Halford & Brough in the Morning - Who Are The NHL Young Guns To Watch This Season?

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

In hour one, Mike Halford & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus they discuss the top hockey prospects to watch this upcoming season, as The Athletic NHL's Scott Wheeler (26:02) joins the show. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da- Fastball on the outside corner to end the ballgame. And the Blue Jays will take the opening game of the series by a score of 11 to 4, an outstanding performance. Hey, that's pretty good. I don't like boats like that. If you go on a boat, you're committed. Like, you're there for hours. Like, I like a boat for like 45 minutes, but then after 45 minutes I'm like, okay, like I've all we're on the water like I get it. Boats are boats, the mystery box could be anything. It could even be a boat. You know how much we want in one of those. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning Vancouver, 6.01 on a Friday. Happy Friday everybody. Sweet sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is Brough, no wait yet again. It's Josh Elliott-Wolfe and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios and beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver.

Josh, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And regular Zach, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Bruv of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates,

BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. Brother, we made it. We did it. We did it.

So proud of us. Yeah, it was a real task getting through this week, but it's Friday. We're going to have a lot of fun. We got three hours of sports talk excellence, well mediocrity over the next course of this show. You got a lot to get into. We got a guest list that we need to parse through here. It begins at six 30. Scott Wheeler is going to join us from the athletic NHL draft prospects expert. A lot of things to dive into with Scott.

He's got his 100 top drafted prospects list out there. Recently wrote about Gavin McKenna's big move to Penn State. Here's some fun that we're gonna do with Scott. Throughout the week, Josh and I have teased and you know it's a slow week when we're teasing this, this thought exercise where what would it look like if for the upcoming Olympics in 2026, they dialed back the clock

and put together a Young Stars roster? Remember the Young Stars? I loved it. Everyone remember it? 2016 World Cup of hockey. JT Miller was on the team. 23 and under. What a time to be alive back in 2016.

If you were 23 and under and you were North American, you played in that great Young Stars team. What if you did it 10 years later? Who better to ask about what the team would look like than Scott Wheeler from the athletic draft prospects expert. So he'll be joining us in about a half hour's time. Should be a lot of fun. Seven o'clock. Jason Greger is going to join the program sports 1440 in Edmonton. We're going to check in with yet another Pacific division foe of the Vancouver

Canucks. We've done Anaheim, we've done Los Angeles, we've gone around to a handful of other markets as well. We'll check in with the Oilers today. Jason recently had a long sit down interview with Edmonton head coach Chris Knobloch, so we'll talk to him about that. He's also been doing some league wide coverage for sports 1440, including some interesting NHL wide trends, a drop in high end scores and power play opportunities. So we can ask him about that. That's all coming up at seven o'clock. some interesting NHL wide trends, a drop in high end scores and power play opportunities. So we can ask them about that. That's all coming up at seven o'clock,

seven 30 Jesper Sorensen, Whitecaps gaffer is going to join the program. The caps are back in action. Tomorrow, Saturday, seven 30 kickoff at BC place against sporting KC, lowly sporting KC. We'll ask him, what are his plans to replace injured centerback Ranko Veselinovich who is out for the year with a torn ACL. Also when might we see the debut of Josh's favorite player Kenji Cabrera? Kenji Cabrera, sick name. He knows everything

about Kenji Cabrera including his name, where he's from. Yeah, both places, both places where he's from. And how old he is. What's his favorite movie? Well That's uh, we'll see. I don't know. I don't know doesn't know everything. Yeah, my bad. I'm sorry Yes for swordsman's gonna join the program at 730 to talk about all that and then at 8 o'clock. It's the Moj Yes, it's the Moj Bob the Moj Marjanovic lions play by play man So a big weekend at BC place you have the caps Caps at home on Saturday. On Sunday at 4 o'clock the Lions kick off against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. It's all BC Place this weekend. The Lions are looking to rebound from a disappointing 33-27 loss to Saskatchewan last weekend. The rebound won't be easy. Hamilton tops in the

East. Although yesterday they fell a half game behind because I believe Montreal beat Calgary. Anyway, they've won four straight behind some inspired play from Beau Levi Mitchell. So we'll talk to Moj to preview the Lions and Thai Cats coming up at eight o'clock. Also on the show today, it's Ask Us Anything Friday, brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. $100 gift card to AJ's to the best Ask Us Anything. We need more than ever your Ask Us Anythings. Content for the show. Hashtag them A-U-A. The Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650-650.

