Halford & Brough in the Morning - Where Will Brock Boeser Land?

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the Trevor Zegras trade from Anaheim to the Flyers with The Athletic Philadelphia's Kevin Kurz (1:12), the boys chat about where Brock Boeser might end up in free agency (15:00), plus they chat the Zegras trade from the Ducks' side of things with Sirius XM NHL's Jonathan Davis (25:59). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Music 7-0-1 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sands-trustees.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Kevin Kurz from the Athletic in Philadelphia

is gonna join us in just a moment here to kick off our two. Our two of this program is brought to you by Jason Homonuck at jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage.

We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you in step. To the phone lines we go, the Power West Industries hotline. Kevin Kurz joins us here now on the Halford and Brough show on Sports 9 650. Morning, Kev, how are you? Good, how you guys doing?

We're well, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So the Trevor Zegras acquisition, did you hear rumblings of this one before it happened? Did you have some sense that this might be going down? I guess Philadelphia and Anaheim are previous trade partners prior to this one So what happened prior to the trade? Did you have a sense that this one was gonna happen? Well, you know

This was always gonna be a big offseason for Danny Breyer You know if you look at the way that he's been sort of conducting business since he took over two years ago it was steady subtraction over the last two seasons. And, you know, he made no secret when they fired John Tortorella in March that he hopes that was rock bottom. They want to start turning a corner and adding talent and, and, you know, be a more competitive team going into next season. So that was always going to require taking a big swing and, and, and, and, you

know, looking for players that might be slightly distressed assets but still have an upside there. I think Trevor Zegras would certainly fit that. Is the most compelling part of this acquisition how Trevor Zegras is going to fare under the new head coach, Rick Tockett? Yeah. It's going gonna be interesting because he's played left wing for the last two years

and the Flyers need one, if not two centers for their top six. So, you know, that's where I expect him to start the season or at least that's where they're gonna put him, I think on the first day training camp is he's gonna be a center and that's where he had his to put him, I think, on the first day training camp is he's going to be a center and that's where he had his most effective years, right? Back-to-back 60-point seasons as a 20, 21-year-old came when he was a young center. So, you know, Pat Burbeek even said

it too in his availability that Zegras wants to play center and he expects him to get that chance in Philadelphia. So, you know, from that standpoint that that was always going to be a challenge for the Flyers is to find a top six center. They clearly have labeled Zegras as a guy that they think could potentially fill that hole and it's going to take some more, you know, this is still a roster that needs a little bit more work. But, you know, I think right now the envision him maybe playing with that Bay Meachos, maybe playing with someone like Owen Tippett, uh, but regardless, he'll be in the middle on one of those two top two lines, uh, on opening night, I would think.

Hey, Kev, what's been the talk, uh, in Philly about Rick Tuckett, the new head coach and him coaching the likes of Matt Bay, Mitch Goff, and now Trevor Ziegres. Well, Mitch Goff just experienced the year of John Tortorella. So I don't think, you know, Tockett's going to be probably softer than Torts was. Uh, um, but you know, the reaction to Tockett was, it was sort of weird here. You know, there's, there's the fans that I think are just super frustrated with, you know, a little bit more, basically just one playoff series win in a decade or whatever

it is, that see Tocket as, you know, just a retread, another, another former flyer taking care of their own, which is sort of silly because pocket hasn't gotten a paycheck from the organization since he was last a player here in 2001 so you know he doesn't really fit that mold. I think some of the casual fans here remember talk it as you know the heart and soul guy sort of the embodiment of the late era Broad Street bullies in the 80s and they're excited to see what he can do. You know in terms of on the ice, I think you know Tocket had to buy into the plan that

the Flyers are sort of you know laying out here because he obviously had some options he could have gone back to TV and that plan is to compete sooner than later. And it's an ambitious goal, considering they were the fourth worst team in the league last year, but they have some assets still that they can utilize you got six picks still in the top 50 of the drafts, maybe there's another move to be made similar to this one. In the coming days. There's a ton of cat space next year, I think they really want to go hunting for that big fish and free agency next summer.

So that was a plan that I think Tocket was on board with because I don't think you hire a guy like him unless you plan on competing sooner than later. If the plan is to compete, what's the plan in gold? Yeah, that's the biggest question mark now. That's the bare minimum that Bre'er has to get done is find another goaltender. And obviously they're looking. It's a pretty thin market. Some of us have wondered about Thatcher Demko, right? If the Canucks are willing to move

him to the Flyers, take a chance on him for a year. My understanding is him and Target had a pretty good relationship. Same with Pia know pious suitor is a guy that i think they might look at the better but you know it in goal uh... yeah that's that's a big hole right now because you've got a real airs and and his numbers were great but i think the team believes he's better than his numbers reflect and i actually agree with that i think he was a guy that had a tendency to

when he was on the game you could make big saves he could give them steady goaltending he would have his dips which suggests to me that he's not someone that can handle a number one workload yet so they got to find someone that can play 35 games next year and and give them steady goaltending but I will say it it can't it can't go anywhere but up right now because the two backups they had to air some last year you can make a case they were the two worst goalies in the NHL. And if I haven't photo-taught them, these are guys that should not be anywhere near the NHL roster when opening night hits.

