Halford & Brough in the Morning - Which Canuck Is Most Likely To Be Traded Next?

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

In hour two, guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe & Israel Fehr do some Ask Us Anythings in lieu of the fact that there is no show on Friday this week (3:00), plus the boys discuss the latest hockey news with The Athletic NHL's Sean Gentille (24:16).  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.

Silent night Holy night All is calm All is bright Round your virgin Mother and child Holy infant so tender and mild Sleep in heavenly

Peace Yeah Sleep in heaven Peace Yeah I said sleep In heavenly peace Zach insisted on playing this, by the way.

This is not my idea. Welcome back to Alfred and Bruff. No Alfred. No, bro. It's Josh Elia Wolf. Now we know why they're not here. Holy! What a choice, Zach.

This is bad. You mentioned it yesterday. I've been hyped to play this for 48 hours. Wow. This is a true gift that keeps on giving from APM. Yeah. Halford & Brough is... You can see why this one is not licensed.

Nobody's paying for this. Let's throw this one on APM. We got nothing going here. This, or Halford Abruff is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Score a Debt Freedom Hattrick. No more interest, much lower payments, and financial peace of mind. Visit sands dash trustee.com. This hour of Halpernabruff is for Jason.

If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage. for you. That's jason. Mortgage. I feel like I'm fighting the silent night rap here. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber Tax Line. Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and rental warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com. That was the clean version too. There's a lot

of F-bombs in the other one. As you would expect. Yeah, maybe Maybe too far for Christmas. Yeah. This is about silent night. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio. Happy holidays from all the team at Kintech, footwear, and orthotics.

They do not endorse that music choice. They should have just gone with the first word in that song. Silent? Yeah. It would have been an upgrade. You're not wrong. You're not wrong. We knew it was going to be bad and it was worse than I imagined.

Yeah. You didn't build it up enough for how bad it was going to be. It exceeded expectations, but I love it. If you can find a worse one for, do we have another, oh, we don't have another open segment. I mean, our next guest, Sean Gentile would appreciate a bad Christmas rap or a Christmas song, so I'm sure if he'd lean into it. That's your task for the next two segments. Shock, Gentilly. Yeah.

That's your music choice. 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. This question, Mike Theorologist from Brockville, ask us anything. doesn't ask us anything, Tuesday, because we don't have a show on Friday this week. This one, I'm going to a Sends Wild game in March in Ottawa. Should I wear my Quinn Hughes jersey? So a Quinn Hughes-Kinn-Hughes-Kinux jersey at a game that Canucks don't play at. But Quinn Hughes- The answer is yes, of course.

You should wear that. Yeah. You should definitely wear that. I don't know. It would be very funny. Generally, I'm not a fan of wearing an unrelated team's jersey at a game. Yeah, but it's such an international storyline. It's known all throughout the NHL.

I mean, people would get the joke. I think you can wear a Quinn Hughes. I'm with you. I'm usually against that. But in this case, with the, yeah, it's still the players playing. It's recent enough. Go for it. Yeah, it's fine.

Don't wear a blank Canucks jersey to a Sends Wild game, though, in March, because that would just be, just don't do that. This one, chat from Surrey, if you had to put a percentage on the likelihood of a trade with these players before the trade deadline and or before the draft, what would it be? So Kiefer Sherwood,

Connor Garland, Brock Besser, Thatcher Demcoe, and Elias Pedersen. So Kiefer Sherwood... 99. I would say, like, yeah, 99. Unless they go on a run and they're like...

The 20-game win streak. This is our guy. We got to keep them. Future captain. He's got 12 hits in every game. Yeah, I would say, I would honestly, if they extend

Kiefer Sherwood, that would be I might have trance levels of crash because I would just I would be so upset. He's like the most, I love the guy. He's fun to watch. It is the easiest layup

in a year where you are 31st in the NHL when you got a guy producing like he is having a career season built for the playoffs should get a pretty high draft pick. It's the easiest layup to make that trade.

So if they don't, I'd be very surprised. I'd be very upset. So that's why I'm going 98% on Kiefer Sherwood. I brought it down one because there's a 2% world. Within that minute there, you got scared. I got 1% scared. I got 1% more scared.

You visualize what would happen if you had to go Dran's levels of crashing out. Yeah. It's not a pretty sight. Connor Garland. So I would, we'll use the before the draft timeline on this one. Because I would just say before as no move clause kicks in. I'm going to go 20%.