All you gotta do is hashtag it A-U-A and put a pizza emoji into your text. You can ask us about anything, quite literally anything. Does not have to be about sports. For those of you new to the program, get them in Dunbar Lumbertex line is 650 650. We'll do them throughout the show. We'll announce the winner at 8.30.

The winner will get a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Working in reverse on the guest list. Eight o'clock it's the Moj 730 Jesper Sorensen. Seven o'clock Jason Greger 6.30 Scott Wheeler. That's what's happening on the guest list. 8 o'clock it's the Moj 730 Esper Sorenson. 7 o'clock Jason Greger 630 Scott Wheeler. That's what's happening on the program today. Zach, tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was too tired. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? Whated that? Whoa! What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca We begin yet again with the red hot Toronto Blue Jays. Ernie Clement and Joey Loperfito hit back to back Jackson the 5th to help the surging Blue Jays Ernie Clement and Joey Loperfito hit back to back Jax in the fifth to help the surging Blue Jays win again beating the slumping Detroit Tigers in the process. 11-4 on Thursday night in a matchup of first place teams going in opposite directions. Let's hear that Ernie Clement home run. This is the one in the fifth that really broke the game open and accounted for the winning runs. Clement goes yard, Jay's win yet again. Well hit ball to deep left. And he made him pay.

Did he ever? Ernie Clement got every bit of it and launches a three run homer. Ernie's back. Ernie's back. Ernie is back. I didn't know he left. 61 and- He was on the team the whole time.

I feel like he's been there for a while. 61 and 42 the Jays are down. So get this, a four and a half game lead over the Yankees in the East. A one game lead for first overall in the entire American league. One game, one full game ahead of the Houston Astros. And if you want to go to the overall MLB standings, it is two teams on 61 wins this year, the Toronto Blue Jays and the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Brewers lead the overall MLB standings by a half game. But all this says is that the Blue Jays are having, again, we've said this about a million times over the course of this week, and I know some people don't like having Jays talk crammed on their throat, but whatever. This is one of the best teams in baseball. This is an incredible story. And they just continue to win games, Josh Elliott-Wolf. Yeah, and there's been so many stories, too.

Like Eric Lauer started again last night. Old Fat Lip Lauer, he was out there, and he went eight strong innings. It was impressive. And was really, really good. and he's been a great story He's been a legitimate number two or three starter for them this season and I kind of for him and for the Jays as a whole I kind of keep waiting for the Experience to come back down to earth down to earth and it just hasn't and it kind of keeps going and I was

Critiquing Fladdy early in the week. He must have heard it He keeps doing stuff that is a that's that's good. So he got another a few RBI's last night and he has been really good for the Jays game tying double in the six to bring home the first of five runs in the sixth and Another one in the seventh as well. Yeah, he has been he's been swinging the bat very well It's doesn't gone yard with the regularity that I think most of us are used to. But again, adopting the philosophy of this team in a lot of ways, it's when runners are on base,

let's get those runners home. It doesn't matter how it works or what it looks like. Let's just get runs across the plate. 11-4 for the Jays yesterday. Longterm, cause you're wearing your Jays hat right now for the dozens of people watching the live stream on Sportsnet Plus. That's who I did it for. How excited are you for what's to come for this team?

Where are you allowing your mind to go beyond just, hey, I think we yes, you're going to use the royal we here. I think we're going to make the playoffs. How excited are you for the prospect of what's more to come? I so I'm still hesitant because again, it feels like eventually this might come back down to earth Why? Why? Why? Why?

For all the reasons that everybody else from any other market is mentioning where it's like hey the run differential isn't that good and they're getting a lot of good breaks and you know they're getting a lot of bounces playing against the Yankees. Hey, maybe you didn't deserve to win all those games, but the Yankees were booting the ball around and that helps a lot. But that being said, I think they deserve to be where they are right now. I think a lot of my excitement is going to be determined by what they do in the next week ahead of the deadline. Because if you go full and you don't have to go full 2015,

but if you go close to full 2015 and go relatively all in, I think that would do a lot to create full belief in what they can do in the playoffs. Okay, I'm glad you brought this up. So for those listeners that are unaware of the 2015 reference and illusion there, that was the summer in which the Jays went out and got Troy Tulowitzky and David Price at the deadline. What a time.

One of the biggest splashes I would say obviously in franchise history, but in American league history, that was a massive, massive sea change at that time of the year. Cause you gotta remember, like Tulow was an all star and David Price was a premier, premier pitcher at that point. Now obviously his post-season failings, might be a little harsh, but they're well documented. But David Price at that time was a high, high, high, I can't say it enough, high profile acquisition.

