Halford & Brough in the Morning - What Would Be The All-Time Canucks Dream Team?

Episode Date: July 12, 2024

In hour one, Mike & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they chat the bizarre Blue Jackets coaching search with The Athletic Columbus' Aaron Portzline (27:00), plus the boys discuss what would be the all-time Canucks dream team (40:00). 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.

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Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is Bruff, it is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintex Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Although I misspoke at the onset of the show, it is not Bruff, it's Josh Elliott-Wolfe in for the final day this week. Good morning, Josh.

Good morning. A-Dawg, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Bruff in 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. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Big show ahead on a Friday. Last show of the week. Not like we're counting down the hours. But there's only two hours and 58 minutes left in the show.

Aaron Portsline is going to join us at 630 from The Athletic in Columbus. Some actual reporting and news coming out of Columbus yesterday. It appears as though their head coaching search has hit a bit of a bump. Todd McClellan out. Formerly thought to be in, looks like negotiations fell apart there. What is going on in Columbus? Is this the most dysfunctional franchise in the NHL? We'll ask

Aaron at 630. Are you excited to talk a little Columbus Blue Jackets? I mean, super interesting team. Earlier in the week, we put them on our most irrelevant franchise. Two days ago, we were like, man, who would ever want to talk about this team? And now here we are. It's Friday.

Two days later. Two days later. Portsline's going to join us at 630. 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's Pizza. So you're new here. We've been doing this for the last six, seven months where we bring on AJ from AJ's Pizza. We talk about the weekend that is in the world of sports,

why you should go to his establishment. Have you been to AJ's before? I have. Very good. As a team. Yes, that's right. We've been there. We had a Sportsnet 650 party there one time.

So AJ's going to join us at 7. A reminder every time I mention AJ, $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best Ask Us Anything. It's Ask Us Anything Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Juan from Comox off to an early start. Prior to the show, he sent in not one, not two, but three Ask Us Anythings. And Juan, Juan gets it.

He put a pizza emoji into his text that entered him into the grand prize contest for $100 gift card to AJ's. He also hashtagged it AUA. to his text. That entered him into the grand prize contest for $100 gift card to AJ's. He also hashtagged it AUA. And most importantly, he sent it to the right number. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Send yours in throughout the day. Get your What We Learns in as well.

We'll do those at the end of the show. When you said he gets it, he hasn't already won. Like, he understands the contest. He just gets the bit. We're ending it now. Yeah, he won.

Early winner. Ben Steiner the bit. Yeah. No, we're ending it now. Yeah. He won. Early winner. Ben Steiner, soccer reporter, Olympic reporter, is going to join us at 7.05. Dave Hall from Canucks Army at 7.30 to talk a little Canucks prospects. 8 o'clock, it's the Moj. Yes, it's the Moj. Bob Marjanovic to preview the big Lions game on Saturday. The Watermelon Smash against the Saskatchewan Rough Riders.

As I mentioned, a $100 gift card to AJ's. And, of course, it's Friday on this show. That means it's Ask Us Anything Friday. The premise, quite simple. You can ask us about anything. We will do our best to answer it over the next couple of hours. 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. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... 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? Missed it?

You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Josh, I think for Friday we're going to go rapid fire style. Oh, I'm pumped. For what happened.

We're going to start with, you're going to be less pumped now, the Toronto Blue Jays. Look, it's not my fault there were no actual sports last night. All right, it was the ESPYs of the Blue Jays. So we're going to begin with the Blue Jays, who did get a win last night. Danny Jansen and Spencer Horwitz homered. Gossman, seven strong innings.

The Jays beat the San Francisco Giants 5-3 on Thursday. Can we play that Horowitz home run into McCovey Cove? Because Laddie has a cool little anecdote about this home run. Let's hear what it sounded like. Horowitz, not Horowitz, by the way. Not like horror movie. Don't get Andy to say his name. Spencer Horowitz goes yard.

Or you could say it right., puts it into the drink. Here's what it sounded like yesterday. 5-3 win for the Jays over the Giants on Thursday. What part of the season it is, Spencer Horowitz lifts one deep right field. Gone. And hit it on out of the ballpark, and a splash hit for Spencer Horwitz as that one winds up in McCovey Cove. So who here has been to the Giants stadium? I've wanted to go real bad, but I haven't been.

I have been. We sat in the opposite outfield to McCovey Cove, but it is a very picturesque, it's a lovely ballpark. But McCovey Cove is, for those that are unaware, it's just the body of water right outside the right field porch, and

there's a guy by the name of, now Laddie, take the story over here, there's a guy by the name of McCovey Cove Dave? Correct. And his task is what? He's like, if anyone knows who Zach Hample is, he's the Zach Hample of the high seas. Do we hate him?

We hate him because he has a customized kayak. It's like a speed tank? And he's got a person filming him from land to show how quickly he can get to these balls and knock the other kayaks out of the way and get to them before other people can. I thought you were going to say he was like Dancing Pete or something. No, this is a much more frustrating version of Dancing Pete. He'll be dancing for hours.