One in five. I'll go higher. I'll go 30%. Okay. I mean, I think of the players that they have signed longish term of the forwards, which I guess would be

Garland Bessor, DeBrasch, Elias Pedersen, I think for me he is the most movable one. And especially like you don't You don't have to deal with the no move clause. That's probably the biggest reason. It's an easy,

easy guy to move. But I also just wonder, I don't know what the price for him would be. Because I've always maintained that he's a player that's more valuable to your team than he is in a trade. Yeah. But also at the same time, if you're the Canucks and you're like,

well, might not be good for at least two years here. Then he probably flips to the, he's more valuable to you as an asset than he is in your lineup. But I don't know. I also wonder if they look at him as a guy that if they're if they're retooling with a hybrid form that's right does he need to be around because he's a leader and he plays the right way and does all these things so i don't know i would i would

go i would go 20 percent i think which is not high is high is not no it's not high but i think it's higher than brock bessor who's next on the list i would say like five percent yeah because he also like he's signed for cheaper here he obviously wants to be here for me i think they're even if you're going full scorched earth rebuild I think you need to have some guys around and I have no problem with Besser being one of those guys. They'd have to give someone else that money right? Like it'd be

it's like a team at a maybe slightly different ab but San Jose has been in a rebuild now for three plus years and they signed Tyler to Foley to you know a contract not maybe I guess the the dollars aren't quite there but like

with the cap going up they'd have to give somebody that money and that you got Brock Besser, a guy who's been here for a long time, has, you know, he's a fan favorite, he's been productive for large swaths of that. He's a guy that you know you can have on, you know, your first or second line and he can produce. So that one is, yeah, that one seems unlikely, especially given the ups and downs of last season heading to free agency and what that look like and getting the resolution that they got to on July 1. Uh, Thatcher Demko, I would go 15%.

Because, so it really depends. To me, he is the, the signal of like, if they trade Thatcher Demko, especially before the trade deadline, that to me is like, oh, they're serious about this being a tank year and this being a year where they want to. They're aggressive hybrid. Yeah, this is the aggressive part of the hybrid retool. Um, but I still think it's super unlikely because he also signed and. it feels like he wants to be here you know that being said like I just don't know

if you're going to be competitive enough within his contract so three years after this to warrant having a goalie like Patrick Demko signed to 8.5 million I could see the moving him at the deadline there there could see it happening that's the one of player on the list

like that wouldn't totally shock me like Garland is unlikely best or unlikely obviously sure what's gone I mean that's I'd be very shocked if he stayed I mean any of their UFAs, you know, are probably going to get moved or they'll attempt to move them at the very least for some sort of asset, but I wouldn't be shocked if Demko moved on. I wouldn't be shocked just based on assuming he stays healthy. If he gets injured again, then it's off the table, then there's, I just don't see, he won't have any value at that point. But if he could

say healthy until the deadline and continues to play as well as he is, I could see a team that's, you know, in cup contention that needs a goalie, or at least wanting to go on a deep playoff run that needs a goalie in need enough to offer a kind of package that Canucks would be very, you know, it would be hard for them to say no to. I also wonder what that package would be. Oh, that I don't know. What do they value Thatcher, Dutton, like what do the Canucks value Thatcher Denskowat and what do other teams value Thatcher Densk?

I mean, goalie packages historically aren't that great. No, they haven't been. So, I mean, I don't know, like, it's not going to be like a Hughes-esque return on the same. No, of course not. I have no idea what the package would look like. I'm just saying there might be a team out there. be like, you know what, maybe we could take off our first rounder or a couple picks or our first rounder and a prospect maybe because we really, really, really need a goalie.

The thing I wonder about is a conditional first based on like, hey, because I think you can only do team-based conditions now. But if you do a conditional first and it goes from a second to a first, if a team makes the second round or makes a conference final, then that to me might be like best case scenario because I don't know if a team's going yet, here's a first for a third. Thatcher Dempco. Maybe they do. Maybe a team's desperate enough

and maybe he's been healthy enough playing well enough by the trade of mind. If he's like playing like Vesna caliber Demko by the deadline and he's stayed healthy and he's so great at the Olympics like if all those things occur

then it wouldn't surprise me. I also don't, I don't know if he's going to the Olympics even if he plays it. Well it depends on the yeah it depends on how it continues to play. Yeah. Like so I would say I just don't know

if there's enough runway I guess is my point for him to have a big enough track record of like being healthy and playing at a high enough level for another team to be like, this is our guy. Even though I fully believe that if he is healthy in the playoffs for whatever team,

he's a difference maker. He's a game changer. Yep. Right? But I just don't know, I don't know how realistic that is. We do get a text from Thai guy, Demco to Montreal.

Montreal needs a solid goalie, potentially, but I feel like they're also pretty high on Fowler. Yeah. But I would be open. I'd be open to moving voucher demco and then the last one on that question the percentage question

of who... Petey, is Petey. I'm going like 2%. Yeah, and it's not because the Canucks wouldn't want to move him because he has no value like if we're being honest. No value and no move.