Which means, you know, it's, Breyer is like a lot of other general managers. You might have to overpay for a goaltender because they need another one here. No doubt. One of their names have, uh, have come up is, is, is Jake Allen, like, is he the guy? Is he, is he the top UFA goalie? Cause the flyers, I'm looking at the NHL team stats here and they had by far the lowest save percentage. Their team save percentage was 879.

San Jose's was second worst, but they were eight points higher at 887. Yeah. So, I mean, I, like if, you know, if it's, it's not like Torz is known as a guy that's going to just leave his goalies hanging out to dry too. So, there must've been some pretty poor performances in the Phillies net last season.

Well, yeah. I mean, like I said, they, they, they didn't have any sort of reliable backup to Ayrson. I mean, you know, these two guys, they had a net. It was, it was evident really from day one that neither of them should have been in the NHL. So, you know, maybe some fans aren't very upset about that and maybe they shouldn't be because they ended up

with a pretty high draft pick in the first round here as a result of that. As for Jake Allen, you know, I've heard he wants to stay on the East Coast. It might take a three year commitment to get him just because there's gonna be so many teams, I think, looking for a goalie. Certainly, I think he's worth a call

from the Flyers standpoint. Yeah, I mean, that's, you guys all know the names that are free agents. I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be probably a scramble there when July 1st hits to find one of these guys. If you can't get a guy via trade. Kev, are you hopeful with this Flyers plan? Do you think they can pull it off? Because we're sitting here in Vancouver, just to

give you a little background, and the Canucks want to add a top six center, a top six winger. You know, they really want to improve the forward group and we're kind of sitting there going, oh yeah, how are you going to do that when everyone else wants to do the same thing and you don't have a heck of a lot to trade and you're not exactly a destination where a lot of players want to go play?

Well, if they can get a goalie, then obviously that's, like I said, that's the bare minimum. But you know, the biggest reason for hope, if you're going to be optimistic about this fires team is that this group of young players will continue to take a step forward. And obviously that starts with Matthew Michikoff, who you know he could be a future star. You know I don't think anything happened with him this past year to think otherwise. I think they have seen the way he competes, the way

he prepares, the way he wants to get better, the way he interacts with his teammates. There's really nothing not to like about Michalov at this point. And then you have guys that are a tier underneath that. Tyson Forster, I think, is a guy that's really continued to steadily progress, and he's locked up now. Noah Tate is a very strong third-line center, if that's where he ends up playing. You know, Cam York I think has had a little bit of a wonky year with the stuff that happened with Tortorella.

I think he's a guy that might be able to benefit from someone like Taka taking over. Jamie Drysdale, another defenseman, he improves, he's going to have to keep improving. So if that group, and Ayrson too, Annette, if that group continues to take steps forward and it's a big if, depending on which player you're talking about, then I do think they can compete again. But you know, it's, you still need help around those guys. And that's why, you know, you see the move that Brie made yesterday. And I think you're going to see him do some more stuff here before leading up to July 1st and probably in the hours after the free agency

opens too. I still don't think it's going to be a quiet couple of weeks around here. Is there anything that Tauket said, maybe at his introductory press conference that struck you in a certain way, maybe it was, hey, that's something they really need or maybe you were like, well, good luck with that. Anything stand out at all?

Well, he likes the practice facility here. He made that pretty clear. Oh yeah. Yeah. He's still thinking about his ex. It happened about a month ago, so it's not really top of mind. I mean, that's the only time we've talked to him so far is that presser. Were you left impressed with him or you left, how was the reaction in Philly? Because I do feel like a lot of his critics in Vancouver influenced some people in Philadelphia.

Like there was like an online component of people that were, I mean, the dynamic in Vancouver was quite funny because all of Taukett's critics in Vancouver accused the media of just like sucking up to TalkIt and loving that everything that he said. And some of it was because, you know, Elias Pedersen was struggling and people were blaming

that on TalkIt. And there was, there was just kind of a weird dynamic. And I noticed that a lot of the dialogue seeped into online flyers talk. Well, I mean, yeah, they need them to do a couple of things. They need them to help fix the power play.