Those guys aren't available at this year's deadline. That caliber of shot in the arm isn't there. But with a lot of people pointing to the fact that the Jays have put together a home winning streak the likes of which we Haven't seen in over a decade their record Over the course of June and July is the kind of summer record that we haven't seen since a decade ago the 2015 teams A lot of people are saying well look at history. It's repeating itself in a couple of fashions Will it repeat itself with a deadline? Where do you expect the J's to go at the deadline?

I think pitching is the clear need because you saw like, we've seen that, hey yeah, the J's need more home runs. They need more power in the lineup. But at the same time, it's like, are you going to take away from the depth you have in your lineup to try to reallocate that to bringing in a power bat

and then you gotta send someone down? Maybe the vibes are off if you do that. Sure. In terms of like the bat aspect, I think getting Santander or Dalton Varsho back I think would go a long way. But in terms of pitching, like, I think they would benefit from having another starter

going to a six man rotation for the rest of the year, giving guys like Scherzer and Gosman an extra day to get right before their next start. And then also a legitimate reliever, backend reliever, high leverage reliever would go a long way. The thing about 2015 as well, that I think some people forget is the Jays

were six games back of the division lead at the trade deadline. Different spots entirely. That's a valid point. And so now it's like, hey, you can more justifiably take a really big swing. And obviously that swing was huge, but I do think you can take big swings on relief pitchers

that don't usually cost that much. You don't have to be going after a big bat, though that would help. And then if you can get a starter, that's great, but I almost kind of think they should hold their cards on that unless they get a high end guy that for whatever reason comes available. One guy that the Jays will not be getting at this year's trade deadline, Josh Naylor. The Canadian slugger in news from last night had his stay in Arizona truncated short live stay with the D-backs because Josh Naylor is on his way to the Seattle Mariners. The news

and the trade was announced late Thursday. He's going to Seattle in exchange for a pair of pitching prospects. Naylor 28. Obviously, most Canadian baseball fans know him very well. Did very well in his one and lone singular season with the Arizona Diamondbacks hitting 292 11 home runs. 59 RBI. The only issue there was the Arizona Diamondbacks hitting 292, 11 home runs, 59 RBI. The only issue there was the Diamondbacks didn't play especially well around Josh Naylor. Three games below 500 in the NL West.

So they decided to start selling pieces. He was traded for those that missed it from Cleveland to Arizona this year. That's why it was his first and only year. He's contracts up at the end of this year. So this is purely a rental, but it's very interesting for the Mariners now because he gets plunked right into the middle of a lineup that does include some big

bats, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arroz Arena. It makes them more formidable. And I know we've spent the majority of this week talking about the Jays, but this is a very interesting move from the Mariners, especially given the Canadian content involved with it. Yeah, and he's been a good contact guy. He's batted almost 300 on the season. I think the nice part about this, if you're a Mariners fan, is that they are legitimately

adding some piece at least, because the fear is always that they're going to be like, well, don't want to spend money and don't want to to do anything that you know goes goes too overboard or Loses too many prospects. I don't think this is that trade like this is a more conservative trade than it would be if they had acquired a Suarez or someone like that who's still available. He is still available and now it shows that the diamond backs are really selling but Yeah, I think it's a good ad for the Mariners and I think you'll help. You think Suarez is going to end up with the Yankees? I do. Because he's third baseman. We just saw the third baseman just like kick balls around Roger center for the

Yankees and the second baseman and the shortstop, the majority of the outfielders. And you know, the first baseman too. So they need defensive help. He's good defensively. And then also he's got over 30 home runs and he's, he's doing really good. Okay. We'll now turn our attention to the national hockey league. There was a really interesting signing of note yesterday from a not interesting

team and a very little known player, the Carolina Hurricanes signed forward Jackson Blake to a get this eight year, $45 million contract extension. If you're thinking who, what that's fair for those of you that don't follow the Carolina Hurricanes and $45 million contract extension. If you're thinking, who? What? That's fair. For those of you that don't follow the Carolina Hurricanes and their exploits all that close, Jackson Blake, he is the son of former NHLer Jason Blake.

So some people know him from that. He was basically in his rookie season last year, although he debuted two years ago. 17 goals and 17 assists in 34 games. If you're wondering why that earned him an eight year, $45 million contract, well, this is where the Carolina Hurricanes, who always like to think outside the box

and always like to be ahead of the curve, tried to get ahead of the curve here. It's a 5.6 AAV, but it's actually only 5.1 because this deal includes deferred money. It's also an eight year deal. Deferred money and eight year deals are not going to be around when the new CBA kicks in in September of twenty twenty six. So the the Carolina Hurricanes saw a young player.