Yeah, like it's just he doesn't have the value right now to warrant that kind of a move. Like if he was playing like you know, vintage Petey as we always say of course then the Canucks probably wouldn't want to trade him but even though like if he were to be playing at that level then yeah, then obviously there would be a big return

but he's just not. He's had a better year than last year but he's just not playing at that caliber to warrant, you know, I don't think there'd be a market for him. Yeah, I also just wonder if like, hey, you're going to be, if you are going to be a retooling

with a hybrid form team for the next couple of years, if you, like, you're going to put him in some spots where he can produce. And maybe over the next couple years, he rehabs his value a little bit more and then you can kind of make a decision

when you're coming into a competitive window of what you want to do with him. And maybe by that point you go, hey, he's making 11.6 and the cap has gone up enough that you feel fine with that on your second line. I don't know if he's ever going to be your 1C again. But if he's your 2C playing well defensively while still putting up a decent amount of points, making whatever percentage of the cap it is at that time, I don't know. I don't know if I'd have a problem with it. Yeah, I mean, there's just, it's almost pointless unless a team knocks the Canucks socks off and it's a place that he wants to go and a team like I just don't think they yeah there's there's no team out there I believe that would take that

risk on so it is on the Canucks to take the long view try to rehab the value a little bit see what he has and then you're in a position where maybe you are more advanced in your retool with a little bit of a hybrid format and you keep that player around. He's, he's still an NHL player. He's just, he's not the guy that, uh, and hasn't been the guy now for a couple of years that we thought he could ascend to. Uh, 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumbertsyx line. It is Halford and Brough. No Alford. No Brough. Josh Elliott Wolf is real fair filling in for today. And we get a question from Christian. Ask us anything. Who is going to be on air for the rest of the week in the mornings if you guys are all off? We're on break.

I don't know what to tell you. Yeah, it's last show of the week. Last show of the week. Next week, we're on air Monday to Wednesday. Everyone will be here except Halford, so you're in with Bruff, I want to say. We're off on the first. There's no show on January 1st. And then on the second, it's you, Bruff. No, I don't think it's Bruff.

Oh, is Bruff off again? It's me. Okay, so it's you. Okay. It's this again. Well, actually, no, I'm off on the second. But Laddie's back. So Laddie will be the only one that survives the second.

Okay. And then it's you two And I think, Zach, you're filling in for me, aren't you? All right. So it's a bit of mixing and shake. We're moving people around. But I'll be here over the next couple weeks. But the next three days, we don't have any shows

on the station in general, I believe. And then Saturday, Canucks games. So you'll get contact. I've put together a Halford and Brough Best of Holiday Spectacular that airs over the Christmas holidays. Holiday spectacular. Silent night rap. That will never air on the station again.

If I have anything to say about it. But yeah, there's going to be a best of that we'll be playing Some of our favorite moments of the year All right, sounds good 650, 650, this one from Calling into Austin, ask us anything, Would you rather go to, would you rather, that's what you guys do, right?

Would you rather go to sleep now and be woken up when the Canucks are Stanley Cup contenders But you still get to live your life outside of Canucks fandom? So I assume How would you live your life at the age of 300 though? Had in a jar. So I assume,

In this world, you are just, you're just not watching Canucks hockey until they win. And then you get the satisfaction of being like, oh, they won. So what's the bar? It's game one of the playoffs and they're a top seed. And it's like, oh, my God, I rediscovered the Canucks and hockey. I found them again. Or you go through all the fan misery, eyes wide open until they finally get there. That one.

You got to be in the misery, man. That's the whole point. You have to earn it. So my, a few years ago, I guess, like probably in the bubble. I was like, you know what, I, I've always wanted to get into basketball. I'm going to watch more basketball. And I picked, the way I usually try to follow with sport is I pick a team and then it kind of spreads out to like, eventually I'm familiar with the league.

During the bubble, I picked the Denver Nuggets. And then a couple of years later, they win. And I didn't have the satisfaction of being like, hey, I went through all the hard times. And so it felt nice, but it didn't feel the same as like when the Jays were in the World Series. and I was like, everything hurts right now. They lost, and I immediately, as soon as the out was recorded, TV off. That was, so like feeling that,

and I'm sure Kodok's fans, you know exactly the same feeling. Having, like, if you feel all that, it's going to make the eventual win, and eventually they will win. Eventually, that win will feel so much better. So I don't think you can ignore all the hard times, because it won't make the good times feel as good. Yep, that's sports fandom, man.

Yeah, it sucks. It sucks. On many occasions, it does. I also picked just the worst teams. Like the Minnesota Vikings, I'm pretty sure I'm just never going to win. The Blue Jays haven't won in my lifetime, and then I was born into Canucks fandom.

So that's the world I live in. Justin and East Van ask us anything, which neighborhood has the best Christmas light displays? I need people to text in for that. I think there's a couple places in Langley that are supposed to be really good. Yeah, you know, I've never really gone on a crisp... I mean, there's the Van Dusen Gart, what is it called?