And I feel like when I was mentioning the power play, people were like, well, he didn't really get that going in Vancouver. I'm like, well, what was their power play? It was, well, he didn't really get that going in Vancouver. I'm like, what was their power play? It was what, 13th? I mean, that's not horrible. And how long was, you know, I know Quinn Hughes missed

some time, so you know, that's one thing I think that's gonna be under the microscope here right away is the power play because it was dead last in 2023 and 2024 and this past season that was 30th. So that's something that you know he's going to be counted on to help try and fix just based on and you know based on experience his experience I think there's reason to believe it should be better. But you know, you got to play out here. I'm not going to judge your talking until we get on the ice. We'll see if he's the right fit. I mean, is he a little bit of a retread, obviously,

but that happens throughout everywhere right now. So I would say nothing really stood out in that presser. Just got to wait until September here. All right, Kev. Great catching up with you, buddy. Enjoy this next week and we'll catch up again later. Okay. Take care. Kevin Curse from The Athletic in Philadelphia here on the Hellford & Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. So I need to point out that whoever is doing work

on behalf of the Brock Besser Free Agency Folio is putting in some major overtime. So right now. He's been linked to how many teams now? Right now in front of me, I have one report from Sheng Peng from San Jose Hockey Now, citing sources who say that Brock Besser is on the San Jose Sharks radar.

I've also got an article here from Bruce Garriott of the Ottawa Sun, suggesting that the Ottawa senators are gonna make a pitch for Brock Besser and free agency. I've also got a third report here, courtesy Jimmy Murphy out of Boston, suggesting that the Boston Bruins are gonna be bidding on Brock Besser's services.

And that's not to forget the piece from Ben Kuzma last week suggesting that the New York Rangers might be making a pitch for Brock Besser to reunite him with J.T. Miller. Oh, and don't forget, there's also that report that the Vancouver Canucks might circle back on Brock Besser. Mm hmm. And you haven't even mentioned Minnesota. Nope, not yet. I ran out of tabs on my browser. can only have so many open at a time so this is as we pointed out on a number of occasions a

tremendous summer if you're a ufa especially in the mold of guys like Besser guys like Nick Ehlers if Sam Bennett was to go to free agency He'd be making crazy sums of money. There's a reason Mitch Marner is going to have probably a long extrapolated tour. As we've said a million times, there's not a lot of guys and there's a lot of teams that want to get better and have a lot of cash. So if you are, say, I don't know, the agent representing Brock Besser, why not drive up some interest with literally every team in the National

Hockey League, as far as I can tell right now. And if every team's got the cash and the cap space and the willingness to spend and the desire to get better, brackets, except for Pittsburgh, you're talking about, honestly, maybe 31 teams that would say, yeah, sure, we'll take a look at that. Could be interested in that. We'll make an offer there. We'll make interested in that. We'll make an offer there. We'll make a bid there. We'll make our pitch. He could be making a real, real significant chunk of change

by the time, or even before July one rolls around. Well, I keep coming back to if the Canucks are gonna, if they are gonna entertain bringing Brock Besser back, they need to have an idea of who he's going to play with because he had his best success, I think, with JT Miller and JT Miller is definitely a guy, he's got his warts for sure, but he's a guy that makes things happen out there.

He's a gunslinger and sometimes it works and it looks beautiful and sometimes it doesn't and it looks horrific. So if the Canucks were going to bring them back, who's he skating with? Brock Besser's game went, I mean, some of this might be his situation, maybe mentally he was a little checked out at the end of last season, but

when JT Miller was traded, Brock Besser's game went downhill real quick. So are you gonna be like, well, hope you like Pew suitor because, or are you gonna say, Petey, we're expecting a bounce back? You're gonna be with Brock, you just, they have to get the playmaker in there first. And it can be a playmaking winger if you want. You know, it's just gotta be someone that can make things happen

question What percentage likelihood would you say the besters back with the Canucks? Ten percent. Yeah, I would say it might even be less than that. I think suitor has more of a chance I do as well back with the Canucks So a lot of people right now are texting in what do you guys think the most obvious response would be from a Canucks fan hearing that there's all these teams across the National Hockey League that are expressing an interest in signing Brock Besser? The answer, of course, is everyone calling back to the trade deadline saying, but I thought no one was interested in Brock Besser. Patrick Alveon, the general manager

of the Vancouver Canucks, said you couldn't believe the lousy offers that they were getting for Brock Besser. A couple of caveats here. One, there's a big difference between trading for a guy and signing him in free agency. Right.

Let's just make that abundantly clear. Two. Alveen might not have been 100 percent either truthful or accurate or maybe putting all his cards on the table or showing the true full scope of the picture when he said that the offers weren't great for Besser. I think there was an understanding that they were in that weird mushy middle where they wanted to give it a shot still.

They weren't quite dead yet. Do you think there was a couple of times where he just let the phone ring? Maybe. I don't know what offers on the other side of that ring, but I'm not going to find out. I want to keep this guy and try and make the playoffs. You know, they had their feet in a couple different positions, right?

They had a couple different things that they were trying to negotiate at the deadline. Hindsight being 2020, if this reported interest in Besser is real. Yeah. Then they missed a really good opportunity to move on and get some assets from the line. I think it goes without saying. Now another caveat. This is how the game gets played in free agency is you know you can talk to an agent and you can ask him a question like you know what would a team like?