So McCovey Cove, and your buddy was also trying to... So on that home run, my buddy and his two friends were right there. They were basically circled around where the ball landed. In kayaks. He came flying in and knocked them. You can watch the video. He knocks them out of the way, and McCovey Cove Dave is the one that picks it up. I found his Twitter shortly after he passed this along. He thinks he's a big deal.

Yeah, he exists. He's like a modern day pirate but specifically just for catching baseball. Yar, that ball is mine. So it was interesting because Toronto's Kevin Kiermaier had a good game yesterday.

He had a couple hits. He made a nice diving catch in center field. And the Blue Jays rewarded him after the game by telling him he had been placed on waivers. Not even after the game. The report came out while the game was going on. So I did not realize this, but MLB waivers, I guess, work a little differently than NHL waivers in that they're not made publicly available. Like there's not a list that comes out at 9 a.m. courtesy of Elliott Friedman where it's like, the following guy might be laid off.

Well, there's also a point in the MLB season where almost every player gets put on waivers. Right. And I know they've tweaked the trading rules in the last couple years, but you used to be able to make trades after the deadline, essentially, if somebody had cleared waivers. So it's a bit of a different process in baseball. Right. So during the game, some dude from the New York Post broke the news that Kiermaier was going to be put on waivers,

and then John Schneider had to call him in to his office after the game and be like, hey, the two hits and the diving catch, that was great. Unfortunately, you've been placed on waivers, and everybody knows about it because the New York Post broke it. I'll ask both of our Blue Jays fans, Josh and Laddie, does this matter at all? Is this a nice thing for Kiermaier to maybe join a contender? What do I need to know about this?

He's been pretty bad. Right. So it'll be, I don't know, I could see it being difficult, I guess, for a team to want him. Though also he plays good defense. For a playoff team, he could be on the bench and you put him in late in the game, whatever. So I guess it could be a nice thing for him,

but also the Jays are probably just like, oh, you're not doing much here, so I guess we'll do this. You can try and do less somewhere else. Is that it, Laddie? Yeah, it's basically what Josh said. It hasn't been a great season for him. I'm sure he'd love to be a fourth outfielder on a championship team with intentions of going to the playoffs,

and the Jays don't seem like they're doing that. I don't think he's too broken up about it. But the Jays are just hoping somebody takes that salary and gets it off their hands, I think, is the key here. So there was some other news in terms of possibly losing your job in Toronto yesterday. This isn't possibly. This is official.

MLSE fired Bill Manning. Now, a lot of you are probably listening and being like, what does that even mean, Halford? Why are you bringing this up? Well, a couple things. One, Manning was the president of Toronto FC and the Toronto Argonauts. So of the four entities that MLSC has, right,

he was in charge of two of them. Now, the lower tier properties, but still properties nonetheless. And Manning was largely known for his work with TFC, where he was very hands-on. He was the guy in charge of bringing on the Italian contingent, signing Lorenzo Insigne to that massive deal, which has been a complete disaster. Since he's been in charge, they had some good times early in his tenure, but some really bad times.

They probably spent as much or more than any MLS team outside of Miami over the last few seasons, but they haven't made the playoffs since 2020, and they look awful. They've recycled through coaches and everything. Anyway, they got rid of Bill Manning yesterday. So the question is, why does this matter? Well, a lot of people are saying this is the first power move made by Keith Pelley, who we've talked about a lot on this show. He was hired back in April to be the president and CEO of MLSC.

Now, the big thing here is the two big prizes of the MLSC entity in its entirety are the Toronto Raptors and the Toronto Maple Leafs, right? Keith Pelley comes in as the president, and there's some thought that he might remove the president's role from all of these teams. Right. And just have the general managers answer directly to him. So in this case, he's already gotten rid of the presidents of Toronto FC and the Argonauts. That's Bill Manning. What does it mean for Brendananahan and masai ujiri i well like i would be very surprised if brendan shanahan and masai ujiri were let go i mean especially ujiri too um just because you

know the architect of the raptors championship and and everything that kind of went into it like they haven't been that great since obviously but that being said i think there's still like a level of trust there shanahan i mean that one i guess kind of makes more sense but i'd still be pretty surprised so they both got a vote of confidence at the end of the season that they were going to be in place moving forward right uh pelly came aboard in april and then after the maple leafs and raptor season ended pelly went there. You remember he went up there with Brad Tree Living and Brendan Shanahan on a couple of occasions, but one in particular to do their end of year media address and everything was going to stay the same. I'll just be curious to see if this becomes like sort of the testing ground.

Like, let's see what happens with the soccer team and the football team without a president because it becomes crowded at the top, right? But does it translate as well to, like, I feel like, and maybe it's different with TFC, but at least with the Argonauts, I feel like you can get by without a dedicated president there. I also wonder if you can do it at every level, though. If it just becomes, if this is the guy that's the president of all the sports teams, he's going to be like, do we really need presidents of each individual sports team if I am the ultimate president?