He's only 21 years old. And they thought, hey, let's take a calculated gamble on this guy right now and give him a big money contract with a lot of term with one year left on his entry-level deal. You just don't see it that often in the NHL because he doesn't have a huge body of work to bank this on. However, Jackson Blake is now a rich man and with one stroke of the pen made more money than his dad made over a near 900 game NHL career, which is a wild thing as well. Yeah. And it's it's the move in the contract that I think a

lot of people like it's become a sexy idea around fanbases, you know, find a guy who is younger, who who maybe hasn't reached their full potential and be like, oh, we're gonna lock you in for eight years and it'll be a lower price and it's all going to work out real good. Yep. And I think there is potential here for that, but also the reason those don't get signed all that often is usually you're not getting a star to sign for eight years at a reasonable

price. The idea here would be that a guy who, again, had 17 goals and 34 points last season has got 45 million bucks in the bank. I can understand why Blake would take the money straight away. The idea for the Canes would be, if he continues to progress the way that we see in year three or four of this deal, when he's making 5.6 million, it's going to be an absolute bargain for us.

But there's a lot of projections that go on here, a lot of projections. And on here, a lot of projections. And I'm kind of with you. I'm not sure that you want to make these bets a lot. I also think it's and I'm going to it's easier to make this bet in Carolina where nobody's paying attention. Carolina, it feels like the it's just that just try stuff. This is what they do there.

Let's see if it'll work. And if it does, great. And if it doesn't, I mean, they tried the cocaine, Amy thing. Yeah, that was work. Yeah. And that was it. That was another quote And if it doesn't, eh. I mean, they tried the Coke and Yemi thing. Yeah, didn't work. Yeah, and that was another quote unquote calculated gamble that a lot of people liked at the time. Sometimes I think they can be accused of being savvy for savvy sake,

trying things just to be outside the box. But also if that is your organizational ethos, you kind of have to live and die by it. You can't try it once and say, well, we try to gamble and speculative, you know, odds on a young guy and it didn't work out. We're never going to do it again because we got burned. You have to keep trying it. And they do have a lot of young guys with that are intriguing locked up and they've got a core that's going to be there for a while, including

a guy like Seth Jarvis and obviously Sebastian Ajo. Jarvis is the one where, you know, they also made a bet early in his career and he's kind of flourished. So we'll see what happens in Carolina. I think it's a great bet considering that in just a few years time with the salary cap rising, that kind of money is going to be like a third or fourth liner. So even if he does just continue to put up the points he's put up, it'll be worth the contract. Sure. The other thing is that he just flatlines, which is also a possibility, or he gets hurt. And then you're dealing with a guy that you've got cap space tied into

where he has an inability to stay healthy, right? I mean, when Jack Hughes signed his contract in New Jersey, it was not quite out, I don't think he had one year left on his ELC, although he might've, I don't remember, but it was out of his ELC. And everyone was like, that's kind of a no brainer. However, he has a hard time staying healthy.

And what's happened since then, he's had a hard time staying healthy. Now you don't blame the player for that but it is a risk that you take when you invest in a young guy. But I also don't think the devil's regret signing that contract because when he is healthy he outperforms that by a mile. But he's also Jack Hughes. Yeah. And this is Jackson Blake. Yeah. Who's not at the at the level of Jack. Hey they're both Jacks. Fair enough didn't think about it that way. OK, the last story we want to cover here is yesterday's news, the Hockey Canada verdict.

For those of you that somehow missed the news yesterday, I do want to recap that the five hockey players, Michael McLeod, Cal Foot, Carter Hart, Dylan Dube, and Alex Formanton were all acquitted on Thursday on charges of sexual assault in connection with the 2018 incident at a hotel room in London, Ontario, when they were members of the Canadian World Junior Hockey Team. Justice Maria Carasia read and detailed her decision for more than five hours yesterday. We were on the air when the decision was first being announced, and by the time that we were

done and well off the air, the decision was still being announced. Outlining her evidence, the assessment of that evidence, and the reasoning that we were done and well off the air, the decision was still being announced. Outlining her evidence, the assessment of that evidence and the reasoning that she said supported her acquittals had to do with consent and her inability to believe the testimony of EM. So there's a few questions that have come in to the Dunbar lumber text message in basket that we wanted to try and answer in our ongoing coverage from yesterday and then to today. The first is, is there going to be an appeal of the judge's ruling?