I don't know San Jose be interested in your client I mean agent probably said, you know, San Jose and a lot of teams might be interested in our client My client might be interested in going there It's not tampering if it's in a newspaper report and if you're just talking about potential, you know where guy might want to go rumored reported interest Everyone could be interested nothing wrong with that. Yeah, that's just some good old-fashioned fashion hockey talk Maybe maybe maybe kuz maybe kuz spoke to his agent and kuz wrote the article about the Rangers. Yeah, and The agent was like he loves tall buildings. See just just loves them. He loves coasts east or west

He'll play on both of them. If you have a team on either one, we might be interested all I know is that I Think the time for Bessar to move has hit I Think it probably behooves both parties at this point to just try something new. Yeah, I know that You know Dolly Walls reporting suggests they're gonna circle back and try again But this feels like the right time to move on, you know, Dolly Wall's reporting suggests that they're going to circle back and try again. But this feels like the right time to move on. You know, I we talked about this yesterday. I know that people have a certain affinity for the for Brock Besser.

And I do, too. Yeoman's work that year, two years ago, where he scored 40 and was, I'd say their best skater in the playoffs. Yeah. Scoring tons of goals, clutch goals. Clutch goals. Right? But everything has a shelf life, and almost everybody moves in pro sports.

And this is a time for the Canucks to kind of reimagine what they're going to be at forward. Now, the issue with reimagining it this summer is that a bunch of other teams are trying to reimagine what they want to do as well. And it's in the spirit of being more competitive. Hey, here's a question for you. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. If Besser's gone, and obviously Miller's already gone, what's the power play look like next season? We just talked about the power play with Kevin Kurz. And you know, Kev said, well, their power play was 13th. It wasn't that bad. I was like, yeah, if you watch it though, it should have been better. It wasn't great.

You know, the, the talent that the Canucks had when Hughes was at the point and Miller was rolling and Pedersen wasn't afraid to shoot and they had Besser. And I mean, one point Horvat was, you know, terrific on the power play. They had so much potential, but now we don't know what really to expect from Pedersen. Hopefully it's a lot better than last season. Hughes is still going to be there. Pedersen, Hughes and Debreuysker locks. I keep forgetting Debreuysk scored 50% of his goals

last year on the power play. Yeah. 14 of the 28 on the power play. After that though. But like who? Their second leading goalscorer on the power play was Brock of the 28 on the power play after that like who their second-leading Goal score on the power play was Brock Besser. Yeah, so that's probably gone I don't Connor Garland tied at least peddling goals. No Garland can't be on the power play

But I mean might be but he might but I really I just I don't I really like Connor Garland I don't like a lot of them after that it falls off a cliff well is like her Mackey on the power play I mean his like her Mackey on the team. I don't know But they these are the things they've got to determine. Like who's the trigger man? Who's the trigger man on the power play? Who's shot are they trying to set up?

Hopefully Petey's, you know, again, wants to shoot the puck out there and isn't deferring all the time. Debrusk isn't a trigger. He's got great hands in front of the net, but I don't think I sit there like, Oh, I love Debrusk one-timer, you know, like that's, that's not really his game.

He's about tipping pucks and picking up pucks in close and scoring. And that's great. And you need a net front guy. Yeah. Perfect. But who's the tricker man? And the reason I bring up Leckermack is

cause he actually looked quite comfortable on the power point. Sure. I don't know where he slot him. He can shoot it. But like, again, I think it's worthwhile coming back to this idea that last season the Canucks top three goal scorers were Debrusque, Pugh

Souter, and Brock Besser. Like how are they going to score goals next season? It was a problem for them this season and they're going to lose two of their top three goal scorers. Again, you hope for a significant bounce back from Elias Pedersen, but Connor Garland is not going to score 30 goals. Connor Garland is a good player, but he

doesn't have a great shot. Scores 20, you're happy. He scores 20, you're happy for sure. So who is going to be scoring all these goals for the Canucks next season? You need to score it. One of the things I've learned about hockey is that you need to score goals in order to win.

That's true. That checks out, it tracks. Okay, before we go to is that you need to score goals in order to win. That's true. That checks out, attracts. Okay. Before we go to break, I need to tell you out the Vancouver Giants. It's never too early to get your Vancouver Giants season's tickets. Tickets start at under $19 of

vancouvergiants.com forward slash season tickets. Coming up on the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650, Jonathan Davis. No, not the lead singer of Korn from Sirius XM NHL Satellite Radio. He's going to join us next to talk a little Anaheim Ducks in the wake of the Trevor Zegger's trade. We'll talk some Los Angeles Kings as well. We'll do some California hockey with Jonathan Davis coming up next on the Haliford and Bref

show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Mick Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 732 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by sans and associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more

interest. This is the online at sans dash trustee.com. We are in our two of the program. It's the midway point of the show here. Our two of this program is brought to you by Jason hominik at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason.Mortgage. To the phone lines we go, the Power West Industries hotline. Jonathan Davis, SiriusXMNHLradio joins us now on the Haliford & Brough

show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Jonathan. How are you? I'm doing great. Yourself? We're well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So the Trevor's Zegras trade out of Anaheim. There were a few different reasons why this seemed to happen. Maybe a positional blockade in terms of where he wanted to play or where they wanted him to play. Never really seemed like a Pat Verbeek kind of guy.

