Halford & Brough in the Morning - Where Is The Leadership?

Episode Date: January 20, 2026

In hour 1, Mike Halford and Jason Brough dive into comments made by the Canucks head coach Adam Foote after a historic 11th straight loss. Who are the leaders on this team, and what does good culture actually mean? They visit the Kiefer Sherwood trade with San Jose, and listen to audio from Canucks years gone by, drawing similarities to the current struggles. 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.

You're listening to HALFORN DANNANANNANN You're listening to Halford and Brough Lee cuts out front, got a shot away, stop by Lankin and rebound they score. DeAngelo left circle, jams it into the back of the Vancouver Ned. Tony DiAngelo makes it 4 to 2. You know, we get off our game, we get frustrated,

and we overcomplicated and, you know, slamming the gate, things like that. We can't have anyone freak out out there, okay? We've got to keep our composure. Got too far. There's two much to lose. It's not just keep our composure. Good morning, Vancouver.

Six o'clock on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford and his Browford. It is Sportsnet, 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairbue slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Regular Zach. Good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Bro, for the morning. He's brought to you by Sands and Associates. Got paid a loan down.

Sanza's and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com today. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one 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 paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, make 2026 your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics.

It is time now for the morning drive brought you by the Duic Auto Group. That's our morning guest list rundown. Now, originally, we were going to start the show and our guest at 630 with Chris Parker at a WGR Buffalo to talk about the bills. But we had to bump them. This is how profound it was that Adam Foote said something interesting in his post-game media availability. We had to reserve an entire hour of the show to talk about it. Our apologies to Chris Parker, who no doubt is listening.

to WGR and Buffalo. We'll try and get to him later this week, but we are clearing the entire first hour of this program to talk about the Vancouver Canucks. And then at 7 o'clock, Shang Pang from San Jose Hockey Now and NBC Sports California is going to join us. San Jose, of course, the new home of now X Canucks Forward, Kiefer Sherwood, who was traded yesterday.

Shang also got to see the first goalie fight in the National Hockey League in six years last night as Sharks Netminer Alex Nadelkvich I knew you'd be excited, Greg. Scrapped with Sergei Bavarovsky in Florida last night. Scheng was there. Boots on the ground to see if the fight will also talk to him about Kiefer Sherwood going to the sharks. That's going to happen at 7 o'clock.

7.30, we're going to Spain. White Caps sporting director Axel Schuster is going to join the program. He'll join us live, as mentioned, from Spain, where the Caps are currently conducting their training camp. It was a very eventful few days leading up to that camp with all the drama surrounding Tristan Blackman. Axel joins for our first Whitecaps' second. in a while. That'll happen at 7.30 this morning. 8.10, Landon Ferraro is going to join the program.

Canucks analyst on SportsNet. He was on the panel during last night's TV broadcast. Canucks lost their 11th game in a row last night, 4'3 to the Islanders at Rogers Arena. The biggest story, though, from last night was what Foot had to say post-game and all the ramifications from it. Landon is going to join us at 8-10 this morning for some Canucks talk. So working in reverse on the guest list, 8-10, Lander, Ferraro, 7,000. 30 Axel Schuster 7 o'clock shang peng that is the duick morning drive that is the rundown laddie without further ado 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 we know how busy your life can be 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. For more, visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. On the ice yesterday, it was more of the same from your Vancouver Canucks. Anthony Duclair scored twice for the New York Islanders and the Canucks were on the wrong end, yet again for the 11th time in a row,

11th straight loss for the Canucks, a 4-3 defeat at Rogers Arena to the aisles on Monday night. The most interesting part of the evening, though, had nothing to do with the fact that the Canucks lost their 11th game in a row. It had to do what Vancouver Canucks head coach Adam Foote, set in the aftermath.

I think we're going to go right to the audio here. That's a good idea. We're going to go right to the tapes. It's actually more of a digital file, but I digress. Here now is Adam Foote finally. Game 49. Game 49. It only took 49 games to get there.

Laying into ripping into his veteran players for their lack of accountability, their lack of composure, and what they were doing in a short but important seven-minute span and what ended up being a fourth re-loss of the Islanders. Here is Vancouver Canucks head coach Adam Foote from the podium yesterday. Our veterans are the ones that feel defeated first. It's been going on here for a few years.

You know, we get off our game, we get frustrated and we overcomplicate it and, you know, slamming the gate and things like that. It's something we got to get out of our culture. Our culture is not going to be that anymore. And it just gets us off our game slightly. off our game plan and for just a little bit too long, and it allows other teams get a little bit of energy and come back in the game.