Because you got to, I mean, here's the thing. One of the issues with, and we'll just focus on the Leafs here. One of the issues with the Leafs was the understood confusion and lack of clarity in terms of who was answering to whom, who had to get moves cleared with whom between Kyle Dubas and Brendan Shanahan. Was it Shanahan's team? Was it Dubas' team? Was it the Shana plan? Or was it Dubas the architect and then ultimately Kyle Dubas left for almost complete control and authority in Pittsburgh, right?

And I do wonder if that happens at the executive level, a stage above where Keith Pelley is like, I want to make my mark on these teams. I can have, like, for example, example Brad Tree Living answered directly to me and I guess it depends as well on how on the same page Shanahan and Tree Living are because if Pelley looks at it and he's like man you guys aren't clicking at all anyway I'll just come in and I'll have Tree Living answer directly to me and that would make like that That's the one to me that makes more sense. But also I think you look at it and the Leafs and Raptors are so important to MLSC that I think it makes sense to have an extra level on those two teams.

OK, as I mentioned, we're going rapid fire here and we're just going around everything that happened in sports yesterday. Some interesting news out of Utah. Obviously a very busy offseason ahead of what is going to be their first NHL campaign in Salt Lake City. Utah Hockey Club signed their first ever draft selection.

It's not just any draft selection. T. Jaginla signs an entry-level deal on Thursday. So he's 17. He's 6 foot, nearly 200 pounds. He scored 47 goals with Kelowna last year. I'm going to be very curious to see what Utah does in terms of giving him some rope,

both in training camp and maybe at the beginning of the year, because I can almost see it being like a minor, easy marketing ploy. Definitely. Because like your first ever draft pick, you can put them with Josh Stone or Dylan Gunther or other guys that also play for the Utah Hockey Club. Yes.

Logan Cooley. Yeah, Logan Cooley. Clayton Keller. You know the names. But I also wonder if they don't want to fall into... I'm trying to think if Arizona did this. They didn't really seem to rush guys, so maybe it isn't an issue in Arizona,

but I wonder if they want to try to run this organization as well as possible without any hiccups and maybe just sending him down to Kelowna to keep his development going might be the smoothest move. Laddie, how familiar are you with him as a prospect? Tiege? Yeah. He's pretty good. Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. element going might be the smoothest move. Laddie, how familiar are you with him as a prospect? Teach? Yeah. He's pretty good.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. No, he's definitely. He's big. He's big? He's 6'200", right? He's got the strength to maybe hang in the NHL for a little while. I wouldn't say the strength is his key to his game right now. It wouldn't knock him out of contention.

No, no, no. He's definitely one of the more electric players that came through the Giants games that we saw. I'll be very curious to see what they do there because there's so many potential marketing players. You could have them on a line with, you mentioned Josh Doan, and they could be like the sons of former NHLers

now playing in Utah. I'm kind of sad he didn't end up in Calgary, though, to be honest with you. I think Calgary fans are, too. Yeah. It was a pretty natural fit. He was only a couple picks away. There is something to be said for him

being the first draft pick in Utah. And they're very high. The quote from Bill Armstrong was, we have lots of 20 goal scores. This guy's a 50 goal scorer, right? So they've already got pretty high expectations. And if we're being honest, he's the shiny new toy. The marketing purposes, it's great because he's a known name. Yeah.

Even though Utah is a very fresh hockey market, I'm sure they know the Aginla name. Speaking of not so fresh hockey markets, ooh, what a segue, the Carolina Hurricanes. It's pretty interesting because Rob Brindamore was speaking this week as they were going through their development camp, and he had some very pointed comments about the direction of the club.

For those that missed in the offseason, they had a lot of departures, which we'll get into in a sec. But Rod Brindamore spoke very candidly at their development camp, saying, quote, You get attached to the guys, especially when we've had them for a long time. It was hard. I'll be honest. It was hard to watch guys walk out of here.

I had a lot of tough phone calls this summer i haven't really had too many of those in the past we have good players and teams will pay them and we can't pay everybody so if you're wondering what he's talking about the departures are as follows uh the one that hurt the most might have been jake gentel yes they made the biggest push not just to get him obviously the deadline but they made a huge push to try and keep him in Carolina. It didn't happen, and then he, of course, went to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tevo Taravainen,

gone. Stefan Nason, gone. On defense, they lost their entire second pair. Brady Shea signed in Nashville. Brett Pesci signed in New Jersey. That was the team's second pair. I didn't realize this. For four consecutive seasons, those guys played together.

So that was a good old trusty pair that they had in Carolina, and now they're gone. And adding to that, I think the unspoken part from Brindamore is that they did not really add an awful lot in free agency. It was really just Sean Walker

and Shane Gostisbert, two defensemen, to replace the guys. Jack Roslevic. Get pumped. Well, don't forget about Jack Roslevic, of course. And then they re-signed some of their pending UFAs, Martinuk, Chatfield, and of course

the big deal was to Jacob Slavin. Here's the question, as we say, why does this matter? I'm very curious to see if this team is going to take a significant step back, in part because of the guys they lost, but also they set the bar so high the last few