What ultimately led to the Anaheim Ducks moving out Zegras yesterday? Well, I think ultimately it's just running out of room. I mean, you said it, there's, you know, he's either gonna be your third line center, which I don't think is a good fit for him, or he's gonna end up being a third line left winger, which I don't think he wants,

and I don't think it's really a good fit for him either. You know, with the addition of Kreider, and you've got Goche on the left side, so it's, where do you play him? I mean, if he can't fit into your top six, then I think you, you know, you do what Pat Verbeek did. And then the other, the other issue becomes is that, you know, the deal is one where it creates, you know,

creates almost 4 million in cap space, I think around 3.6, 3.8. So now, okay, now you've got the cap space. What do you do with it? So I wouldn't look at it just as a trade where Anaheim gets, you know, one, one player in Ryan, paling who's going to be on your fourth line and you're getting some draft picks. It's really, you know, as we like to say, cap space is king. And let's see what Pat for Beaks next move or moves are. And then the paling deal also gives, add size to a team that, you know,

with, with Criter and pailing and you've got Truba back there and, you know, so you're, you're continuing to get bigger in a division where Anaheim was getting pushed around for a number of years. Is there any reason to wonder if this deal might come back to haunt the Ducks? Uh, I don't know. Only if they don't take advantage of the cap space that they have. I mean, for them, it was just other players elevated

their roles or became better and Zegras through injury and the way he played early on in his career didn't, didn't help his cause. Now he, I would say, I thought there were a lot of strides that were in his game this past year that, you know, he becomes more of a player that you can trust. You couldn't trust him for the first couple of years under his contract, you know, when he was here in Anaheim, but there was more of a commitment to playing the 200 foot game. And that showed in the fact that he was being put out in late stages of games to protect leads. So that to me is very telling. You know, one of the,

one of the projects that you, you know, give zegress and give Greg Cronin credit for, uh, from his days in Anaheim. We're speaking to Jonathan Davis from serious X XMNHL radio here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. So it's funny, Jonathan, like one of the things that we've been talking about all morning is all these different teams that are seem like they're ready to step on the gas and make moves and do something of significance

this offseason. We talked about the Canucks, obviously. We just went out to Philly, talked to Kevin Kurz and he said that Danny Breyer is ready to start doing it there And then you've got the Anaheim Ducks Is this the first in a sequence of what you see as many moves from? Verbeek to really get this team to the next level and accentuate a step forward. I Do I mean you would think with what 36 plus million in cap space, you know He definitely has the ability to make a big splash and And, you know, when you're looking at the young roster here, I mean, this, this would

be the time. I don't think you make the Crider deal, you know, if you're not looking to make others. And so, uh, you know, when you look at what they have on the blue line, you know, you've got Lucas Dostal, the number one, and we're still waiting to see what happens with John Gibson. I mean, that, that's still the, that,'s still the, that's what would be one of the next trade moves we would expect in Anaheim. But yeah, I would expect them to make a splash because when, you know, look, their neighbors just up the four or five freeway in Los Angeles, I mean, they're more on the downside, I would

say. And Anaheim's got a shot to put themselves definitely into the playoff mix this year. Is it a formality that Gibson's being moved? I would hope it's a formality. If it's not, this would be, I think, partially the stubbornness of Patrick Beek, who didn't want to eat salary last year. I would think that you've put yourself in a position where, I mean, look, whether you look at a team like Edmonton, let's just do it. Just do the deal. And if you're taking on 40% of Gibson's salary, then so be it. I don't think it serves the purpose

of either. He's more valuable somewhere else, I think, than he is in Anaheim. What assets is Anaheim willing to part with? Because you mentioned they've got a lot of good young players, they've been rebuilding for a while, and it does seem like the kind of market where you're going to have to give to get. Well, I mean, Patrick Beek has been pretty clear. He's he, you know, he'll listen for the 10th pick. So that would that would be one, first and foremost, that, you know, that he would move and Gibson would be another.

And, you know, look, they're still pretty stacked on the blue line. They've got a lot of young kids back there. So they've got pieces to move. I think they're in a really good spot to get themselves better. And, you know, maybe, you know, they don't have to move as much

because maybe they will dip themselves, you know, into that free agent pool, you know, it could, you know, whether it's, it's Marner or can they, you know, can they be in the Nick Ehlers conversation? You know, they need help on the power play. There's no question about it. So Ehlers, who's very attractive to many teams, I mean, there are, I mean, there are players that they could acquire without having to move assets. What do you know or what have you heard about Verbeek's rumored interest in Mitch Marner? I mean, look, it makes sense. It would be, you know, they need to make a splash.

