this is on the Whitecaps.

Part of this is just things working against them in terms of the mls ecosystem but it was just really striking to me because you know even you think about like the bc lions in in some of their lean years yeah there's still a certain level of name recognition for their quarterback right or maybe a star receiver or something like that sure and it just feels like hey brian white like all-time leading goal scorer. Yep. What's his level of name recognition amongst like our listeners, like dedicated sports fans here in Vancouver?

It's low, I bet. Oh, I'm with you. And part of this is market saturation and how much you have and how much you don't have and your presence in the market. How long have you been doing this for now, the whole sports gig? I started at the station behind the scenes 2018. Right. So you've been around long enough to see sort of what resonates and what doesn't, right?

And for a team that's been around as long as they have, a lot of people are wondering why haven't the Whitecaps captured the market before? Because all the pieces are there, especially at the youth levels. Soccer registration numbers are through. There's a million kids playing soccer. The expansion that the sport at the professional level has had in terms of visibility and accessibility and how many matches you can watch now is at an all time high. It's no longer 7 a.m.

Graham Leggett soccer Saturday, right? Like it's so what, what's gone wrong here. And I do wonder if it's just as simple as winning and winning is often the best anecdote antidote across all sports because marketing can only get you so far star power can only get you so far you have to be able to win and play meaningful games look at the difference with the vancouver connects in terms of engagement this year as opposed to the last right yeah look at the bump

and the boost that playoff hockey brought and winning a boost thank you winning a round that's another big part of this right advancing further understanding that you got to the playoffs and you did something when you got there because the Whitecaps have gone to the playoffs they played three playoff matches since Brian White joined the team and became the leading goal scorer in franchise history. And they've lost all three. Yeah. And the season came to a very, like, abbreviated, truncated, bang, it's over. And then there's no more whitecaps.

So I do wonder if it just comes down to sometimes, like, the good old-fashioned winning will solve everything. I will say this, though. Attendance this year has dramatically spiked, in part because of the now infamous messy match and all the tickets sold but even at that st louis match on the weekend there's 24 000 there so if people are paying attention it's now up to the white caps i think to start winning matches and have a further run the attendance has always been decent for the white caps i used to be a season ticket holder um i haven't been for a few years now but like it was always a great event to go to it's just never then translated to that kind of outside of the match engagement right or watching them the watching the away games on tv right it's been hard for them to kind of bridge that gap and

by the way you threw it out there like who comes to mind for vancouver whitecaps a couple people texting in one david oosted yeah great keeper remember him still still living locally he's running an academy now another Another one, Carl Valentine. Just going back a ways. Kind of illustrates what we're talking about here. He is connected to the Whitecaps. He did not play in the Whitecaps MLS era, but it is a good exercise to do.

We can continue this conversation tomorrow, as a matter of fact, because we're going to have James Sharman on the show to preview what's going to be a huge footy weekend. Obviously, Canada taking on Venezuela in the Copa America quarterfinals tomorrow. And then, of course, you've got all of the Euro quarterfinals Friday and Saturday morning.

So we'll get into all that tomorrow right here on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on the other side of the break, we're going to go to Pittsburgh. We're going to talk to Sean Gentile from The Athletic, Sidney Crosby, his future in Pittsburgh, the contract extension, which many thought would be a July 1 thing. It's now July 4th and no sign of a Crosby extension in Pittsburgh just yet.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.31 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford, Brough.

Oh, wait, it's Jamie Dodd, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Dodd in the morning. I think I'm just going to call it that from now on. Did a major Beverly Hills cop vibe. Yeah, I was trying to figure out what kind of vibes I was getting off this. That's the right answer. There's a new Beverly Hills cop just came out yesterday, I think. He's in.

Brough will be thrilled. It's all the original Hills Cop just came out yesterday, I think. He's in. Ruff will be thrilled. It's all the original cast, right? They're just old. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think I prefer that to trying to cast new people. I mean, it's a choice.

See if it's good or not. They're all back. And they're all old. That's the tagline on the movie poster. I always wondered what would happen when they got old. Now I can finally find out. Somebody stole a bunch of pills from a retirement community, and Eddie Murphy's on the movie poster. I always wondered what would happen when they got old. Somebody stole a bunch of pills from a retirement community, and Eddie Murphy's on the case.

This show, all of it, I mean all of it, is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is 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 1 of the program.