years the last three years you could pencil them in for 50 plus wins and 110 plus points i wonder if those totals are going to get knocked back a peg or two this season like the the hurricanes are such a frustrating team to me because they always they always feel like they know what they're doing or they think they know what they're doing and they stick to a very rigid plan and then it hasn't worked and this this was kind of the first year where they deferred from the plan a little bit by trading for jake kensel because usually they don't trade for these guys and they're just like we're gonna figure it out in the playoffs and then they don't um but they signed for or they trade for jake kensel it worked, and then he leaves. And now you look at their team, they have $11 million in cap space,

but they still have three pending RFAs in Natchez, Jack Drury, Seth Jarvis, who are all pretty important to the team that need to be signed for next season. So there isn't really room for them to grow, I guess, or even add a bigger piece on top of this. So I don't know. They're a frustrating team to me. And if I was Rod Brendamore, I'd be pretty frustrated too, because you're coaching this team and people around the league consider you one of the best coaches in the NHL.

And they rarely spend, they rarely bring in big name guys, and they have a lot of trouble keeping a lot of their players as well. Okay, on the subject of coaching, we turn our attention now to the Canadian men's national soccer team. Why, you might ask? Well, the U.S. fired its manager, Greg Berhalter, two days ago. We actually didn't mention it on our show, in part because we had a million other things on the go, but also in part because we wanted to see what happened

with the new Canadian soccer manager, Jesse Marsh. For those that are unaware, Jesse Marsh is American. Jesse Marsh played for the U.S. men's national team. He was capped twice. He's been involved in numerous coaching levels in U.S. men's national team. He was capped twice. He's been involved in numerous coaching levels in U.S. soccer and at one time actually interviewed for the job until the U.S. Soccer Federation decided to give it back to Greg Berhalter. Sounds like somebody that would be up for the job.

Sure does. So I started asking around and texting around being like, hey, did the U.S. get rid of Bear Halter with an eye on Marsh? Because not only would they be able to get a coach that wanted to be there and had interviewed for it before and was very close to the program, they'd also get to send a death blow to soccer in Canada by doing

so. Well, Canada Soccer released a statement yesterday to the Canadian press. A very short, dare I say, terse statement. Just getting it out in the open. Quote, Jesse Marsh is not considering nor interested in the position at U.S. Soccer.

He is completely focused on Canada. I did reach out to a couple other people who kind of said there's not much to it. Marsh actually has some ill will towards the U.S. Soccer Federation dating back to when he was interviewed. I found some very interesting audio. He was on a podcast, a sort of U.S. soccer based podcast back in May, right after he took the Canada job. And apropos of nothing, he brought up the interview process that he went through with U.S. soccer and had some very critical remarks about how he was treated. Here's what that sounded like back from May.

Listen, I, obviously growing up in the U.S. and contributing and playing for the national team, playing for the youth national teams, coaching at the World Cup with the U.S. national team, my respect for U.S. soccer is big, but I went through a process with them, right? And I'm not going to go into it but i wasn't treated very well in the process and so whatever man that's in the past now and now i'm

fully focused i was the minute it was done i was like okay i'm moving forward and i'm going to figure out what's right for me and and that and again it motivated me again to find the right people and so now i just, I want to talk about Canada because I'm excited to, I feel like it's a fan base and a player pool and a nation that resonates with me. So it sounds as though a lot of people are passing on the U.S. men's national team job. There were multiple reports, including one from The Athletic,

that they aimed high. Aimed high, Willis. They went and reached for Jurgen Klopp, the former Liverpool manager. Heard of him. Yeah, and he quickly declined. He said, no, thank you. I'm taking a break. And even if I wasn't taking a break, I'm not sure I'd want that job.

Sounded like they were... He went, ugh, America. They were trying a couple other high-profile individuals. Now it sounds like it might be Steve Tarundolo, who is the manager at lafc he had a very weird press conference yesterday where they asked him about the u.s men's national team job he didn't play it off at all he tap danced around about as poorly as one can tap dance it's like he had never taken a tap dance lesson in his life but he tried to tap dance anyway so there are what a what an action-packed what happened josh we really got through a lot there proud of us yeah first 24 minutes of the show we got through a lot we've got a lot more to get to on the program reminder it's ask us anything friday in conjunction with

something we've been doing all week here on the show uh josh and i have been answering your vancouver canucks related what ifs, alternate reality scenarios, Mount Rushmore's bar debates, superlatives, all that's a what ifs, all that stuff. We've got a thread going on Twitter. We can get them into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650.

So those along with Ask Us Anything should get us through the next two and a half hours. If you want to get yours in Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Hashtag AUA for Ask Us Anything. Hashtag WWL for What We Learned. Don't forget to put a pizza emoji into your text to be entered into the grand prize draw. Sorry. Grand prize contest.

It's a contest. You have to win it. You always call it that. I know. Well, it sounds... It sounds easier if it's a draw. It sounds more professional. Contest sounds like it makes no sense. Right. They have to try. You it's a draw. It sounds more professional. Contest sounds like it makes no sense. Right. They have to try. You can't just enter.

You have to try. Finally, before we go to break, 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. Aaron Portsline from The Athletic. What's going on with this job search for a head coach in Columbus? Why do they not have a head coach yet? Aaron Portsline will answer on the other side.