You know, Anaheim is a, look, a, they're the youth hockey out here is outstanding, but they need to, they, I think, you know, Marner would definitely be another opportunity to help to create ticket sales and as well as getting a talented player. I think Marner could fit better in, well, I think he would sit better in Anaheim than possibly, you know, that he would fit in Toronto just cause he's not going to have the noise. I mean, this is one of the easiest markets from a player's standpoint,

not having to deal with any noise. And so I think it would be beneficial, you know, to Marner and it would help him. It's just a question, is it, does Marner feel that Anaheim would be a good fit or does he want to find a team that is a little closer in the playoff, you know, the Stanley Cup trajectory than the ducks are. Hey,

let's turn our attention now to the neighbor, the Los Angeles Kings. Uh, what is the new GM Ken Hollins number one priority having now taken over the job from Rob Blake? Uh, well he's got to rebuild his bottom, his fourth line because you know, they, they had no faith in their fourth line last year. They've got to find, you know, they, they've got to replace tenors. You know, I mean, that's the one guy that, no, not that that's a hard, a hard replacement to find. And you can find guys like that, but I would say beyond the fourth line. I mean,

look, Jordan Spence is a guy that we believe is asked to be moved and, and totally understand it. I mean, he, he, you know, he fell out of favor with Jim Hiller come playoff time. The other big questions though for me is that we still don't know definitively what's happening with Andrzej Kopitar beyond this year. I mean, he indicated when he signed this two-year extension and this being the final year of it, that this would be his last contract. But, you know, they still don't have an, you know, people can change their mind. The other ones are Adrian Kempe. He can sign a new deal as of July 1. I mean, if I'm Adrian Kempe, I don't know, do I want to, I mean, I'm going to get paid no matter where I play, you know, and I'm looking at my options at down the

middle and right now if Kopitar is gone, then you're left with Quentin Byfield and aging Phil DeNau depending on what else LA does. And then the other one is, is Gavrkoff. I mean, many thought this, this deal would get done a long time ago. Again, if I'm Gavrkoff, I've seen that, you know, I've seen the script of playoff exits. I'm going to get paid.

I know he, you know, my understanding is he really likes the group in I know he, you know, my understanding is he really likes the group in Los Angeles, but you know, if he wants to win, this is not, I just don't think this is the place right now. Cause I think that they're, you know, they're, they're closer to the playoffs maybe, but further from the cup, as some people will say.

How psychologically damaging was that loss to the Oilers for the Kings? Oh, it was a kick in the groin. was that loss to the Oilers for the Kings? Oh, it was a kick in the groin. I think, I think devastating just because, you know, I think one going in, they felt, and I mean, I felt this was the first time they had a legit shot at knocking out Edmonton and then to

see how they lost. Uh, it's like, I don't know if you're a player and you're coming, you know, you're, you're having, it's a long summer. And then I don't know, how do you get yourself motivated to come back after that? I mean, I just think that that's, I just think psychologically, especially on the vets, like that's really tough. And for some of the younger guys, I mean, you know, I mentioned Jordan Spence, but you

know, even a brand Clark, like what's my role? I, you know, it'll be interesting to see what happens under Ken Holland and look, he made it clear that Jim Hiller, I mean, he said it, you know, Jim Hiller needs to learn from his mistakes. Holland, you know, paraphrasing him, but that's essentially what he said at his press conference when he was introduced.

And Hiller does, but I also think, look guys, if this team is, you know, got seven wins in their first 20 games or any below 500, I think they make a coaching move. A couple of follow up questions. I know you've spoken about Kopitar on our show before. Does anybody have any indication about what's going to happen after this year?

Is that all being kept close to the vest? Well, I mean, look, if you've got 37 million, you can buy his home in Manhattan Beach. It's an unbelievable compound. Okay. I mean, the home's been up for sale for two years. So, you know, that, you know, he has said he wants to go back to Slovenia.

It's just, they haven't made it official. We don't know if this is the farewell tour. So that's all I can tell you about Kopitar right now. What would be plan B if he's done after this year? Because he's still playing at a really high level. He plays every night. It's remarkable. I think over the last five years, he's missed four games.

He's still a top 10 selkie voting guy. He still plays 19 minutes a night. So it's not like you're getting diminished returns on the guy. Granted, he's getting pretty old now. But what would be the plan if he decides that he's done after this season? Well, you better find a center and you better hope that one that Quentin Byfield can evolve into being. And he's not going to be Kopitar.

And there's still some immaturity to his game, but he is the guy that's going to take over that role. And then, you know, you've got to find players to fill the void below him. The interesting part, look guys, his Kopitar Joel Edmonton played more minutes this year than Kopitar did. Which that, you know, and I thought, you know, it's the season went on. He just, he looked slower. Um, Co, you know, when they have to play Edmonton in a seven game series,

he's been a minus player each time. Now, plus minus isn't always necessarily the true reflection, but his numbers aren't as good come playoff time. Um, he, you know, and that's not a knock. I mean, he, look, he's, he's, he's getting up there. He's up there already in age. She's still a very good player, but I think he would be better served, you know, in a lesser role, uh, you know, playing a little, you know, if he played another year, it would have to be, I think as a, as a two C for sure.