Yeah, Van Dusen. There's are legendary if you're just going for like the most famous location maybe. There's might be it. I mean, it's expensive, overpriced, really, but cap suspension bridge has like an amazing light display every year. That's another one. As far as like neighborhoods, I don't know, man.

I grew up in Lin Valley, and, like, that area always had some really nice... Grand Boulevard is actually pretty good. Yeah, like, there's some good spots in North And actually where I live now in the West End, there's a few blocks of streets where people really go out. And it's just tough because there's so many, like, you know, apartment buildings, right? You need, like, the old school, like the houses to really, to really see that. I've got to give a shout to Port Coquitlam. There's one house in Port Coquitland.

Oh, just one house. That just does a ridiculous setup, like tens of thousands of dollars of Christmas lights. I know that they, like, take donations and stuff. That house... It's like half the city's energy. reserve. It's insane. Yeah, he has single-handedly bankrupted all of the neighboring houses of their energy supplies, but that's a nice neighborhood for lights for sure is POCA. All right. I do love when it's just like one house that goes all out and then the neighboring houses are like, I hate this guy.

Yeah, the neighbor. I mean, like, how can you possibly compete? There was a war in my neighborhood as a kid that was like that, where there was one house that all the other dads hated this guy because he just went so far above and beyond and all the kids, we were all just like, this is amazing. So all the other dad's head to try and step up. And I could just tell, like, it burned my dad. He's like, I can't believe I have to do this. I would feel like less of a man. For the stupid kid.

Also, that many lights. I mean, like, you're trying to go to sleep and you've just got the sun 24-7 outside your windows. Now, were you to leave the lights on guys all your guys? Or did you take them down and put them up in the- No, I always took them down. Yeah, we had, we did as well. Yeah.

Because, I don't know. Honestly, it's not that hard. Yeah, but it's annoying. Leaving them up is smarter. All you got to do is flip a switch. and you don't really notice them when they're off I think there are we've gotten to the point now

where there are lights that you can like customize for the time of year Yeah I assume Christmas light technology has probably changed since the 90s We've come so far Yeah maybe maybe a little bit 650 650

Ask us anything The company I work for is planning on Doing a half day tomorrow And I am not This is from Minermatt in Abbotsford What is the most believable excuse I can give them for calling in sick tomorrow When they are well aware

that I'm functioning at over 100% today. I don't know, dude. Food poisoning? I think that's all you got. Because I can't think of another reason to be like, I'm not coming in for half a day when you know that I feel okay. Do you guys have anything?

No? You got to tough it out. Yeah. You just got to go? Yeah. Okay. Fair enough. I mean...

Just tough it out. I guess. Half a day. But I mean, sometimes you just don't want to do that half a day. It's Christmas Eve. What if you got plans? You shouldn't make plans probably. I guess if it's like an evening shift or then it would suck.

But if we're talking like a 9 to 5 here? I assume. So yeah, you're off at like 1 or whatever. Yeah, just tough it out. Fair enough. We'll go by like that. 650, 650. This one unsigned, so it's from Gary. Looking at the standings, the 10th team race for 32nd is going to be excruciating.

One win can vault you like five places. Yeah, it's really tough right now. Like if the Canucks, if they, were to win on Saturday and let's assume nothing else happens between now and Saturday. Like if the Canucks play tonight and won a game, they would go from 31st to the 26th. They'd be tied with the Toronto Mapleys. And that's kind of how it's going to be for the remainder. I would say for at least a month here. It doesn't feel like any teams are going to separate themselves as truly bad like you mentioned yesterday. Where it's just

like all these teams meet a baseline. Right now Chicago's in last, but. And Baddard's out. Baddard's out. So that's a bit of a... It's going to be tough. He's sticking the knife into for Canucks fans again. Yeah, he's going to help them get McKenna, and then McKenna and Bedard are going to play together.

So, I mean, maybe they find themselves slipping a bit while he's out until he comes back. But even then, like, I think they're a competent enough team to be semi-relevant as in terms of, like, hey, they can still win some games. But, yeah, it's not going to be. if you're someone that's rooting for the Canucks to finish as low as possible, it is going to be a nail-biting stretch, especially while Demko is healthy. Thatcher Demko is really good.

And we saw it yesterday. It felt like he was going to win them a game again, like he's done for a few times already in the past week. So I don't see this breaking up at any point. Like, it's just going to be bunched at the bottom for a while here. Maybe until the trade deadline when teams are able to sell off.