You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show 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 Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday. It's a Fiesta Friday here on the Alfred and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Josh Elliott-Wolf, muy caliente. He's here for-Woof. Muy caliente.

He's here for Fiesta Friday. Muy caliente. Did you call him Josh Elliott-Woof? Yeah, there was definitely no L in the world. I definitely heard Josh Elliott-Woof. That's why you should only have two names. Josh. Sorry, bro. If you produced this show and you had a dog name like Laddie and I do, you'd be Josh Elliott-Woof.

Oh my god, we just came up with it right there. Josh Elliott-Woof. We got Laddie. We have A-Dog. And we have Josh Elliott, woof. So my nickname is just my last name without a letter. You know, Wolf's already canines. You're like, no. Laddie.

Take your logic. What was the inspiration for the nickname? It's like Halford was slurring his words again. At 6.32 in the morning, you are listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service.

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. Aaron Portsline from The Athletic in Columbus is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour 1 of this program 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. Aaron Portsline from The Athletic in Columbus joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show

on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Aaron. How are you? Hey, good morning, guys. How are you? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. So I did happen to notice that of all the 32 NHL teams, 31 currently have a head coach. One does not, and it's still the Columbus Blue Jackets. So let's just start with part of the headline from your article here. What are the latest developments in the Blue Jackets coaching search?

Well, you know, nothing is easy in Columbus, Ohio, not as it relates to hockey. I think that the top choice was Todd McClellan, and it appears that he's not going to be the guy now. I think there's still a small chance that they would circle back and try to rekindle talks with him. But it appears that it's down to Dean Emerson or Jay Woodcroft. They're looking for a coach with NHL experience

after having two first-year NHL head coaches that did not go well. And they're hoping to get it done sooner rather than later. They were hoping it would be done by now. I think they were even thinking it could have been done a week ago, if not then, early this week. And it's dragged on a little longer than they expected. Is the McClellan negotiation breaking down purely about finances?

I was told no um i'm not sure if that's if that's one party or the other trying to protect themselves but there's a lot of variables that go into this right like he still owed five and a half million from the kings for this coming season so there's a negotiation there that has to go on between the blue jackets and the Kings. You would think whatever the Blue Jackets care to pick up on McClellan's contract is the amount that the Kings don't have to pay. And yet I think the league is really more interested now in these deals reflecting fair market value.

So in other words, the Blue Jackets aren't going to hire McClellan at $5.5 million, which is what he got last year. They're not going to be able to pay him $2 million. They're going to have to pay a sizable chunk of that. So is that the issue? Did they get through there and then have issues with McClellan in terms of term, in terms of salary, in terms of how many assistants he could bring. It could be any of those. It could be none of those. Either way, he was the guy I think they

targeted first. And it now appears that they've turned their sights elsewhere. Early days still, but what's the confidence level in Don Waddell from Blue Jackets fans right now in not only the coaching search, but how they're assembling the team as it stands? Yeah, well, I think people here were so interested in change. And he is refreshing in a way where he speaks rather, he's pretty forthright. He's pretty blunt in his assessments. You know, what can you do with Elvis? And the goaltender, Elvis Verzlikens, and he says,

well, no one's trading for that contract, and we're not going to buy him out because that's six years we have to eat. So we've got to figure it out with the goalie. That's the kind of stuff that I think fans, at least in the early going, respond to. They don't feel like they're being, you know, PR-ized or manipulated through words. They feel like they're hearing the straightforward facts. I think people mostly approve of the moves he's made to sort of clear up some space at the bottom of the lineup.

Players who have been injured a lot have been sort of in and out of the lineup. Boakvist and Bean and Texier, these sort of bridge, borderline guys. So, you know, it's new. So he gets a bit of a pass early, certainly, but I think most people approve of the job that he's done so far. How many times have you been asked about Joel Quenville being the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets yeah you know a lot yeah um and part of part of that people can be excused for that because they would have talked to him last year if they could have. Sure. Like they didn't rule him out as a candidate.

So, you know, I think, frankly, if they hadn't hired Babcock last year and had that blow up in their faces so bad, that maybe that's something they would consider this year. The other thing is, you know, when they started down this road looking for a coach, probably 10 days, two weeks ago, you know, when they started down this road looking for a coach probably 10 days, two weeks ago, you know, it was mentioned that Quenville is not going to be a candidate because, well, we're going to have a coach in place well before July 10. And here we are. The people are thinking, well, hey, wait a minute.

It's now he's now eligible to come back into the league. And I think there's some suspicion that maybe if a team was talking to them, they would not want that known in case they don't hire him. Why take the bullets if you're not going to actually hire him? So I understand it to an extent. We're speaking to Aaron Portsline from The Athletic in Columbus here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So Waddell comes into, it's a pretty messy situation,

if we're being honest. The team's been on the outside of the playoff picture for a while. There's been a lot of dysfunction. It seems like every time we have you on the show, we're trying to take the temperature of how dysfunctional this team and how this market is responding to it. What is Waddell's explicit short-term goal? Is it to just get stability and have a plan moving forward?