So as part of the statement outside the courthouse, Crown attorney, Megan Cunningham, said that they are going to review the judge's decision, but because the case is still in the appeal period, which is a 30 day period, they had no further comment to make about their decision to move forward with an appeal or not. So at least as of now, at current time,

that decision still hangs in the balance. As mentioned, the Crown has 30 days to appeal this decision so they choose. Now, a lot of people don't like that many outlets, many media members have fast forwarded to the reinstatement process. But the reality of it is a lot of people are asking and it is a question worth answering. Right now, all five players that I mentioned are considered NHL unrestricted free agents because none of them received qualifying offers from their former teams upon the expiry of

their previous contracts. According to a league source of the Athletics, the NHL is going to review the judges' ruling, then complete its own internal process before the players are eligible to sign contracts. There's also no timetable on how long that might take. There is a statement from the league that was released on Thursday, I will read it in full. The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal, were very disturbing and the behavior and issue was unacceptable. We will be reviewing and considering the judge's findings while we conduct that analysis and determination in our next steps. The players charged in this case are still ineligible to play in the league. Now that's an important thing to point out here because right now it seems as though

the NHLPA and the NHL have a very different opinion on the eligibility of the five players involved in this sexual assault trial. Shortly after the NHLPA statement was released, the NHLPA released a statement of its own. Again, I will read it in full. Dylan Dubé, Cal Foot, Alex Formanton, Carter Hart, and Michael McLeod were acquitted of all charges by the judge in this court from the Ontario Supreme Court. After missing more than a full season of their respective NHL careers, they should now have the opportunity to return to work. The NHL's declaration that the players are quote-unquote ineligible to play,

pending its further analysis of the court's findings, is inconsistent with the discipline procedures set forth in the CBA. We are addressing this dispute with the league, and we will have no further comment at this time. So right now you can kind of see and if you want to read the tea leaves, you don't really need to read them that thoroughly. It seems as though there's a major divide between what the NHL has said publicly and what they are going to do procedurally and what the NHLPA believes is by the letter of the CBA in terms of reinstatement. We are up against every time before we go to break. I do want to turn it over to you, Josh, if you have anything you want to add to everything that I've laid out here or just go in an entirely different direction.

Yeah, I just think from a personal level, I guess I just, I hope this doesn't discourage victims from coming forward. I think it was brave. I think it took courage. And I hope that anyone in a similar situation has enough confidence in the justice system in Canada to come forward in these situations. It's a very, very difficult thing for victims to take that step. And I've also seen a lot of people online, you know, viewing this as a personal victory or something to celebrate. And for me personally, I think that's a little gross. I think it's a little unnecessary. We'll see what happens with these players moving forward. I personally, I wouldn't be disappointed if they don't play in the league again.

It's a privilege. I don't think it's a right. You can argue whether or not they deserve a second chance, and you can have your opinion, but that doesn't necessarily mean that second chance has to come via plane in the NHL. So that's kind of how I feel about that, I guess. Okay, we've got a lot more to get into on the Haliford and Brough Show

featuring Josh Elliott-Wolf here on Sportsnet 650. Scott Wheeler's coming up on the other side of the break. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro from waiting rooms to exam rooms and everything in between. Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected for a free quote. Visit them online at JanPro.ca. You are listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We will go now to the Power West Industries hotline. Our next guest is an NHL prospects expert from the athletic Scott Wheeler here on the Alfred and Brad show on SportsNet 650. Morning Scott, how are you? I'm doing well, fellas. I'm on my last day of vacation here before jumping right back into it.

I got a flight to Minnesota tomorrow morning to take in the World Junior Summer Showcase. And then from there, we're into the Hulinka Gretzky Cup and we're off again. So taking and trying to enjoy the last day here. Well, what better way to enjoy your last day of vacation than doing a hit on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. We appreciate you taking the time to enjoy the last day here. Well, what better way to enjoy your last day of vacation than doing a hit on the Haliford and Bref show

on Sportsnet 650. Exactly. We appreciate you taking the time to do this. I got a lot I want to get into here, but your most recent piece in the athletic one-on-one interview with Gavin McKenna, just I guess weeks away now from heading to Penn State and what has been, and I guess it's going to be

the most anticipated freshman debut in collegiate hockey history. What were some of your takeaways from speaking with McKenna? Just how much of a circus this has all been for him. I think he was still sort of trying to catch his breath. He just got home to Whitehorse for the first time this year. So the first time in 2025 getting home. He was home for a week to pitch in at a hockey camp that his sister helps, his sister Madison helps run for First Nations. She works for the council of First Nations in Yukon and was home for a few days, gave a little speech at the camp, skated with the kids a little bit and then was right back to Calgary

where he's spending the summer skating and training with Kale McCarr and living with his girlfriend and her family there and it's just crazy to me that we've got this 17 year old kid who has been home once in a year and is about to jump into even more of a circus here. I mean he did the ESPN Sports Center announcement, which was a first for a college hockey player. Then he's back home ever so briefly and now he's sort of back to living on the road and bouncing from destination to destination. He'll be in Minnesota with me starting tomorrow at the World Junior Summer Showcase. And then on August 15th, he'll be off to school.