Sean Gentile from The Athletic is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Sean Gentile from The Athletic joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Sean. How are you? Guys, can we just talk about Beverly Hills Cop? Yes. Are we at that point of the summer yet where you guys have

an entire segment blocked out to talk about Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance as the new guy in Beverly Hills Cop 4? Because he's the new blood that was added. That's the new blood. And even he's not particularly young at this point.

I also don't like him and never have, so I'm not super psyched about whatever's going on. It's Joseph Gordon-Levitt from Third Rock from the Sun. I was going to say, yeah, a fresh new show. Yeah, a pillar of the NBC must-see TV lineup from Third Rock from the Sun? I was going to say, yeah. A fresh new show? Yeah, a pillar of the NBC must-see TV lineup in 1994 or whatever it was, yeah. How are you doing, bud? Did you go to Vegas?

How was the Sphere? Sphere was crazy. Sphere was, I actually, I did like the obligatory, you know, my piece on Friday night during the first round was basically me just walking around and kind of taking it in and talking to people at various, uh, various vantage points in the sphere. And it was, it was unreal, man. I wanted to be cynical about it. I was ready to dump on it. And then I walked into the place. I was like, Oh, this is, uh,

this is actually unbelievable this is like well this is definitely one of the coolest venues i've come out in the peanuts uh yeah it was uh it was it was cool i had a good time i was there for probably 12 hours too long it was three nights and you know most of four days but it's all it's all good it was a good time and it seemed like a pretty good environment for the fans, which is pretty much all that matters. And it's the swan song for the NHL and centralized drafts. I know that you wrote about this.

I am curious, because we asked the question earlier in the week, what are the drafts going to look like moving forward? Were you able to glean any information of what to expect at the new decentralized draft next year? Yeah, I would also put an asterisk on this definitely being the last one. I think it almost certainly is, but there was a vibe also around Vegas, around the floor of the sphere where people with teams, whether they're AGMs or scouts or whoever,

they were like, yeah, maybe they should just do it here all the time. Yeah. So I don't know that that's going to be enough to turn the train around because we know we know that this has been a long time coming with the decentralization thing. But I also think that there's a non-zero chance that that we see a course switch, if not next year, you know, in the next couple, because people really did have a blast, and it really was that cool. But, yeah, the whole decentralization thing, you know, the long and short of it is in moving forward, the plan is for it to look more like the NFL draft,

where you don't have a bunch of people sitting at a table on a floor in an arena, and you have them back home at the team facility or whatever where they have the war room and they got the big board in front of them and they can just, you know, hang out in the same space and make their decisions that way. And that's something that they decided to do in October and it's kind of progressed from there on out. So that's kind of long and short of it. Imagine what the Seahawks' war room looks like on April 17th or whatever, and that's going to be a lot closer to the model for the NHL moving forward,

to the plan at least. So, Sean, I wanted to ask you about the Penguins a little bit, and we've seen some moves around the edges, right? Riley Smith out, Kevin Hayes in, Blake Lazard, Anthony Beauvillier. Overall, how would you describe what the goal for the Penguins is right now? What's the strategy going into next season? I think, for better or worse, Kyle Dubas' strategy going into the offseason was to avoid any kind of six- or, six or seven year long mistake.

That's why you didn't see them going after whatever, the championship seasons of the world on July 1. And I mean, there's plenty of space to criticize that, right? Like they're effectively punting on this season. I think that's really, there's no other way to look at it, right? Because they wanted to stay out of the long-term contracts, which is obvious. And then the bigger problem for them, I think, is that they're no longer a prime destination for the Vladimir Tarasenko's and Jeff Skinner's of the world who want to sign short-term deals

and maybe whatever, cup chase, playoff chase, maybe, you know, rehab their reputations and score some goals. That used to be like the Pittsburgh used to be able to rely on getting, on getting those guys when they wanted them. And I think it's pretty clear that that's just not where they are in the league's hierarchy. They made an offer to Vladimir Tarasenko and he ended up in Detroit. So they're trying to stay away from the big money guys,

and they're also not quite able to reel in the make good, let's see what happens, short-term deal guys either. And it's a problem. They're probably not any better than they were last season. Of course, they missed the playoffs there. So they're a little bit of an afterthought. It's a crazy thing to consider, given that Sidney Crosby's still on the roster, but that's kind of where they are in their lifespan.