And it's something we've got to stop. Like tonight, the good thing is it would last about seven minutes. We readjusted, came out with a great third period, had to kill, you know, that call, I get it. You know, it was an intense call. It can happen. It might not happen, but it does happen in hockey. But we, I've been watching this for too long to say, like, we got to stop burn ourselves by getting frustrated.

We've got to stay within the plan. The plan's working. And, you know, it's our vets. And they got to hang in there. So I was at the game yesterday sitting right across from the Canucks bench. And I didn't notice any door slamming. I didn't notice any yelling. I didn't notice, you know, anything going on to the bench.

But it's not something that you look at when you're out of game. You're like, you know, there's lots of sounds going on at a, of Vancouver Canucks game, but I imagine it did happen in the second period because the Canucks finished the first period leading two to one. And then in the second period, they had a moment really at the kind of mid to end of the third period where they allowed two pretty quick goals for the Islanders to take the lead three, two. And then as Adam Foote said, then they came out and had a decent third period. So I imagine it was in the second period. Second period, to have a problem for the Canucks the last two games

because the one against the Edmonton Oilers didn't go so well either. First and third have been great either but I digress. This goes back to well, let's name them, J.T. Miller and his style, I don't know if you want to call it a leadership style. I don't know if this is his legacy

that he left with the Canucks. A legacy of broken hinges. And I know a lot of people say like they confuse playing with emotion with losing your composure and slamming gates and showing that you're frustrated. Going home, going back to the bench and slamming the gate and yelling and freaking out

or slamming your stick against, like it is showing emotion. It's just useless. And what Adam Foote is saying and what Rick Tocket had said beforehand was like, it's a distraction because you're on the bench with a teammate who's

you know, making loud noises and you're like, what's going on down there? And that distracts you from your job. And it creates sometimes a little bit of panic if the vets are acting like that. If you want to play with emotion, encourage your teammates and go out and show it on the ice.

That's all they're saying. Because people get it confused, right? People think, like, what? Foot's seeing he doesn't want any emotion he's like no he's not saying that he wants emotion and this is what all coaches will say good coaches will say like no I want your emotion um harnessed in a positive way not a distracting way now the important thing here is that adam foot is not the first delivery man for this message so matter of fact when I came in this morning I'm like I had a couple people tell me last night, just so we're clear, this is nothing new with this group,

with this core, with this room. Go back and listen to some of Rick Talkett's comments before he decided he wanted out of Vancouver. So we did. Here now is a clip from January of last year, 2025, in which Rick Talkett, almost word for word, talks about the exact same things that this particular group of veteran presences would do during games when things got frustrating. Here now, and it's crazy that it's almost a year to the day, Rick Talkett from mid-January 2025 talking about how the Canucks group responds to frustrations. Obviously, last game was not, you know, being up two to one and, you know, I don't know, the shots were 18-11.

I thought we were coming all of a sudden, what, 18 minutes later, it flipped. And why is that? Because we guys stopped skating. Guys started doing fancy plays. Body language came back for whatever reason. You just can't do that. Winters don't do that. You don't slam gates.

We're up two to one. Somebody misses an empty net. Okay, who cares? Why slam a gate? This is stuff I've been preaching. I've been here. And every once in all it creeps in the frustration. I don't know if it's because of the noise or not.

I don't know. But we have to stop that stuff. Not surprisingly, several months later, Rick Tocket left. said, you know what? Maybe I'm not going to be able to change the culture of this team. Maybe I'm not going to be able to change how this team reacts, the body language, the slamming of the gates, the attitude and personality of, I'd say, a good chunk

of the guys that he depended on on a nightly basis. Not the young guys, but the veteran guys that are around. And I don't know whether it was the lasting legacy of J.T. Miller. I don't know whether it was that these guys embraced it. Or maybe it's just how. this group is constructed, that there's a lot of guys that have the kind of personalities that when the going gets tough, they get frustrated. Sometimes, and I will make a bit of an excuse, sometimes guys do it to show that they care.

They do. I know you have no time for this right now, but I think the connects probably feel helpless in this situation right now. You mean losing 11 games in a row? mean it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing for that to happen. And they, I don't know, maybe you want to show the fans because it was another home loss last night that they too are frustrated. I always felt sometimes like that's what J.T. was doing. Like he was, it was a weird way for him to hold himself accountable to yell at himself. And for his, for him to let his teammates know that he was frustrated with him, himself, and he expected better from himself.