And then from August 15th until the end of June next year, it's just going to be a zoo for him with all of the attention that's going to come at Penn State, the national televised games that they're going to be, that they're going to have, the world juniors and a chance to come back to Minnesota in December and chase the gold medal that he wasn't able to get last year as a part of that team that lost in the quarterfinals. And just an impressive kid. I spoke with other people for the story, Willie Desjardins, who obviously the Canucks fans would be familiar with, who is the head coach and general manager in Medicine Hat

and some others around Hockey Canada and that kind of a thing. And just it's been a three year run for him here that isn't your typical life for a 15 to 17 year old kid. And I think that was my big takeaway was just sort of how he's navigating all of that. Okay, so what are realistic expectations for McKenna in his first and it's gonna be his only year at Penn State because I've seen some people, especially with the American hype machine behind him,

saying like this is hockey's version of Cooper Flag at Duke. For those who don't know, Cooper Flag was a freshman at Duke last year. He was a one and done. First overall pick in the NBA. His individual performance and accolades at the collegiate level were super impressive.

Consensus national player of the year. But Duke didn't win a title because, you know, Cooper Flag at his reasonably young age of 18 was going up against guys in college basketball that were in their early 20s and that's something McKenna is going to have to deal with in the collegiate hockey landscape is you can often go up against guys that are in their early some of them even like to 23 and 24 years old depending on the program so again roundabout way of asking what's a realistic expectation for what McKenna can do

in this one and only year at Penn State? Well, there has sort of been a new bar set for college hockey freshmen in the last couple of years and I expect him to chase down that bar and that bar is the sort of 60 point plateau that we saw Adam Fantilly and Macklin Celebrini reach. It used to be that the true top prospects in college hockey in their freshman season, that if they had a point freshman season, that if they had a point per game season, if they had 35 to 40 points in 30 something games, that that was an exceptional freshman year for a teenaged freshman.

And then Celebrini, well, Fantilli before him, but Celebrini and Fantilli really sort of set that bar higher. They raised it from 40 points to 60 points. And I think that's what he's got to be chasing now. Penn State is after joining college hockey only as recently at the Division One level, only as recently as 2011 and having made just their first frozen four appearance a few months ago in the spring, Penn State is now a bit of a juggernaut overnight and has gone from an afterthought in the Big Ten to a contender

in the Big Ten with the Michigan States and the Wisconsin and the Michigans that obviously play in the same conference as them. So they're going to have a lot of talent around him. Charlie Serato was one of the better centers in college hockey last year and could be his center man, was drafted as an overager to the Carolina Hurricanes. Aidan Fink was one of the leading scorers in college hockey last year and could conceivably play with him. They've brought in Luke Misa, third round pick of the Calgary Flames as a freshman. They've got a really

talented group, a group that is expected to push for a Big Ten championship and potentially a return to the pros and four. And I think with what he's accomplished at the junior level, and I cannot overstate what he's accomplished at the junior level. He was more productive in his two and a half seasons in the WHL at the same age as Connor McDavid, then Connor McDavid was at the same age. Gavin is a December birthday. McDavid's a January birthday. So almost identical in terms of the ages that they played at those levels as well.

Gavin McKenna had 129 points last year at that age. At the same age, Connor McDavid had 99 points, so a 30 point gap in the exact same number of games, 56 games apiece. So we're talking about an elite, elite talent. And we've been spoiled over the last couple of years with Celebrini and Bedard back to back. Obviously, last year, Matthew Schaeffer wasn't that level of a prospect. The big question with McKenna is, can you be that level of a prospect as a winger?

That's really the only difference, if you will, in terms of the level. I think if he were a natural center that we'd be talking about him in similar terms to the way that we talked about Macklin, Celebrini and Connor Bedard. So that's the talent, that's the expectations. We'll see whether he meets it. A year ago, James Haggins was the front runner to go first overall in last year's draft, and then he had kind of that typical 37 points in 37 games season and was still a top freshman in college hockey, but ultimately became a seventh overall pick to the Boston Bruins. I don't think we're going to see that out of Gavin McKenna.