So speaking of Crosby, obviously a lot of focus on him now, but he is eligible to sign an extension. It's July 4th. He hasn't done so yet. Now, we did have a listener suggest that he's going to wait to sign it on the 8th of July because that would be the eighth day of the seventh month, which seems like a very Sidney Crosby thing to do. But is there any scenario where Sidney Crosby ends up leaving the Pittsburgh Penguins without signing another deal here? I think it's, hmm, I'm trying to think of the right way to answer this. It's non-zero. All right. But do I think that's likely? Do I think that's what's going to happen? No. But I also think it's relevant that you guys, like you guys said, it's the 5th of 4th of July and we haven't seen the rubber stamp. a three-year, however much, $8.7 million AAV extension or whatever he'd be looking at, right?

Like, I think there's something to be said for that. Now, do I think that, you know, we're going to be having the same discussion in six weeks or six months? No, my inclination is certainly still that it'll get done. But, you know, there's a reason we've had to wait. I think it's fair to say where is the fan sentiment on kyle dubas right now

uh people are mad i think generally and some of some of it is some of it is uh a spoiled fan base i think to like to, to an extent. And I, I, I don't say that with, I mean, that's just the, it's just the way it goes. They've been cup chasing here for almost two decades now. Right. And like people have a certain expectation and those expectations have been met for like, for the most part. So I think there is some level of, you know, angry little kid, not getting their way for, the first time but also like man kevin hayes blake lazotte matt grizzly great like like these are these these are these are players who are not needle movers and they're and they're and they're not gonna take a roster that look you know basically non-playoff worthy for the majority of last season, I guess until that little push at the end. It doesn't do anything to push them up to that next tier either.

So I think there's, yeah, do I think people are being unrealistic? To an extent, but also, I mean, it's been pretty underwhelming at the same time. So, yeah, people are underwhelmed, I would say, overall. There's people who are defending Dubas, certainly, but I think the vast majority of the fan base are looking at the moves over the last couple weeks and being like, oh, okay, I guess this is where we are. What's he saying publicly, or is he saying anything publicly?

Because I do remember that at the draft combine, he specifically said that both he and Crosby wanted to keep those contract and extension talks quiet. And then I would suggest that it's tough to talk about what the plan is going to be until you've got that thing locked away. So what is Dubas saying publicly, if anything? I think they want to, generally the vibe is that they want to... You know, I think they...

It's safe to say that Sidney Crosby wants to play longer, which I don't think was a guarantee three years ago or five years ago. I think he's lasted as an elite player long enough to satisfy his kind of standards, right? Like, it was an open question as to whether Sidney Krause was going to play into his 40s, like, not that long ago. And it's A, clear now that it's something that he wants to do,

and B, pretty clear now that he's going to be doing it at a pretty high level, right? So the overall vibe from Dubas and a lot of these moves and a lot of the stuff that he said, it's become pretty clear that his plan, at least, is to spend the next year or so moving forward into the next phase of the organization, which is whenever Evgeny Malkin and Chris Letang's contracts are up, Sidney Crosby's still going to be around. And in a perfect world, they're going to have enough money

and enough younger players, younger homegrown players, ready to step in the lineup in, say, two years or three years whenever he's still at a pretty high level. Now, if that plan works out or remains to be seen, but I think it's pretty clear that that's kind of been what they're going for, is that improve the system, conserve cap space, be ready to make a move in another year or two, and hopefully be an actual contender in the Metro Division,

which I don't think they are right now. We're talking to Sean Gentile of The Athletic here on Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650. So, Sean, okay, my co-host yesterday in peak July 3rd radio mode threw out an incendiary idea, which was the possibility of an Elias Pettersson for Sidney

Crosby trade. If Jim Rutherford picks up the phone, calls Kyle Dubas, and offers eight years of Elias Pettersson for the final year of Sidney Crosby, how long, if at all, does Kyle Dubas have to at years of Elias Pettersson for the final year of Sidney Crosby how long if at all does Kyle Dubas have to at least consider that offer I think he very nicely uh hangs up the phone look you don't you don't want to be the dude that trades Sidney Crosby no just like just like Kyle Dubas doesn't want to be the guy that, you know, wastes the last three or four good years of his career, right?

Like there's – and I know we can sit here and be underwhelmed by, you know, trading for Kevin Hayes in a second-round pick being like the biggest move that they've made so far in the soft season. But there isn't a person on earth who's going to be the guy who sends out Sidney Crosby unless he asks for it right so while like from a hockey standpoint I think that would make a certain amount of sense man like that would just be a that's like that's like uh first sentence of the obituary stuff for Kyle Davis man I don't I don't think he wants him he wants to be the guy that makes that call.