Uh, interesting times in Los Angeles for sure. And there's still another week to go with the draft and free agency on the horizon. Uh, Jonathan, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the next week. It should be a lot of fun. Thanks guys. Always appreciate you having me. Yeah, always appreciate you coming on. Thanks, Jonathan. That's Jonathan Davis from SeriousXM NHL Radio here on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. There is a bit of Canucks adjacent news. I like how you framed that. That broke during that last interview.

It was reported first by Larry Brooks of the New York Post that the New York Rangers are sending the number 12 pick in this year's draft to Pittsburgh. That was the pick that was originally acquired by the Canucks in the JT Miller trade. And then. So the Canucks. Was flipped to Pittsburgh for Marcus Pedersen.

The Canucks got that pick from the Rangers. And then they immediately shipped it out the door for Marcus Pedersen. Burning a hole in their pocket. Like, how do we get rid of this first round pick? And they sent it to Pittsburgh. So I think the people in Pittsburgh were kind of hoping that the Rangers would, would do it differently so that they would have a chance at Gavin McKenna. So next year with that pick, because it would have been unprotected next year. And there's a lot of people that are not especially bullish on the New York Rangers.

that are not especially bullish on the New York Rangers. It's an interesting dynamic from the Rangers because you've sent the message to your room that you don't trust them. Now, a lot of people are also wondering, because don't forget, if there were to be an offer sheet, it wouldn't be this year's first round draft pick. Okay.

You need to keep next year's first round draft pick. Okay. Right? You need to keep next year's first round draft pick. Sure. So that also allows the Rangers to still have that first round draft pick for any offer sheets. So this year, Pittsburgh now picks 11th and 12th overall. Yes. At the draft. Yeah. That's some interesting draft capital for them to work with.

Okay. Well, they might get some more to you never know. I mean, that would be the plan, I think, is I don't know necessarily this year. I don't know how high they are on this year's draft class, but hey, draft pick, you know, ammo is ammo. Like you use it and you can turn it around and gather the things. And if you read any number of insiders that are writing right now, they're saying that, yes, Brian Rust and Ricardo Keller still very much on the table. I do wonder

if those end up being like secondary or tertiary targets for the Vancouver Canucks because of their past relationship with Rutherford and Alvin and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Although I don't know how many times you can go to that well. You know, I feel like Albion and Rutherford have gone there a lot. Some would say excessively. Might go there again. I mean, Russ scored a lot of goals this past season. I know Rutherford has a special affinity for Rust.

But we were all, we were just talking about how do you replace the goal scoring that the Canucks could potentially lose in Brock Besser and, and suitor at 25 goals. I know. That would be a guy. He had a great year last year. Yeah. He's not young. potentially lose in Brock Besser and suitor at 25 goals. I know. That would be a guy. He had a great year last year. Yeah.

He's not young. Like I'll go throw it out to the listeners. How are they gonna replace the goal scoring? I'm gonna bring up all those guys to the American League. Linus Carlson and his 14 playoff goals in the Calder Cup run. He could score one. If you go through the list.

How dare you. How do you know? Leonis Carlson is my new guy. I know. Well, I got a feature on the power play. Although I think he did score a power play goal last year, by the way. You know who else scored a power play goal last year? Daniel Sprung. Right. If you go through the list of guys that scored power play goals last year,

it does get concerning because there were so few guys that scored with the man of advantage. And You'll say well You throw somebody else out there. They could get one or whatever really keep her sure What's all his goals last year or evens? Yeah, put him on the power play probably score one or two, but the point is they did not have a lot of guys that Contributed to the power play last year. They the brusk had a great year on the mit with the man advantage I would say it was the Queen who show though. Yeah, I know. But I'm saying they need to develop more than that.

If you told me prior to that, the breast was going to smash his career best in terms of goals on the power play, get double digits to the first time and score 50 percent of his goals on the power. But I'd be like, OK, that's a step in the right direction. It was after that where it got concerning. Yeah, because Pedersen's production on the power play obviously was way down You're right about the Queen Hugh show It became way too dependent on Hughes to do anything and then no one really picked up the slack afterwards Besser kind of did

When he normally does chips in for a few Garland scoring seven with the man advantage is probably the most he's going to give you. And to be honest, if he's scoring seven goals on the man advantage, it probably says more about your man advantage than it does about Connor Garland. The fact that he's out there that much isn't a great thing. And then go down the list, it's not a lot there. They're going to need to reimagine that part of the team in a significant way. Do you think Cronix on the first UNO power play? A lot of people texted in, do you think Kronix on the, on the first unit powerplay?