And if the Canucks do trade Thatcher, Emco, then maybe they find themselves as the team separating themselves at the bottom. 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumbertex line. Keep the tax coming in there. On the other side, we're going to talk to Sean Gentilly about a retool with the hybrid form and everything else going on around the NHL as well. Halpern and Brough is brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 19.

visit duick gm on marine drive downtown in richmond and at duick auto group dot com it is halford and brough josh elli wolf is real fair back on the other side on sports net 650 it's connect central on sports net 650 from exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post game breakdowns we've got it all tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app It's almost Christmas again. I know, right? Wow. Time flies.

This time a year, this time a year, we spread and joy and cheer. This time a year, this time a year, it's so much love in the air. This time a year. True. Welcome back to Alfred Dubroft. No Alfred, no Brough. It's Josh Ellie Wolf is real fair. Only the best music on the show today.

is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Only a licensed insolvency trustee can cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. To learn how, visit sands dash trustee.com and this hour of Halpertambrough is for 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. That's jason.com. Zach needs to be stopped. Zach, this is too much. Gone too far. You guys don't like jingle in the trap? Which is genuinely what it's called?

like it more now that I know the name. That sounds better. Honestly, the bright side is we're being exposed to music. I just never would have listened to if it weren't for this show. Gee, I wonder why. I wonder why. You can text in 650, 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio. And now we bring in Sean Gentile, covers the NHL for the athletic. Appreciate you taking the time, Sean. How are you? You guys had never heard jingle in the trap before? No. I know it's your ringtone. We're not culture. We're not culture. enough. That's the issue. It was actually my ring

back whenever people would call your cell phone in 2004 or whatever. They'd have to listen to a song while it rang. So the latest thing that's sweeping Canucks Nation, I don't know if you saw, but Patrick Alvin was on the Amazon broadcast

yesterday. And if you're unaware Canucks fans are just looking, often looking for a label on whatever is happening with this Canucks team right now. And the label Alvin gave yesterday was a retool with a hybrid form.

Do you know what a retool with a hybrid form is? Yeah, it's a rebuild that no one wants to call it rebuild. Yeah, I think. That's what you say when you're afraid, someone understandably to use

the rebuild word. Yeah, I'm based in Pittsburgh, so I've heard plenty of versions of that over the last couple years. I think Kyle Dubus, you know, has steadfastly refused to use the rebuild word around the penguins too. We're, you know, rebuild on the fly, retool on the fly, whatever. I think all of being dropping the hybrid element in there is probably new.

But it just speaks to how, you know, like I said, understandably, nobody wants to label things and they certainly don't want to label them as rebuilds. But, yeah, I think, you know, it's fair to infer that for all intents and purposes, that's almost always what they mean. How did we get here? I know teams, I brought it up earlier in the show, the Sixers and the Sabres and tanking, and that was a huge conversation at the time. But Rebuild was always pretty straightforward,

and now Rebuild seems to have the same connotations as tanking. So what's your theory on why that particular? word is the one that a lot of teams are drawing the line at. I think it's because we've seen so many rebuilds fail. To me, that's what it comes down to. I think people,

media, fans, whoever, I think we've all gotten wise to the fact that sometimes you know, that's just an excuse for being, for being terrible for a protracted amount of time with no real end in sight and or it's a situation

where, you know, where it is. It's tanking. It's tanking adjacent where you're just putting all your eggs in the top three draft pick, you know, basket. And sometimes that doesn't work. So I think all those associations, yeah, I think it makes it, you know, I think it makes it understandable that teams want to call it something else, even though, you know, we know it when we see it. So whatever it's called, the Canucks have kind of kickstarted their own version of it

with the Quinn Hughes trade a couple weeks ago. and now we're seeing what the returns have been able to give the Canucks over the past week in Boeum and Rossi and a little bit from Ogrin as well. In terms of a move that kind of kickstarts what we'll call a rebuild, what do you think of what you've seen from from those three players and kind of what the Canucks got back in return for Quinn Hughes and what it signals moving forward here? Yeah, I think the return is what gives Alvin some cover to call.

at a high, whatever, hybrid, whatever, whatever the term. A retool in a hybrid form. Great, yeah, sure. Yeah, I'll remember that one. But I think the nature of the players that they got back and the quality of the assets that they got back, do kind of give them some cover to use that, right? Because these are all guys who are young NHL ready players,

and I think Boolean particularly is, I mean, good luck getting a more premium piece than him and from any team that would have, it would have bit the bullet and made the move for Quinn. So, yeah, I think, you know, this isn't, I'm not breaking ground here. This is kind of the standard, you know, the standard response to the trade. But you get, you get in Booiam, someone who could be Quinn White. You get Rossi, who is, you know, a legit top six center. He's shown it over the last couple years, even though, you know,