Is it to try and get this team closer to the playoffs? Is it to still try and nurture all these young players and bring them to the next level? Or is it all of these things at once? Yeah, well, I think first of all, when they went in the process of hiring a GM, they made it really clear we wanted a guy who's been a GM before. And so there's your first inclination that they feel like they really need an experienced hand.

And then he comes in and it's, we're going to hire a coach with head coaching experience. And look at the free agents that they added. Monahan, I think it's 29, Jack Johnson's 37. They want veteran voices in the room. They felt like they needed more of that. So I think if you're looking for an overall theme, it's been just kind of growing up this summer, a veteran GM, a veteran coach, more veterans in the room, they turn this thing over. You know, the easy part of a rebuild is, you know, deciding to rebuild.

It's that second and third year that are really hard where you don't see the light at the end of the tunnel and things don't climb as quickly as you think they're going to. And that's what the last couple of years have been so i think they they really want to bring some guideposts into the room for the younger players some north stars if you will you know adam fantilli watch sean monaghan this is how you prepare for a game cole sillinger keep an eye on monaghan. All of the young defensemen, look at Jack Johnson, who has really carved out a hell of a career, still playing at 37, has won a Stanley Cup, has redefined himself as a player to stay in the game.

They want those guys around the young guys. I do want to ask you about Jack Johnson, obviously, because he's got an interesting history in Columbus. Obviously, while Columbus had no impact on the situation with his parents, that was where it happened. And I do remember that he actually requested a trade out shortly thereafter. Were you surprised when he circled back and wanted to return to Ohio? Not at all. I mean, if you go back to the time when he requested a trade, it really it was well past the bankruptcy issue.

It was it was more of them trending that he deserved a contract the next year. Anyway, so there's that. He never stopped living here. He lives in Dublin, Ohio, just a suburb of Columbus. And honestly, I think the talks started this summer by him reaching out to the Blue Jackets and saying, listen, I'm a guy that's not going to get in the way of your young players. If Denton Matejchuk is ready to play in the NHL this year, so be it. I'll take the minimum. I think he also has plans to perhaps work for the organization after his playing days are done.

He loves Columbus, Ohio. He loves the city. He never left here. Even when he went to Pittsburgh, even when he went on to, I believe, the Rangers, Colorado, this has remained his home. So there's a connection here.

And I also think he wants to end it on a high note here, or at least in good graces in Columbus with the Blue Jackets. It's really interesting, the situation with Patrick Flanagan, obviously in the player assistance program, but moving forward, what his future holds,

whether it be in Columbus or elsewhere. And there were talks of him potentially being on the trade block and trying to figure a way for him to move on. Do you think that's still what the Blue Jackets are looking to do, or is there a road to him potentially staying with the team? Well, he wants to be traded. He's looking for a fresh start, as he has said. I think the feeling is mutual. I think the Blue Jackets have sort of shaped their lineup where they're ready to move on as well. I think it's a lot more difficult now that the draft has passed,

that free agency is almost picked clean. At this point, most of the teams have done what they wanted to do or what they could do in the summer. Don Waddell has said he wants to make a hockey trade involving Line A. Of course he does. But I would think at this point that's going to be exponentially more difficult. I think he's going to have to eat a lot of

that salary. He's due 8.7 this coming season and the next. And it just hasn't worked here in any way. He and Gaudreau are oil and water. It just hasn't. You'd think one's a playmaker, one's a shooter. You'd think you'd have a match water. It just hasn't. You'd think one's a playmaker, one's a shooter. You'd think you'd have a match there.

Just hasn't clicked at all. And I think Laine wants to move on, and I think the Blue Jackets are okay with that. But I do think it's likely, possible, certainly, that he ends up still here when training camp starts because there's not that many teams right now looking to add $8.7 million in salary, even $6 million in salary.

Possible, I wouldn't say likely, but we'll see. All it takes is one, right? All it takes is one, indeed. Hey, Aaron, thanks a lot for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the weekend, and hopefully Columbus finds a new coach soon.

Yeah, sounds good, guys. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. That's Aaron Portsline from The Athletic in Columbus here on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Josh Elliott Wolfe. Not Wolfe. I decided we're not going to go with that nickname.

I appreciate it. On Sportsnet 650. Yeah, no problem. No problem. Wolfe. Wolfe. Wolfe, says problem. No problem. Woof. Woof. Woof, says dog. Woof.

Let's do one of these Canucks-related Ask Us Anythings that we've been getting throughout the week. Here's a fun one. I don't have the name of the person that sent this in at the ready, but I have the question. Can you name the best Canucks starting lineup currently,

but you have to have each six players all six players come from six different countries which sounds easy but then it's not as easy as you might think you can't use the United States of America flippantly because there's so many Americans like the Canucks do yeah there's so many Americans. Like the Canucks do. Yeah, there's so many good Americans. So we kind of exchanged notes prior to the show on this one, Josh and I. And we both came to the same decision that you got to start Artur Szilovs in net. Yeah, if you have a Latvian guy, you got to throw him in there. Yeah, so Artur Szilovs is going to be our Latvian representative. And he'll be a Latvian representative, and he'll be a net. I think you understand where we're going with this.