I don't think point per game is, is the bar that he's striving for. I think he's, he's looking to be beyond that. He's looking at 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 points per game. I think that's what a player of his talent has to be striving for. But college hockey is really hard and the big Ten is a no joke as the conference obviously either. So he's going to have some ups and downs. He's also going to miss games for the World Juniors, which impacts his ability to potentially

chase down that sort of 60 point mark. But that's, I think, what he's chasing down. It is Scott Wheeler of The Athletic joining us on the Halpern & Brough Show. So yesterday we did see a contract handed out in the NHL. That's a kind of a unique one. Jackson Blake getting an eight year deal in Carolina. What do you think of that bet for the Hurricanes? I like it.

I'm a big fan of Jackson. I think he's a dog. I think he's a skilled player who sort of can navigate the offensive zone, make things happen inside the offensive zone. He'll be a big part of that power play moving forward now with the commitment that they've made to him. I like what they've done. I know they haven't got over the hump and there are questions as to whether you

can do that with a core now that is made up of anywhere from the five, nine Logan Stankoven to five, 11, six foot types like Sebastian Ajo and Seth Jarvis and Jackson Blake. And you go down the list of the nucleus that they've got there down to continue to build around and it's a very unique group. It's a very crafty group. It's a puck possession group. They're going to continue to lean into the style that they've played.

Obviously they haven't been able to get over the hump playing that style. The Eastern Conference final has kind of been the limit for that team. But I think they've got a unique opportunity in front of them now where their core group of five or so forwards are all signed for, and you add Nick Ehlers into that group now, are all signed for a combined number that is much lower than I think the market value of those five players. And that puts them in a unique situation to potentially take some swings at the next two or three deadlines. They're going to continue to be a top team in the Metropolitan division.

And now it's on them to add the right mix at the deadline, maybe add a little bit more of the size that that group of forwards lacks. Obviously they've committed to Keandre Miller and Jacob Slavin on the backend and Freddie Anderson and Tchotkov remain the two netminders. And they've got a chance here to, okay, if, if you can take a swing at a deadline here, if you can put yourself in a position to really go for it, I think that it's incumbent on them now to go for it. And they've also got some, some cap space to continue to work with. I believe they still have something in around 10 or 11 million in cap space as a

team and they'll probably enter, enter the, uh, the season that way, as they often have sort of not as a, a floor team in the league, but certainly not as a capped out team in the league. And that gives them good flexibility into the deadline to take some swings. And obviously it didn't work out with Nico Rantman, but I think that's the kind of swing that they want to continue to take in flipping Rantanen to Dallas. They also have a lot of, despite the fact they've been a really strong team, they've got a lot of capital in terms of draft capital. They've got a first and a second round pick from the Dallas Stars. They've got their own picks.

So they've got some wiggle room here to take a swing And I like Jackson Blake to be a big part of that, more likely a second line than a first line, though I know he did play on the first line with that team a little bit last year. But I think if he's a sort of regular contributor in your top six and he's making 5 million bucks, there's good value there. We're speaking to Scott Wheeler,

prospects expert from the athletic here on the Haliford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. OK, this segues nicely into this thought exercise Josh and I have been doing for the week because Jackson Blake is born in 2003. So this thing that we've been trying to compile and part of the reason we wanted to get you on the show was we wanted to reprise the young guns, that unforgettable short lived team for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The premise for the listeners World Cup of hockey.

The premise for the listeners that might not be aware was that comprised entirely of 23 and under players from North America. So Canada, US. So back in 2016, they had to be born in 1993 or later. If you were to do it for the 26 Olympics, again, hypothetically, it would be players born in 2003 or later. So Jackson Blake would be in the mix, I suppose. For the sake of simplicity, I just did like 12 forwards, six defensemen, a couple goalies.

Forwards kind of doesn't matter what position they play as long as they're a forward. So we can just kind of walk through some of these with you and you can give us your thoughts on them because I know in recent weeks, you've kind of redrafted certain draft classes. You've looked at a hundred top drafted prospects. So I think it goes out saying,