But it was not the right way to do it. I think the problem, though, is like it, you know, the origin story, the Joker story of where it came from, quite frankly, it doesn't mean it. It didn't matter. Like, no one cares, no one gives a crap why you're getting to that end game. One coach already told you that we're building a culture here

that doesn't have that. And then he left, and then the next coach came in and is now saying the exact same things. So at what point, and I'm not saying you're excusing it away, but what point do you keep excusing it away and being like, well, you know, guys are mired in an 11 game losing streak so you can understand when the guys in charge have made it clear as day, clear as day that it's not acceptable behavior.

It might be acceptable in other places. There might be other NHL teams, and I'm not even saying this facetiously who are like, yeah, be outwardly demonstrative and, you know, do the things and get it off your chest. We don't mind. But when your boss tells you don't do it, and then the second boss says also, please don't do that. And you continue to do it, that's a culture problem. And culture problems, I think a lot of people assume it looks one way all the time. Like there's maybe veteran leaders who are too hard on the younger players.

Maybe there's some hazing going on. And then maybe there's veteran players that don't set the right example. Maybe there's veteran players that don't care enough. And maybe these guys are saying, well, we're trying to show that we care. We're showing them that this is not acceptable. The issue is, is no one in this organization, at least the guys that matter, I would say, the decision makers, want to see what the veterans are doing right now. And I think it goes beyond just slamming gates, by the way. I think there's a pouty element with certain players when things aren't going their way that they don't like.

I think body language plays into it a lot. I think hanging heads plays into it. plays into it a lot. I think feeling sorry for yourself plays into it a lot. I think there's a lot of guys on this team that admittedly have gone through some rough times over the last couple years.

It's a lot of the guys from their leadership group, right? Like J.T. had his issues. And certainly at the end of his tenure, Quinn's body language was awful. You know, a lot of people are texting in right now and going like, who's he talking about? Who is slamming? in Gates. I have no idea. No idea who he was talking about. Um, but you know, look,

like Pedersen's body language has been awful at times. You know, you talk about that kind of pouty. Um, yeah, and so is Bessers, right? Like Besser looks, doesn't look. And these, and these are the guys, by the way, we'll talk a lot about a lot of the rumors, you know, that continue to swirl, especially around Elias Pedersen. And, you know, this is one of the reasons why you could argue for a Pedersen trade, it's a culture thing, right? Like, yeah, I know he hasn't been horrible this season, but you do need your best players to be your leaders.

I'm sorry, that's just how it works. Or at least you need your best players to be good role model. Even if they're not up there talking to everyone and sitting down and going like, hey, how's it going or making big speeches or whatever? You need them to be role models because the Canucks are going to have a lot of kids in the lineup over the next little while. They already have a lot of kids in the lineup. You need your leaders to lead. And that's what I think maybe the most maddening part right now about the dynamic where people are saying age old conversations. Now, even though it's only been around for a few weeks in Vancouver,

you guys wanted a rebuild. This is what a rebuild looks like. No. A rebuild should not have any of these guys around. End of story, period. I know that you need to get decent assets back in return for shipping some of these players out. But at this point, I think there's enough evidence

between two different head coaches, a fan base who has witnessed it, media who's covered it, that there's damage being done by having some of these veteran presences around and they're not giving you anything in the positive. They're not helping you win games. I guess they're helping you lose games,

but here's the thing. You can find lots of guys, lots of guys on the unemployment line that can help you lose hockey games. And you can find lots of guys that want to be in the NHL that'll put in a shift and do the things you want them to do. I mean, at this stage of the game, you're just talking about guys following orders.

Yeah. You're not talking about it. That's going to be like, okay, we're going to sign you to this conference. contract. I have one question for you. Are you a gate slammer? Standard player contract. The following things are non-negotiables. Slamming gates, hanging heads, chucking water bottles, like all this stuff. It's crazy that it's crazy. It's a low pouts per 60. Seriously, we're going to have to start keeping track of that. You know, how many times did you hang your head in the second period? It's nuts.