Billy Garon was hesitant to extend them long term. And O'Grathen, even though he hadn't been great with Minnesota at the, you know, in the first handful of games that he played, you know, he's he's a young dude, he's a talented dude, he's got, he's got some size, and he was a first-round pick really recently. So, yeah, I mean, you'd rather have Quinn Hughes. I understand, you know, the heart sickness that comes along with it, but if you look at it in a vacuum, man, those three guys, you know, both his future-focused pieces and in shorter-term pieces, I think they make a ton of sense. It's cold, it's cold comfort. It's certainly not the

ideal outcome, but in a vacuum, those guys are, those guys are pretty good. Again, it doesn't really matter what the Canucks call it. What matters will be what they do over the next few months. And at the top of that list is what happens with Keith or Sherwood. He's far in a way, their most obvious trade asset. The trade board right now is not exactly filled with a bunch of, you know, top end players. So I have to imagine that there's a decent market for a guy who's on a scoring heater. and hits anything in sight.

What do you think the market is for a guy like Keith for sure would? What would he add for potential playoff teams? Yeah, we saw the Chris Johnson trade board at the athletic, you know, last week or whatever it was. It's grim. There's not a lot of quality pieces up at the top, you know. We'll see what happens with Alex Tuck and guys like that. But I think, yeah, I think that puts Vancouver in a pretty heavy-changing position

And because Sherwood, like, period, he's realistically, he's one of the, I don't know, five, five or ten most intriguing players that could realistically get moved, A, at all. And then B, you look at his, you look at his profile, you know, the dimensions, the dimensions to his game. They're all things that GMs love, right? So, yeah, I think it makes all the sense in the world to move him. And I think because of, you know, because of what he brings the table and because of how, bear in the rest of the market is, I think it's reasonable to expect, you know, to get a, to get a first in return for them because there's just not going to be guys on the market whenever, whenever it comes down to it, whenever it's, you know, late February and we're

back from the Olympics and, you know, Quinn's already been traded and all these, all these, all these, all these, you know, free roster freeze moves that we've seen and probably will, probably will continue to see before the, before the Olympics, man. I think, I think there's going to be some there's going to be a pretty serious degree of interest with them, and as it should be, because if you're looking to get better, there just aren't that many options, and I think he's probably at the top of the list right now.

We haven't seen too many teams separate themselves when it comes to just being a truly bad team this season. Like the bunch up at the bottom of the standings is still pretty prevalent at the moment. Do you think if teams just fully commit to like, hey, this is going to be a rough year, we want to get ahead of things, sell pieces off early, Is there an advantage to that when it comes to being one of the few sellers on the market?

Yeah, I was thinking that earlier in the season as it relates to some of the Eastern Conference teams, right? Because, you know, look at Pittsburgh. I don't mean to bring it back to them, but they have Brian Rust and Ricard Rakel starting the season out as like seemingly prime trade candidates, right? And so my thought then was, yeah, they should just strike while it's hot because, yeah, I think there is some value. you in that, especially now, but, you know, and if you have tradable pieces to try to get out in front of it for sure, but it's really tough to take away legit pieces from your group when you're, you know, five points out of a, out of, out of a playoff spot. That really, that really does complicate things or two points out or where, or what we're looking at with a lot of decent conference teams. So I think there probably still needs to be, you know, some stratification. There needs to be some kind of bigger gap that's built up between the wildcard and the rest of the, in the rest of the conference, especially if you have, you know,

the Islanders and the Devils are in wildcard position, right? And then there's five teams within two points of them, including teams that we all thought would be at the bottom of the league like Pittsburgh and Buffalo. So I think it's one thing to look at it, like purely logically. And it's another thing to say like, okay, we're the Pittsburgh Penguins. We're going to move Ricardo Kell actually, who's a winger for Sidney Crosby when we're two points out of a playoff spot on December 23rd. I think that makes it tough.

The teams that we're talking about at the bottom, a lot of the usual suspects, the teams that we've gotten used to seeing there, a team that we haven't seen there for a while, the Toronto Maple Leafs, they've had a, you know, a brutal stretch here. That's a market where brutal stretches certainly go well-noticed, get covered very, very closely. How did it slip so badly for the Leafs here, where they are now in, you know, they're a point ahead of Seattle, a team that has been abysmal of late. It's, I feel like it's just a bunch of things going wrong for Toronto at the same time. I think, and I think Austin Matthews is kind of the avatar for all that, right?

Like, there's a really good piece by James Myrtle and Domestician that the rain on the athletic yesterday kind of outlining that where, you know, is that, is Austin Matthews hurt, maybe a little bit? Is he in decline, maybe a little bit? Is the Maple Leaf system, you know, throttling his production? Maybe a little bit. How much does he miss Mitch Marner? You know, there's plenty of issues there that I think you can. apply both to Matthews and the Leafs kind of

writ large. It's a bunch of things going wrong. You've had talent drain over the last couple years. You've had their best players for whatever reason, you know, his numbers are distressingly down. And you have in Craig Burubi,

a coach who, you know, doesn't, you know, coach a system. I don't think that plays at their strengths particularly. And then you look at some of the stuff that you said over the last week, you know, you got to wonder, you know, how that message is even being received in that locker. And so, yeah, man, it's a lot, it's a lot of different stuff.