You're nodding along. I hate saying this, but you can't waste USA in net. What's the challenge here? You have to have a different country? Best Canucks starting lineup, but all six have to come from different countries. For current. You could use up Belarus and go with Tolopilo.

You could. Or you could use Artur Kilo. But you have to have the best lineup. Yeah. Not just a lineup. Fair point. Then I thought, hey, perfect defensive pair. Quinn Hughes representing the United States of America.

And Filip Hronik. Czechia. There you go. And that's like, that's kind of a layup. Right. So right now we've got Latvia, US, and the Czechia. Sorry, I almost called the Czechoslovakia. Oh my goodness.

Going way back in time. Oh my goodness. I'm going in the wrong direction. So Silovs, Hughes, Hronik, who are your three forwards, Josh? So I had Elias Pettersson out of Sweden. Yeah, I've heard he's from Sweden. And yeah, you also, so there's not a lot of Canadian options on the Canucks.

I don't know if the text box has told you guys about this. I have been told from time to time for a certain section of texters that the Canucks lack Canadians. Yes. Specifically Western Canadians. But they just signed one, Jake DeBrusque. There you go. So I have him in the forward group and then I put Pew Suter

in there as well. Really thought you were going with Dan Heinen there for a second. He did merit consideration as one of the few Canadians on the team. I went with Pod Kolzin although now I'm thinking that I should have gone with Suter and then that would be... So that would have been Latvia, US, Czech, Sweden, although now I'm thinking that I should have gone with Suter.

And then that would be, so that would have been Latvia, US, Czech, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada. Yes.

I went Sweden, Russia, Canada. Now we've got a task for the listeners here. Try and do one, but all time. I do have, I have a submission for it as well to get,

to get people started. Oh my. If you don't mind. No, no, no. You did extra work. I do have a submission for it as well to get people started. Oh, my. If you don't mind. No, no, no. You did extra work. I did. Way to go, Josh. I did slightly above bare minimum.

Nice. So here's what I had. Okay. Roberto Luongo in net. Okay, so that's Canadian. Canada, tick. Quinn Hughes on defense. America's out.

Yes. And then right side of defense, I was going back and forth between Sammy Salo or Philip Hronik. Okay. Or Jurke Lume. Finn, Czech, Swede. So those are, what are you going to go with for the purposes of this exercise? I think I'm going to go with Salo just because it's fun. Yep. And then up front, Elias Petters-huh to have the swede pavel

beret russia russia and then i put pavel dimitra slovakia okay on the on the other wing because it's kind of hard to find the the other option and and maybe someone could make a better roster was having an american up front and having someone like Christian Airhoff on defense. And then you could get like JT Miller. Yes, exactly. Very interesting.

Okay. Yeah. So you'd pick PD over Henrik Sedin. Am I understanding this exercise correctly? Yes. All time? Yeah. Really?

You would? Just like if I was to put a center with Pavel Bure, I think Patterson... Not that... Like, Henrik... Over Henrik? Henrik would work well, but I think Patterson might work a little better. I know you can't be wrong in this instance, but you're wrong. It should be. It should be Henrik

Sedin over... I would say Henrik over BD. I mean, I don't... Because the task... I understand where he's going, though. He can't just have one Sedin, brother. Yeah, that's kind of my thing, too. He's got all of their power. Oh, you can. You can. I just think... Henrik. Yeah, that's kind of my thing too. He's got all of their power. No, you can't. You can't. Henrik's good enough

that he would still be like... On the occasion that one got injured. Henrik would decline and he'd be like, nope, not without my brother. They were more than confident to be able to do it.

Hot take, I guess. I think if we're going just on upside of talent alone, at least better. Hey, maybe by the end of... Maybe by the end of PD's career, you're proven correct, right?

It's not to say it's the wrong answer necessarily, but I think a lot of people are raging at their radio. Could you imagine Henrik and Burry on the same power play, though? Well, we've had these before. Absolutely insane. Where we've done these sort of like mythical era bending type,

you know, this era and that era mixing them all together. And the permutations have always been either, well, imagine if PD had Burry on his line or imagine if the Sedins were playing with Burry. I mean, that's the ultimate,

right? Because even though I think that the styles might not be super congruent because Burry was such a speedster and it would almost be like, just get the puck in his hands and let him do his thing. The idea of like, if we're doing like the fantasy draft type thing, that would be it, right?

On the heels of that, because I just mentioned JT Miller, someone threw in a really interesting one. Where do Hughes and Miller rank already among all-time Canucks? Now, some of you will scoff and you'll be like, you can't have this conversation already.

These guys are still actively playing. You don't have the end chapter of their career. Where does Hughes rank? All-time Canucks? Just hold on. You can't do a retrospective when a guy's still actively playing. I mean, you can very much disagree with Hughes, but you need to set parameters on this first, right? Here's what we'll do for the sake of making this argument and conversation super easy to do.