A lot of people texted in, do they just go back to two defensemen on the powerplay? It worked for the Stanley Cup champs. They had two defensemen on that first unit. Was it the second unit? I don't even remember how the first unit. Their powerplay was hot garbage, but. Well, I wouldn't go that far.

The first unit was bad. The first unit looked a little clunky. Yeah. Uh, the first unit had E Eckblad and Seth Jones, and then Nate Schmidt ran the second unit, which at times looked like the better unit. Do you go to two? I don't know, I guess.

It's not ideal though, man. Most teams aren't doing this. You're defensively responsible on it. You won't get many short-handed goals scored against. I don't know. If you do, it's a problem. I mean, the. If you do, it's a problem. I mean, the Florida Panthers are, obviously they did a lot of things right, but most teams

aren't going with two defensemen on the power play. The thing is with the Canucks, it would be like, yeah, and our second unit is also struggling because like who would be on the second unit? They need, they need goal scorers. They need guys that can put the puck in the net. I'm usually the guy like old school, you know, like, uh, you had to play defense first and that your offense comes from there.

But if you look at this roster without Besser and the way that Suter scored at the, at the end of the, or, you know, all season, frankly, um, like I'm looking at this team, I'm like, who is going to rip home shots? Who's going to do it? It reminds me of, uh, do you remember when, uh, this, these were dark years.

Do you remember that year they brought in Sam Gagne? Oh yeah. And they were like, yeah, he's our trigger man. I'm like, what are you talking about? And he was like on the point and he'd been, was it in Columbus before where he'd been the bumper guy and they never really put him in that spot?

I was like, why is he here then? Fantastic success as the bumper guy. It was so weird. It was so weird. And now like, I don't think we're back. We're not back there because Quinn Hughes can make magic happen on the power play. Although I really do think he needs to start

passing the puck a little bit more and trying to set up guys for one timers, but you need, uh, the guys that can hit the one timers. Yeah. And, uh, I always bring up like McDavid to dry sidle, right? That's, that's the, the one that's the play now. Right?

Like that's the one we used to be OV in, uh, in the, in his spot. Now I think it's, it's dry subtle in that spot. Like who's going to, if there's a seam pass on the power play for the Canucks, who's going to one time at home? Who's going to be the finisher? Like Horvat did a great job of that for a while.

Uh, Petey when he's on. Yeah, Petey. He can do it. But maybe Leckermacky. Well, it's the low to high passing plays, right? You have the guys with the vision to get the puck out front to the guy who's high, but like what Bruff's saying.

Who's going to bang it up? Who's going to take the shot? You need a guy in front that can beat an NHL goaltender, which. Like how many times did Petey get the puck and he didn't even look like he wanted to shoot? Right. Right?

So, I mean, that's got to change, obviously, and hopefully it will, but there needs to be more than that. There needs to be more of a plan than that. And right now I just, I don't know how the Canucks are going to get that game changer. Yeah. I mean, if you look at their goal scoring

totals from last, so they finished with 236 goals, just period goals last year. That put them bottom 10 in the NHL. And I'll remind you, that was what the, you remember the spike at the end of the season where they, after everyone got shut down and they were playing a really high scoring game. So the last 15 games of the season, they actually probably brought that total up to a more respectable finish.

You basically need about 250 goals to be an average NHL scoring team. Like that's what the LA Kings, a very mediocre scoring team had last year was 250 on the nose. And you're talking about a team that scored 14 less than that and is going to be losing at least one, I would say significant goal scorer in Besser. And it gets a lot more challenging when you look around the league and look at everyone that's vying for guys that could put the puck in the back of the net. And you don't have anyone in reserve waiting.

I know you can talk yourselves into Carlson coming up and being a contributing factor and you can talk yourself into Leckar or Mackey being a full-time contributor, but you're still doing the same thing. You're talking yourself into it. There's no proof of concept. I have an idea for Adog to get behind.

What's that? Adog, you need to start campaigning for the Canucks to bring back Kuzmenko. Oh baby. I could do that. Yeah. I love Kuz. I know you do. I've never forgotten about him.

I know you do. He looked dangerous on the Kings Tower play. One of the most unbelievable developments of the last calendar year, hockey-wise anyway. Will this new coach like his style of play though? I don't know, I didn't think he'd fit in in LA. I remember when LA got him, I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. LA does not play anything close to this stuff.

Like foot and talk and are similar. Hey dog, are you up for that project? Yeah, I would. How about you have the Kuzmenko beat, so you actually have to report on what we're hearing about Kuzmenko. He's a free agent, right? He is.

Yeah, yeah. I could do that. All right. At one point it felt like he was right on his way back to the KHL, but now after that stint in LA, who knows where he's gonna land. Okay, we gotta go to break. I need to tell you about the BC Lions.

It's the biggest rivalry party of the year. Lions, Rough Riders, Saturday, July 19th at 4 p.m. with the watermelon smash on Terry Fox Plaza. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. You're listening to the Hal Ferdinand Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.