It's, um, it's a flawed roster. There's, there's, there's, seems like there's personality conflicts and there's just natural variance, you know, with that team overall. Because people forget last year, too, like the Leafs were a PDO team. They got really good goaltending and really high shooting, and a really high shooting percentage. I think some of what we're seeing from them, it doesn't explain all of it, but some of what we're seeing from them is that Anthony Stollars has been hurt and not been able to build them out

in that a lot of guys are just shooting shooting a little bit worse than they did last year. So yeah, it's not a very good five-on-five team, you know, overall. And then there's other environmental stuff, I think, that's cropped up there to make things worse. And we saw the Leafs make a slight coaching change yesterday. Mark Savard no longer with the team. And Elliot Friedman just put out an article on Sportsnet.com.ca saying, And according to multiple sources, that's where the coaching and managerial changes will stop and that Brad Tree Living and head coach Craig Broube are not on the firing line.

If those two, if that's not going to be the change the Leafs make, do you think this is going to be something that, like, I struggle to think that they would go the whole season without making a change of sorts? So do you think it would be more of a personnel thing if they're not losing one of Tree Living or Burubi. Yeah, you look at that roster and you're like, what are they even going to do with it? Like, you have to have, if you want to shake stuff up,

you have to have pieces that someone else wants. So you look at the way guys are playing there. You're like, what are you going to move out, Matias, Machelli for something that matters? Like, I don't think so. I'm always interested whenever we hear stuff like this, where it's like, yeah, this is it, actually. We're not going to do anything else.

you know, where this is, this is the extent of the coaching or leadership changes. Like, we'll see about that, man. It's December 23rd. It's very, very early. And we're talking about a team that's already at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. So, yeah, it's an interesting tactic there. We'll see how it works out for them. The Sabres aren't that far ahead of the Leafs, but they've won six in a row.

The vibes are turning there. The windstreetates the Kevin Adams firing. but that was in the air when they started winning these games. You mentioned Don La Schizzen a couple of weeks ago. He had a piece that was outlining why they were maybe being underrated. Then they lost a bunch of games. Now he looks smart again because they've won six in a row. They've got a pretty talented roster.

We know the depth that they have defensively. Alex Lyons played really well for them. So if they have a goalie here that can actually turn some results, it feels like in a pretty mediocre or mushy, Eastern Conference, that they at least have an upside to make them move up the standings? What do you see in Buffalo?

Yeah, I think so. You mentioned a lion. I think it's been clear with him from the start that he was the best option that they had. So, yeah, they're what, they got 38 points, they're three points behind New Jersey for that second wildcard spot, one six in a row.

I mean, I think that pulls them more in line on the season overall with what we expected from them. Josh Norris has been good. We'll see how long he stays healthy. Yeah. And that's always, that's always an issue for him.

I still, I, dude, I still look at the Eastern Conference and I'm like, there are so many teams, but it's, it's not that many points, but it's a ton of teams. And I think that's what's going to be a problem for, for a lot of these squads, whether it's Buffalo or Columbus or New York, even Pittsburgh. You know, it's not just about stacking up points. It's about hoping that the other, that five or six or seven other teams ahead of you don't. So, yeah, it's a nice change of pace for Buffalo. I think the move to move on from Adams was long overdue,

but they're going to have to keep this up a little bit longer for me to really buy them in any legit way. Do you think just especially because of the GM change, and usually when a new GM comes in, they want to kind of make their mark on the team, and Yarmelke Linen has been there for a bit already. do you see them as being a team that might try to be aggressive to kind of help their odds of making up those points and hopping over those teams before the trade deadline? I can imagine that because I think there's got to be some degree of urgency

in Buffalo just because of what a catastrophe that's been for however long now. And Yarmill has a track record with that. You know, his overall body of work with Columbus was a mixed bag. We're talking about a pretty historically mediocre team there that he was in charge of for a really long time but he also did show plenty of guts and plenty of gumption when it came time to make trades that had a pretty serious risk factor, right?

Like he goes out and gets Artemey Poonerian, goes out and gets Matt Duchesne and Sergey Bobrovsky and these guys who were brand-named potentially lead difference-maker players who also didn't have a ton of term on their contract. Like, he's shown a willingness in the past to add rentals or potential short-term additions, you know, to really try to make a difference, you know, while he can.