And the crazy, crazy, crazy part is that it wasn't too long ago that Rutherford was lauding all of these veteran presences that they had in the room that they thought would be good mentors for the next generation. Well, we'll play some Patrick Alvin' commentary in the next segment, and we've got a full hour to start the Halford & Brough show today, and we'd obviously love to hear from you into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650-650. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and renter warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com.

a lot of text coming in right now. So I was at the game last night. Joe fan. Gen. I was in Genpop. And there's a few things that I wanted to mention. And it kind of relates to Vancouver can't handle a rebuild. I'm reading right now about the New York Knicks getting booed off the court yesterday in New York.

because that is a team that has expectations on it. It won the NBA Cup, and they're in a bit of a slide right now. And they had a game against Dallas yesterday, and they had a really rough first half, and they got booed off the court. The lowly Dallas Mavericks. So, again, this was my first game in person this season. I can't remember the last time it took me until January to go to a game,

but I don't know. There's been something keeping me away. I could not believe how positive and encouraging and upbeat the crowd was last night. I think it was for me the most remarkable thing about being in attendance there. That was like going to a large kids game. Like it was everyone was. everyone was just so encouraging right until the very end. You know, a few people left after they went down 4-2,

but a lot of people stayed, and they were like, come on, guys, tie it up. And there was very limited grumbling when the Islanders scored, and they had two very quick goals in the second period that a race to Canucks 2-1 deficit. it. And then they had kind of the backbreaker goal in the third period when Tony DeAngelo scored to make it four to two for the Islanders. I just thought it was, I just thought it was noteworthy. And I was, I was, because I'm like, I'm like, I wonder what the atmosphere is

going to be like. Because, you know, the Canucks might break their franchise record for most losses in a row and they might lose yet again. on home ice. And the Islanders, they're not world beaters, man. They got pretty good goalie in Sorokan, but they were missing Horvatt last night. And, yeah, they got a couple of good players, but they're not guaranteed to make the playoffs or anything.

And they had their rookie party on Saturday night. That shouldn't, I don't think it's, I think that's reportedly. That's not a team that you're like, well, you know, the Islanders, they're pretty good team. but it was just everyone was pretty happy to be there everyone had a good time the game was fairly entertaining

and there was no vitriol it was just a hockey game not a single jersey thrown on the ice despite the fact it was the 11th consecutive loss now it was an entertaining game and um that 5 on 3 pk that they had

when Marcus Pedersen broke his stick was and I'm not kidding here one of the highlights of the season. Yeah. It's good. It's a good kill. It was...

I was watching it. It was gutsy. It was gutsy. So, Hironic and Elias Pedersen were the ones with the sticks. And, you know, both those guys played that kill so well. Pedersen, positionally, is the best player on the team. He really is. He is always in the right spot defensively and offensively.

There's a reason he, you know, so many times the puck like just finds its way to him. Now, there are issues like his skating, the guy cannot create separation anymore. There's never a great skater, but, you know, he goes on these rushes sometimes up the ice. And there's just, you're like, he's not beating a guy. He's not beaten a guy wide. He's not creating separation. But, you know, that PK showed what he has in terms of the good qualities remaining and you know I do think the connection move on from him but I also think

that he could be a valuable piece for another team and there should be a market for him if Evander Kane another point plays like he did last night in the offensive end then there should be a market for him too because that was one of his most impressive and energetic performances of the net. He had a goal. He went to the net. He had a breakaway right before that goal. He had a couple big hits.

Matthew Schaefer, who I also want to talk about, was always looking for Evander Cain out there. And if you're a team that thinks it's going into the playoffs and you want a guy out there that is going to make it hard on the other team's defenseman

to get the puck out and to move the puck. and if Evander Cain is engaged, there should be a market for him as well. You know, I wonder if the fact that Kiefer Sherwood got traded and then Evander Cain has an energetic game, has something to do with it. The freedom light at the end of the time.

Well, if you're Cain, like, you have to get traded. Because you have to, you have no story to write in terms of selling your services for next season. If this is the way you go out on a Canucks team that's going nowhere and you're not typically bringing the energy like he did last night. Like he's, you know, this is his time to show other teams that he can still help them in the playoffs. And I think he did it last night. Was he perfect?

No, like he took an offensive zone penalty. And defensively, sometimes he still. still not moving his feet enough, but I think last night, I think he was named third star in the building. So that was, you know, that was good. I hope there were scouts in the building watching him last night. And finally, man, you know, I said that if there's one player that Canada could regret leaving off the roster, it's the 18-year-old Islanders defenseman Matthew Schaefer. He is an unbelievable player. He is so good. And there were so many times where he was the one that kind of calmed it down for the islanders in his own end.