For the sake of argument, let's say that there's a top five that you've got to crack. And I think it's easy to identify the top five Canucks of all time. Sedin, Sedin, Bure, Linden, Naslund. That seems pretty okay. You can maybe argue with some of them, but I think for a baseline of what you need to crack to be a top five Canuck of all time,

that's a top five. I think so. That's fair. Adog, you be a top five Canuck of all time, that's a top five. I think so. That's fair. Adog, you're willing to go along with that? I guess. Why? I mean, I might be. You just want to be different.

Why are you being difficult? I would potentially put Hughes over Naz. No, no, no. They're trying to crack that top five. This is where you say Quinn Hughes could, JT Miller could. But that's a top five at is as it exists okay sure um chooses an easy top five if that's the case yes yeah I mean I would I would put Naslund out and put him in I might even I might even take Linden out and put Hughes in I definitely

would yeah you definitely would I mean you're talking about on skill alone obviously yeah no you're talking about everything it's top fiveucks, not top five players for the Canucks. I mean, that's the fundamental difference. You have to take everything into account. Greatest defenseman in franchise history is... Like, he's in the top five without question. If you want to start knocking people out of the top five and putting people in, okay, then you can have that debate.

Quinn Hughes is in for sure. Miller is the way more interesting one yeah it's it's difficult because it's I don't even he he hasn't he's been a main guy but he hasn't been the main guy if that makes sense like is he going to be the player that defines this era probably not like it's probably going to be Quinn Hughes. I would probably even give Elias Pettersson a better chance. But he's still in the category of you're not as good of a team nearly without him. I think by the end of his time in Vancouver, he's clearly a top 10 Canuck. Interesting. Okay.

Okay. I'm with you on that. I'm not putting him top five. I feel like he has the most interesting potential trajectory, if that makes sense. I think we know what Hughes is and what he'll continue to be. He's the captain of the team. He's the best defenseman in franchise history. You're talking about JT Miller's interesting trajectory? Yeah, I mean, you've got to see how that contract ends, right?

You've got to see how he looks at the bottom half of it. I mean, you hope that he continues to play. Here's the thing. JT Miller would probably be the captain on a lot of other NHL teams if he was on a different team. He would probably be the captain because I think he's the emotional heartbeat of this team. He's just not the guy that wears the C

because the C belongs to the best player, and the best player is Quinn Hughes. But there's a certain something that Miller has, and right now I'd say his trajectory, for some people, would be like he could be, to the organization, what Ryan Kessler was over his 10 years as a Vancouver Canuck, right? Yeah. You've got to remember that although he's played slightly more games

as a Canuck, he's still spent more time as a Ranger than he has as a Canuck Miller. Which is wild. Yeah. I mean, he played less games because he was younger and breaking into the league, but he was six years a Ranger, five years a Canuck Miller. Which is wild. Yeah. I mean, he played less games because he was younger and breaking into the league, but he was six years a Ranger, five years a Canuck. His resume as it

stands right now, pretty impressive. He's finished like top 20 in heart voting three times. He's one of only seven Canucks all time to have 100 points. By the time next season ends, assuming he's healthy,

he's also going to be potentially top seven or eight all-time in points for the Canucks. But the question is, would he get into that very rarefied air with Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin,

Pavel Bure, Quinn Hughes, and then it would be probably Trevor Linden and we'd bump Naslin. And that's tough to crack because those guys all have very compelling cases as to why they're some of the best Canucks of all time.

I think he's going to end up, like you said, probably like a top 10 guy. A guy that's very fondly remembered but just won't be in those upper reaches. Now, that being said, the reason I said he's got the most potentially interesting trajectory is there's so much time still.

Well, that's what I was saying. Like, top 10 maybe, but you got to see how it ends. Like you won't know until it's over kind of thing. If you make a cup final or win a cup in that time, that changes things quite a bit. Oh, it changes everything. It changes everything. Especially if he's still this level of Miller while that happens.

Yeah, because one thing that I'll say, and Bruff's done the mea culpa on this as well, is he has defied a lot of our thoughts expectations assumptions about a guy getting that big of a contract getting that close to 30 right he the first the first couple years so far have been very good very good and he really has turned a page in a lot of ways and i do think that the you know the influence of rick talk it has helped in a major way ways. And I do think that the, you know, the influence of Rick talk, it has helped in a major way and he's going to be a major contributor. But again,

the question becomes for how long, okay, we've got a lot more to get to on the health and breath show on sports net six 50. We can continue to do these kinds of conversations throughout the show. You can text them in. If you've got any questions, ideas,

thoughts, Mount Rushmore's ask us anything. Dunbar lumber text line is six 50, six 50 coming up on the show. We're going to talk to AJ from AJ's pizza on East Broadway. Mount Rushmore's Ask Us Anything's Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Coming up on the show, we're going to talk to AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Then we're going to be joined by Ben Steiner for a little Canadian footy talk ahead of tomorrow's third place match against Uruguay. There's a lot of different storylines going on.

And with that, Dave Hall from Canucks Army is going to join us at 7.30 to talk about a bunch of Canucks prospects after prospect camp closed last week. We've got a lot more to get into, including all of our Ask Us Anythings. Get them in. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.