So, yeah, it's an interesting dynamic there. I would imagine that, you know, there's going to be some degree of, you know, action there because that just seems like that's the way he's wired and, you know, he's the guy at the top of the food chain. know. Over the weekend, Sidney Crosby passed Mario Lemieux as the leading scorer in Penguin's history. It's, you know, another accomplishment for a guy that's done everything in the game. I don't think he's underrated from a, you know, total career perspective. You know, we did that NHL 99 at the Athletic. He was very high. We all

know he's a top 10, top five player probably of all time. But are we underrating just how good he's been the last couple of years because the Penguins haven't been super competitive, like what he's done at his age, where it doesn't seem like he's close to slowing down? I think maybe to some degree, yeah. I think him passing Lemieux at this particular point is beneficial to him as well. Like, I think it's a nice little reminder of not just his career writ large, but, you know, the way he's played over the last couple of seasons, for sure.

and just with Crosby in general, you know, in the grand scheme of things, it's still, the craziest thing about him to me is still that he is, is that he delivered on the hype. Like, he was basically going to have to be as good as he's been to cash in on, on his rep entering the league, and he's managed it and then some, right? Like, he was supposed to be, he was supposed to be about this good, and he somehow outkick the coverage there. Yeah.

Especially with the last few years, man. I don't want to call it a finishing kick because, you know, who knows how much longer he's going to play. But the fact that he's strung together, you know, the production of the last few years, man, it's another really cool chapter and a career that, you know, we're all going to look back on, you know, it sounds corny, but yeah, it's one of the, what, five, four or five best players in the history of the game? Yeah, I think it's, I mean, he might be underrated in some circles, but, I mean, Not by me. That's for sure. I've been lucky to watch a bunch of his games and be around him up on the

over the years. The dude just relentlessly delivers. It's been a treat. Do you have any read on how long? Like, if you were to make a guess, make a bet on how long he plays, do you think he just finishes this contract out next year and he's done? Or do you think, like, again, he's still playing so well that theoretically he could keep going after that too? No, I'd expect him a sticker on longer.

was a stretch, you know, let's say in his early 30s, when 2016, 2017, like, when he was, when he was around 30 and the Penguins were winning cups again, there was like a bit of conventional wisdom around him and around that team where, you know, it was fair, like people thought that maybe he would, he would pull the plug relatively early, that, you know, he wouldn't

make it to 38 or 39, or that he would be done after that last contract that came up a couple years ago. But I think the thinking around him has shifted certainly over the last five years or so. I'd be stunned

if he didn't sign another one. Now, does it turn into a year-to-year thing? Who knows? But yeah, barring the bottom falling out on his game and him psychologically not being able to handle it, which we have no one. There's no reason I think that any of that's going to happen, I'd be shocked if we didn't see him play

well into his 40s at this point. Hey, Sean, really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for this. All right, please. Thanks as always. Thanks, Sean. There is Sean Gentelli covers the NHL for the athletic, joining us on the Halford & Brough Show, Josh Elliott Wolf and Israel Fair, filling in, I hope he plays well into his 40s, because we were talking about it yesterday, and there's a very clear road for him, maybe even getting to second all time in points, which, I mean,

when you consider that, like, he had the concussion, issues and there were some there was a decent amount of time he had to miss throughout his career it makes it all the more impressive that he's still been able to do this well into his late 30s and like you mentioned it just kind of feels like there's no there's no reason we look at him as as someone who's going to slow down because he seems to take care of himself yeah he seems to have no issues with with age at this time and i don't know it feels like he could keep doing what he's been doing now for at least another three or four years yeah It's unreal.

The penguins are here in Vancouver at the end of January, and that's a game now that every year I try to get to, just to get another glimpse, maybe the last one, you never know. But he's, for a guy that's not overly flashy, you know, obviously in the early days of his career when he was being pitted against Ovechkin, and you're not going to do much in the game

that's going to rival the Ovechkin goals. and just the sheer power of his game. But as Crosby has aged, he's just such a smart player. The way he controls the game is unlike very many players in the history of the game. Obviously, his accolades say that, but he's a guy that just watching him,

if you go to a game, even at this point in his career in his late 30s, and just lock in on what he does when he's out there for 18, 20 minutes a night. It's incredible. And it was pretty, cool to see the moment that he got at Four Nations, you know, and the lead up there was he was injured, was he going to play? And he really got like a superhero's welcome. And that first

game was awesome. And it paid off, as Gentilly said, right? Like just every step delivers. So he'll have an opportunity, hopefully, you know, healthwithstanding to do it again for Canada at the Olympic stage, which from everything he said is something he's been basically waiting for now for over decade and it's probably i mean i hope he plays another four years but it's probably his last olympics too so enjoy it hopefully hopefully it's a good one and uh looking forward to that in a couple months it is halford and brough no alfred no brough josh elli wolf is real fair here with you but howford and brough is brought to you by the duick auto group find out why nobody beats a duick deal since 1926 visit duick gm on marine drive downtown in richmond and at duick

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