And he plays with such composure. It's crazy how young he is. But that was the guy I showed up to watch. And I watched him a lot. And man, I'm just glad he's Canadian. Even if he's not on this Olympic team, that is like this next group of Canadian stars led by Celebrini and Baddard. and Matthew Schaefer, man, it's good. So we're going to be talking about Macklin Celebrini's team,

the San Jose Sharks. That's coming up at 7 o'clock this morning when we talked to Shangpang, the San Jose Sharks, of course, now the new employer of former Canucks Forward, keeper Sherwood. We'll talk about the fallout from the Sherwood trade coming up. We've got an entire half hour of the program coming up entirely open. We can go any direction you want. Adam Foote's remarks after the game yesterday.

Takeaways from the Canucks 11th consecutive loss. Kiefer Sherwood trade, and we will definitely get into all of the rumblings yesterday, including many from Frank Saravalley from Victory Plus, about a potential Elias Pedersen trade, maybe even a VanderCain trade talk as well. There's so much to get into. Lots of Canucks news on the horizon. Next half hours coming up, you're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. 632 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody, Halford Brough, SportsNet 650. This is the game show music. Today on the Tank Show. slamming doors. 11 in a row. No slamming gates. Not on our show. Well, maybe.

You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Do you have payday loan debt? If you do, it's not good. Sands and Associates could cut that debt by up to 80% though with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands-trustee.com. Still an hour one of the program. Hour one 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 paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. I think I'm overly excited this morning about diving into post-game audio for what feels like the first time in, I don't know, a decade. I know it hasn't been that long. But it's kind of been part and parcel of the morning show to hear what the coach says.

the night before, wake up bright and early in the morning, and then parse through it for the nuggets of wisdom or maybe those subtle callouts that NHL head coaches are often want to do. Through 48 games this year, Adam Foote has given us nothing, nothing to work with in the morning. Until last night. And he did it.

God bless that man. So we've already played some of the audio from yesterday, calling out the veteran players. And it was in response to what he saw as bad body lines, language slamming the door at the gate, all that stuff that he said makes for a bad team culture, one that he wants to change, but also something that's been hanging around this team for years. Do you think Patrick Alvin was like, I really wish you hadn't used the word culture? Did he say culture?

Did he say it out loud? Oh, crap. We then played Rick Talkin Audio from a year ago complaining about this same thing. Now, Foote wasn't done with just his one clip, his one take yesterday. He was asked follow-up questions in the aftermath. We've got more Adam Foote here talking about his vets, their response to adversity and tough times during games. More Adam Foote, unplugged from the mic yesterday,

following a 4-3 loss to the Islanders that connects 11th loss in a row. Here's foot from yesterday. I'm not to do it anymore. Tell you guys. No, you know what? We talked about it. We talked about it over and over and over. I mean, it's very simple, the analytics and the results.

It's normal. Like when things don't go your way, we've been so resilient all year, and it keeps coming, an injury here, this and that. And then, you know, but even without this season, I really found with the group, even guys that aren't here anymore, when it didn't go their way, you know, they over-created or their frustration came in play. And, you know, you have bad changes or slamming. gate and the other teams are pretty bright and they can see that and you give them the juice you give them the

energy and you know if you have a bad change and the other our group us to defend coming on and they don't have the juice to go on off that so it all snowballs um we don't do it we didn't do it a lot at the start of the season it's lingering back and we're going to stop it and we can't we can't do it to herself. So don't you think this sort of behavior carries over into other areas like honestly and this sounds like media nail gazing but like postgame press conferences are you going to be available to be there to answer the bell after a tough game? Are you going to hang your head in when you ask questions? Are you going to act pouty and immature? Oh, you don't want me to go down the road here.

You don't want me to go down this road. I mean, this one's been brewing for a while. Well, we'll go for it because I think what Adam Foote is talking about what he sees is why a lot of Canucks fans have too often watched this team with disdain and just thought, like, this is the team that I support. Like, they don't carry themselves in a very good way, which is why we've been kind of hammering away on this. veteran group and going, why do you seem so intent on keeping all these guys? It's 100% with accountability. So the organization over the last few years has made it a directive, a mandate, whatever you want to call it to really insulate players from outside noise, right?

Trying to shield them from media obligations and responsibilities. Trying to position people that cover the team is the enemy. There's a real sense, and this was not exclusive to Vancouver. You remember Brandon Shanahan had similar remarks about Toronto. We want to make it a safe space for our players. We want to make sure that our players don't feel the crushing weight of expectation of the market. But at the same time, Babcock came out and said, we're going to own our own mistakes, and we're going to go out and we're going to talk to the media every game.