Or, no, I'm just... We were in pure hypothetical mode yesterday. And not coincidentally, it was July 3rd. So we were talking about this, and I'm like, there is one thing I wanted to throw out there, though, is that I'm not sure that there's two hockey people that adore and admire and appreciate sydney crosby more than rick talkett and jim rutherford like how much did jim rutherford

love sydney crosby like he's his son probably i think yeah i think that's fair or is there a grandson maybe i like this is you know i look you you guys said it, man. Talk it, love them. Rutherford loves them. I can imagine that call at least being made or at least Jim having the thought. But having the thought and being able to pull it off are two very, very different things. See, I think, you know, like I said, Kyle being a very respectful guy,

respects his elders and all that sort of stuff, finds a very gentle way to get Jim off the phone without making him mad, but also passing pretty quickly. Okay, no, yeah, but the trade, like ridiculous trade aside, like it did provide us some good jumping off points for again. I love it. I think if you, and if you like, just like, like I said, I mean, trade aside like it did provide us some good jumping off points for again i love it um i think if you if you and if you like just like like i mean i think i said it at some point during that

during that long rambling answer like i think from a hockey standpoint it makes a ton of sense like if you if you strip the context from it yes and you forget about what sydney crosby means to this franchise and and things they may or may not deserve them and whatever, like just strictly from a, from a roster standpoint, moving forward, I think you could argue pretty convincingly that, that both teams would do it. Right.

But it's just, you know, that's just not the world we live in. No. And I, and the, the jumping off point that I took was with Crosby is part of the reason that they admire him so much was that he was a sort of one man culture

setter and it made everyone's job so much easier because not only was he an elite talent or is an elite talent not only is he one of the greatest players of all time but there's also that sense of uh he carries so much weight in a room that whatever he says or does it takes a ton off the coach's place like well i don't need to motivate the guys sid's gonna do that i don't need to organize things sid's gonna do that and it would be like to organize things. Sid's going to do that. And it would be like the other part of it is like, could you imagine being a player where that type of individual is coming into your room?

That would be the best player that anyone would ever play with. Like all due respect to Elias Pettersson, but for some guys, he's not going to be that guy. But for every guy on the Canucks, Sidney Crosby would be that guy. Totally. That's been a funny phase of his career to watch Sid move into over the last five years or so where he's become the old man, right? Like, he's got the old guy gravitas on top of still being a, whatever, top 10, top 15 player in the league.

And that's the way people treat him. You know, because, like, it sounds, whatever, all of us are getting old, too, so it's easy to forget. But, like, there's star players in the league right now that weren't alive when Sidney Crosby were drafted or, at minimum, don't remember an NHL without Sidney Crosby being a part of it. And I think that affects the way, you know, that he moves in social, whether it's social settings or inside locker rooms or whatever, there's there's a level of reverence and awe with him when you're talking about guys, whatever, 19 or 21 or 24, because they don Thank you very much for doing this today. Jamie's tapping his shoulder.

Hold on, I have a question. Sorry, we didn't communicate. No, it's a very important question. Somebody texted in, please ask Sean about Dr. Pepper passing Pepsi as the number two soda in America. Are you a Dr. Pepper loyalist? I'm a Pepsi hater.

Come on. That's what the question is. Is Pepsi okay? No, it's that's that's the classic answer at restaurants it's a big big deal man i'm a massive dr pepper fan so i was thrilled when i saw that uh i was like you know the uh what is it from starship troopers that i'm doing my part meme that was me i was like i'm doing my part i'm boosting those dr pepper sales i'm getting them to number twoimmy when it jimmy when it comes to the when it comes to the weird like strawberries and cream flavor variants do you have a favorite of dr pepper yeah no straight maybe cherry maybe cherry but no dr pepper just perfect as is why change it

why change anything i don't need any other flavors in there. I knew I liked you, brother. That's right. Okay, now you can let him go, Mike. We had to get that in. No, that was very important. I'm glad we did that. Sean, thank you very much for doing this today, bud.

You're the best. Enjoy some time off this summer. We'll do this again when the season starts back up. Yeah, I'll drink a few Miller Lights here on Independence Day in your guys' honor, for sure. America! Love it. Thanks, Sean. See you guys. Sean Gentile from The Athletic in Pittsburgh, again, joining us on the 4th of July,

taking time out of his Independence Day to join us. Now I want a cool, refreshing Dr. Pepper. Right? Now that he's said that. Man. I know it's early, but... Yeah, I can go for one, too, actually. Have you ever heard the...

Brev has a story where he was golfing with his dad, and his dad, at the turn, ordered a that. Man. I know it's early, but. Yeah, I can go for one too, actually. Have you ever heard that Brev has a story where he was golfing with his dad and his dad at the turn ordered a Mr. Pepper? He lost his doctor license? He's no longer able to practice. He made some bad mistakes

in surgery and now he's just Mr. Pepper. It'll cost you. You can't call me that anymore. Please, just call me Pepper. Mr. Pepper was my father. Mr. Pepper. Yeah. It's his son who Pepper. It'll cost you. You can't call me that anymore. Please, just call me Pepper. Mr. Pepper was my father. Mr. Pepper. Yeah.

It's his son who never amounted to anything. Yeah. That's Mr. Pepper. There's all those off-brand ones, too. Well, there's Mr. Peb. Yeah. Which I guess is what he was. Dr. Buzz.

He got caught in between. There's Dr. Skipper. Dr. Buzz. But there's Dr. Buzz. Yeah. Dr. what? Dr. Skipper. Really?

Yeah, if I'm not mistaken. I've never heard of Dr. Skipper. There's a lot of varieties because it's- Halford just made up a new soda Yeah, if I'm not mistaken. I've never heard of Dr. Skipper. There's a lot of varieties because it's- Halford just made up a new soda. No, I'm almost positive. Now I got to look it up. I love all the off-brand fake- Yeah, there it is.

Dr. Skipper. Dr. Skipper, yeah. There's about 9,000 off-brand Dr. Peppers because it's, as you pointed out, a fairly iconic taste. It's so good. The original, right? Nobody can match it, though.

So there's a, now that we're really down the rabbit hole on this one, there's a sparkling water that I think Western Family does. Someone can correct me because I know you're going to know which one I'm talking about. It's black cherry vanilla. And the only reason they call it that is I think is legally they can't call it Dr. Pepper water. That's exactly what it is.

It tastes exactly like Dr. Pepper water. And it doesn't taste like black cherry vanilla. It tastes like Dr. Pepper Water. That's exactly what it is. It tastes exactly like Dr. Pepper Water, and it doesn't taste like black cherry vanilla. It tastes like Dr. Pepper Water. It is quite refreshing. They got to call it something. Yeah, you got to give it a new name. By the way, although this is from Wikipedia, although Dr. Pepper has similarities to cola,

the American Food and Drug Administration has ruled that Dr. Pepper is not a cola, nor a root beer, nor a fruit-flavored soft drink. What is it? Rather, Dr. Pepper is said to be in a category of its own kind called pepper soda. Wow. It invented its own thing. Wow.

The fact you didn't save this for what we learned at AA. I didn't know that. We can rehash it. Mind-boggling. Mind-boggling. We can rehash it. We can revisit this conversation later. I'm saying it's because in England, surgeons are called Mr. instead of doctor.

That's why. Yeah, right. Dr. Pepper has his origins in London. No, no, for Mr. Pibb, I mean. Mr. Pibb is also a surgeon, but he's a British surgeon. The British version of Dr. Pepper? Yeah, so they call him Mr. instead of Doctor. Mr. Pibb. Yeah, exactly.

Okay, we're losing focus here badly, but again, it's the 4th of July. All the Americans are out shooting off fireworks and roasting hot dogs. And we're here trying to provide entertainment to you, the listeners of the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up on the show, Adnan Virk from MLB Network is going to join us. Oh, we'll also do some movie talk with the host of the Cinephile podcast,

730's Sean McIndoe, also from The Athletic. So him and Gentile were down in Vegas for the draft. Sean McIndoe, Down Goes Brown, has written a lot about free agency. So we'll go through some of the winners and losers. Through the first three days of free agency, look at some of the big storylines and trends that have happened since July 1 has passed. 8 o'clock, Thomas Drance is going to join us.

That's really exciting for Jamie because he rarely gets to talk to the Drance. So exciting. We'll talk to him. We can ask him the question if he's identified anyone that the Canucks still might be interested in signing or if acquisitions now are going to come via the trade route. And finally, before we go, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season.

Get your tickets now at BCLions.com. We've also got the CFL report coming up later in the show. And then a reminder this Sunday, the lions are in Hamilton to take on the winless tiger cats at Laddie's home. Tim Horton's field in Hamilton, my home. Yes.

I live at Tim Horton's field under the bleachers. You're like fan of the opera for Tim Horton's field. Interesting childhood for Laddie. We got a lot more to get into. Adnan Virk is going to join us next on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.