And then they got rid of Babcock, and then this is when this started. Yeah, but it was after Babcock when all of this started, right? It was that, you know, we want to make sure that we do our own thing. We insulate our players from the outside interferences, obligations, pressures, responsibilities, whatever. Now, one path does not lead to another. Point A doesn't always lead to point B, but answer me this. Does it not feel as though there's a real lack of accountability with some of these players when two different head coaches have told them specifically don't do this thing?

and they go out and do it anyway? And then does that lack of accountability not carry over that the same message that Rick Tockech has already delivered to this group is now being re-delivered by Adam Foote and there doesn't seem to be any consequence when guys directly defy what the head coach wants them to do? That's the biggest takeaway for me in all this. We got so many techs coming into

the Dunbar-Lumber text message in basket right now talking about you're wrong, you need people to show emotion. There's other teams in the league where guys show their frustrations and they're fine. Connor McDavid smashes his stick and slams the gate. That's not the point. The point is that two different head coaches have very clearly, very clearly said,

we don't want you doing this. It might be fine elsewhere, but the way we view the game and we view the way things should be, conducted, we don't want any of this. Yeah, we don't want that. We don't want crappy body language. We don't want smashing of sticks. We don't want slamming gates. We just don't want it.

Maybe other organizations will say, hey, be you, you, be you. Feel free to do whatever you want to do. And that's great. But here, they don't want it. Now, there's a lot of disconnects here. Because my follow-up question last night probably would have been,

why has it been allowed to linger? How is it lingered? Is it just because the veteran presences are comfortable and they're they feel like they've got the right to do this? I don't know. Well, it's interesting you say that because that clip, we didn't actually get the question. And the question was essentially,

what do you do about it as a coach? And the clip started out with him saying, well, I tell them. But he also said, and I tell you. For the first time. For the first time using the media. Game 49. as a way to get his message across.

It really strikes me that Foote said all this last night because he's been so protective of the team up until that point for over half a season, through a horrendous season, through a 10-game losing streak, it was the 11th game. It was the 11th loss that finally got him to say, hey, I actually have a problem with how the vets are carrying themselves. And it hasn't been all season, so to be fair, it wasn't going to be accurate for him to do that after every game.

But he said it's been creeping into the game more. And he said, it's been an issue with this team for as long as I've been here. And don't forget, he was Rick Tocket's assistant coach. When he said at the beginning of that clip, and you pointed it out too, he's like, and I tell them again and again and again. All right. Over and over and over and over again. It's like, what?

Really? Still? You know, I wonder if, I wonder if he genuinely thought he was going to be able to change things. Knowing that he, I mean, it was on his watch in part when he was working under Tocket and he saw these things. I wonder if he genuinely thought he was going to change things or if he just assumed that some of these guys were going to smarten up. But whatever the case, neither has happened. He hasn't been able to change him. behavior and most distressingly there's been no accountability or self-ownership from these guys

to say hey one coach told us to knock it off another coach told us to knock it off and we haven't knocked it off when was the last time a Canucks player came out and just said like it's unacceptable this is this is BS I can't believe we're playing like this I can't believe this is happening it's been a while yeah uh Paul uh texts in to the Dunbar lumber text line and he's says, those who want EP40 traded are going to regret it big time. Okay. So let's get to the Eve. Let's give it to that.

Let's get to the Elias Pedersen part of the conversation. Now, PD didn't produce offensively last night, but he did have that good five-on-three penalty kill along with Philip Peronik and Marcus Pedersen. there is still a lot of good in his game, which is why it sounds like there are a lot of teams out there that are calling the Vancouver Canucks on Elias Pedersen. So yesterday on Fan 590 in Toronto, Real Kippernboren, Frank Saravalli went on the program and talked about the growing suspicion

around the league that the Vancouver Canucks might indeed pull off and Elias Pedersen trade. And maybe sooner than you think, here's Frank Sarvalley on Fan 590 yesterday on PD Trade Talk. I think there's definitely a growing suspicion from teams that it does happen this year. And, I mean, there are some thinking maybe even potentially before the Olympics. Really? Now, that feels kind of quick. But the Canucks have been in the spot where they're ready and willing to consider anything and everything pretty much throughout the course of their organization.

And I think the other part is the market that we've just talked about, which is look at the deal sign for Dvorak and Wendberg, five, uh, $1.15 million for Dvorak and $6 million for Wenberg. And all of a sudden you turn around and you look at Elias Pedersen and you say, if we believe this is a guy that we can rejuvenate, get his career going again with a change of scenery, all of a sudden, $11.6 million a year doesn't sound like a crazy risk profile. What would Carolina give up for him?

I think Carolina is one of a handful of teams right now that has been burning up the Canucks. I think the expression of interest and significant interest at that has really ratcheted up in a significant way for Vancouver that they're trying to have to look at this in a serious way right now. Well played by friend of the program, Justin Bourne, for throwing Carolina right in the middle of that one. So now this conversation carried on a lie yesterday. Frank did multiple media hits across the National Hockey League in various markets, talking about this one particular story, including a spot. on our very own station, Sports 9650 with Sat and BIC. Now, reminder, NHL's Olympic roster freeze begins on January 4th.

The Canucks are keen on getting something done before that, they basically have a two-week window. And you've seen some teams already try and take care of business. Rasmus Anderson getting traded from Calgary to Vegas. Kiefer Sherwood, of course, getting traded from the Canucks to San Jose. Sat yesterday asked Frank about

what the potential return could be, because there has been some conversation about specifics in terms of what the Conucks want back in a Pedersen trade. So here's Frank Saravalli on Central yesterday with Sat and Bick. We'll play Sat's question just to set the context here. But a potential return, what they might be looking at, here's what it sounded like yesterday on SportsNet 650.

But is it realistic to expect that even in a trade that he would bring back more than what the Canucks got in a J.T. Miller trade? And that's maybe a first-round pick. That's going to be a bit later, most likely. You're getting an okay prospect and you've got to take a contract back. That to me seems like the template for the best. case scenario for Peter right now. You think they can? I think they, yeah, I do. I think the market has changed pretty drastically on Pedersen because teams realize how hard it is to acquire a player like

that. And they see the upside and they see what other centers are being paid and they're saying, well, 11.6 is certainly a risk. But if we can get him back close to, you know, not even all the way, get him back close to somewhere between what he is now and what he used to be, 11.6 isn't going to be crazy. Not with the cap increasing, not with how thin the center market is. And so I think they're reevaluating this going, we don't have an ability to get our hands on players like this very often. We should try and make something happen.

And that's exactly what's changed. And that's what's making the Canucks think is this value has exceeded, I think, where they believed it was. I wonder if the Connects are going to move on this before the Olympic break. I know the Olympic break comes before the actual trade deadline, but... Feb-4 is the roster freeze. You get two weeks. You got two weeks.

Doing it before the Olympic break would give everyone in the city and on the team a chance to collect themselves. I heard some guys on the station talk about maybe that's the time. maybe that's the time to make a coaching change if you're going to bring in someone for next season. Would that be the time to bring up Manny? Drance wrote in the athletic yesterday if the Canucks do ultimately decide

to move on from Pedersen and I believe the team will strongly consider that possibility if the right offer comes along their overall lack of options down the middle will dictate the shape of the trade. Put simply, that's the first time Jantz has ever put anything simply.

And they didn't even put it that simply. The Canucks would require a centerback in addition to other assets in a Pedersen trade before the deadline. That's a center back in the trade, not a centerback like the footballing variety, just so we're clear. Right.

A center back. You kind of said like the Connacks would require a centerback along with a wingback, maybe a box-to-box midfielder. No, like I didn't love this report. Not that Drance didn't do a good job, but I, I'm at the point now where I'm like, you don't get to set the parameters on what you want. You don't get to choose what you get back in a trade. Like you, well, you do if there's lots of offers.

You can choose the best offer. I'm not sure there's as many as maybe the market dictates or suggests. I think there will be. I find it hard to believe. I think there's a lot of teams out there looking for centers. Uh-huh. And I think they're looking at the unrestricted free. agency list and seeing pretty much nothing.

They're like, okay, Nick Schmaltz. And how many times have the Canucks themselves convinced themselves that for this player, this time it'll be different here, right? Other teams will do that. Yeah, but my pushback to that would be like, how many teams have looked at the Canucks and be like, we should do what they've done. We should definitely follow their model. I'm sure there's some team out there are multiple teams.

out there that wonder in a better environment, would Elias Pedersen thrive like he did when he first came to Vancouver? He leaves it all behind. And that's why I also wonder if the Conucks should move on this before the Olympics, because what if Pedersen goes to the Olympics and he can't keep up to the pace? Because he couldn't keep up to the pace of the four nations. Yeah, I don't think you need another glaring example of where his game has fallen to. on a massive stage like, you don't need it. Okay, we haven't even talked about the Kiefer Sherwood trade. Oh, yeah.

I mean, look, the station got lots of time to go over this trade yesterday. Classic Halbro luck. Moment we got off the air yesterday. I think they did fine in the trade. I always thought that getting a first round pick for Kiefer Shrewood was a bit of a tall ask, especially if he wasn't going to go with an extension. I imagine Like it was reported that

Sherwood's agent was involved in some of these trade discussions So I imagine That they had talks with the sharks And maybe talked about what a deal might look like I'm sure the sharks are thinking That they like to keep Sherwood Because the sharks are pretty smart

They know that they're not guaranteed To make the playoffs They know that they're a good exciting young team, but they've still got a long way to go before their Stanley Cup contenders. But, you know, I think the Canucks did pretty well to get two second round

draft picks back in it. And especially considering the fact they'll be San Jose's second round draft picks. So, you know, I would like the Canucks. They've got four picks that should be in the what, top 50 or something like that.

Right now. They got two first. That's a safe. They got two first, their second, which is practically a first rounder, and then San Jose's second round pick. So that's four that could be in the top 50, top 40 maybe, who knows. It'd be nice if they get one or two more. Sure. And for the year following, and the year following. The year following is kind of what concerns me.

Because we've heard from this management group, Jim Rutherford says, like, this is the year. to draft. This is the year to bottom out. And still nobody's asked them the question, what about next year? What are the expectations for next year? I mean, I'm just hoping that if they do move on from as many veteran presences as possible, that they'll just be bad by default next year, that it won't have to take any sort of great orchestration to get them to the bottom again, that they'll be bad again. Because

right now, I don't want to overstate yesterday. Like, I don't know in the grand scheme of things how important those remarks are going to be. They were certainly illuminating and telling, and quite frankly shocking because Foot hasn't said anything of interest all year. Yeah, they kind of came out of nowhere. They really did. You know, so I know the post game show yesterday, Bick in particular was asking, where was this at game 19 as opposed to game 49? You know, I was mad after the seventh straight loss and I was upset after the eighth straight loss. Now, I didn't say anything after the ninth straight loss.

and I held my tongue after the 10th straight loss. But after the 11th straight loss. Well, no, you're joking, but I do wonder, I don't know if you're joking, but I do wonder if part of this is, hey, I'm taking a beating here as a head coach. My reputation's taking a beating here. Definitely.

You know? Definitely. Sometimes guys have a last stand. Yeah, like I'm not going down with this ship. Like, I'm trying everything I can here. Yeah. I've tried it behind closed doors. I tried protecting these guys.

Yeah, I've called out the young guys in our goaltending on numerous occasions. Yeah, I've blamed the young guys. And I've done it enough. It's time to ship the blame elsewhere. I do like this text that came in that said, and it was talking about a Pedersen trade and them wanting to get a center back, a center back. The Canoxny talent, they have none. Any position is fine. I fully agree with that.

Yeah, I'm with that. I don't think you should be doing anything positionally at this point. If the position is talent, you should be trying to be trying to be. fill it. If there's a talent position on the team. Don't reach, don't reach just to get a center. No. Back. No. No, don't. You need a wing back too. And I know I'm making this like really, really basic and primitive, but the overriding sentiment for a Pedersen trade should be like, get him somewhere else, try and get as much money as you can off the books. If you don't have to retain, that'd be amazing, but I don't, that ship might have sailed. I don't, I think they're going to

be very low to retain. I would be. I would be. load to retain too. You just want it clean. But take all of those positives, fresh start, clean slate, cap space, and use those as the driving forces behind the train. And then whatever you get back in return, again, don't worry about the position. Don't worry about... Get talent, man. Just get talent. Get talent. Get talent. Get talent. Get character.

Yeah. Turn this team over. Yeah. Okay. We're up against it for time. When we go back on the other side of the break, we're going to go to the new home for Kiefer Shrewitt. San Jose, Shang Peng from NBC Sports, California, San Jose hockey now. Although he is on the road, he's going to be joining us to talk about the Sharks, new home of Kiefer Sherwood. Their wild game against the Florida Panthers last night, the first goalie fight in the NHL since 2020 between Alex Nadelcovic and Sergey Bobrovsky.

Lots to get into with Shangpang coming up on the other side of the break. 7.30, we're going to go to Spain. Yeah, that's right. Whitecaps Sporting Director, Axel Schuster, is going to join us from Whitecaps preseason training camp in Spain. We'll talk to him about all the drama leading up to their departure and then what's going on in the fierce few days in Marbella, Spain, which is where they're having their preseason. So that's the 7 o'clock hour. It's on the horizon. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.