Celebranian Bedard will be mortal locks for this type of team. I've also got Mason McTavish on there and I'll pause now because McTavish's name has come up an awful lot recently, especially in Vancouver, about the prospect of him being a trade target. What do you have on McTavish's game where it currently sits and I guess his evolution from being a high pick

and a junior star to where he's at right now in Anaheim? Well, I expect McTavish to have a bit of a bounce back year. This year, I felt throughout last season, and I know that there were some within the Ducks organization and agents of some of the players within that organization who shared in this sentiment, but I felt like Greg Cronin a year ago didn't get the most out of that young team in Anaheim and that they didn't take steps under him. Jackson Lacombe took a step. I thought Cutter Gouquet had a positive rookie

season, but there were a lot of players there. Leo Carlson hasn't yet taken the steps that I think he's capable of taking. Mason McTavish certainly hasn't taken the steps I think he's capable of taking under the previous coaching staff. Olin Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov was a healthy scratch for that team pretty regularly last year. And the guys just weren't getting better there like they should have. And now you've bringing in your coaching staff, we'll see how Joel Quindle and that group sort of mesh together and the approach that Joel takes with what is still a pretty young team as they try to

take a step here over the next couple of years and get back into the playoff picture, but there's, there's a good young group there. And I think McTavish, if he sticks around, uh, obviously Trevor's egress is now no longer a part of the fold. They're going to try to bring in Beckett Seneke and then Roger McQueen. Their tenth overall pick for this year at some point. I'll be interested to see whether Beckett, who probably doesn't benefit from going back and playing for the Oshawa Generals this year, but may well end up back with the Oshawa Generals

and as a part of the Canadian World Junior team, I'll be interested to see if he at least starts the year with them. But McTavish is an interesting one because Cronin often talked about him as sort of an excellent third liner. That was the, there was the controversial quotes from Cronin throughout last year where he talked about McTavish as a third liner. And I think McTavish would talk about himself as a second liner. So now it's incumbent on him to prove that, to prove that he can be that,

to be a 50 to 60 point, heavy set player. He can shoot the puck. He's got the sort of arsenal inside the offensive zone, the heaviness over the puck, the strength over the puck, the ability to shoot it. He should be a regular 20 to 30 goal scorer in the league, certainly in that sort of 25 range on a regular basis. He's never been a super, super agile kid in part because he is a little bit heavy set.

He's always had a little bit of baby, baby fat. He's always been a little bit of a sicker kid. Um, but plays a heavy game is physical, is competitive and should function with the skilled players. Should, should work well with a Leo Carlson in theory, or a Beckett Seneke in theory. So, uh, interested to see whether he can take a step this year because I think he is capable of becoming a regular 50 to 60 point guy. Yeah. So I've got him. So again, we're running through it. Celebrini,

Bedard, Mason McTavish, got Will Smith there, Adam Fantilly, Logan Stankovic, Dylan Gunther, and then name very familiar here in Vancouver, Wyatt Johnson, Shane Wright, who we kind of rag on the Seattle Kraken, although I think Wright had a pretty good year last year. He had a very good year last year. Yeah, so I mean- And it's quietly underrated here.

Yeah, so I think that's kind of a lock there. Cutter Goche, McTavish's teammate now in Anaheim. At the end, so actually I didn't have a guy like Blake on there, although now I'm kind of reconsidering it. I put guys like Zach Benson and Zach Bolduc there. The thought exercise was kind of, I don't know if you were the same Josh, but there was a lot of forwards available. Yes. Logan Cooley is also a name I would throw in there too. I missed on that one. Yeah, that's right.

And Matthew Nise is on that team in a bottom six. There you go. Okay. So there's a wealth of guys there. The defense was, did you have as hard a time as I did with this? Defense and goaltending was just like, there's a couple names where you're like, yeah, I'm super confident about this name, like Lane Hudson or Luke Hughes, but outside of that, yeah, defense

and especially goaltending, it was a difficult task. Yeah, I mean, Lane's a unicorn, Lane's the PP1 guy on a team like that. Jake is Jake. Brock Faber's still qualifies for that team, I believe. Brock and Jake played on the same team, same NTDP team coming up. So Brock's a part of that. Like Brad McClark, Kevin Kowalski, Owen Selweger.

Two guys. Yeah, it would be a little bit of a rarer team on the blue line than the Young Guns team that we saw at the World Cup once upon a time. A lot of those guys haven't, even Luke Hughes, I would say, hasn't fully established himself in terms of his identity as a player and what Luke Hughes is going to be. But it would certainly be a fun, whether it's Brent Clark or Wayne Hudson running the PPs and that kind of thing. It's certainly an entertaining group.

And goalie, can you please help us? It was impossible task. Cause none of them have even come remotely close to playing in NHL games yet, as far as I can tell. Yeah, Dustin Wolf has just aged out of that, right? So you just missed that. And same with Joel Hoffer, who I actually thought had a quietly sneaky good season as the backup in St. Louis to Jordan Bittington last year.

Joel's just outside of that group. Devin Levi has just aged out of the U23 conversation. So I almost wonder whether it's a player like Trey Augustine, who's obviously played men's worlds for Team USA, Drew Camesso, who played in the A-Chall last year with the Chicago's organization is another player with men's worlds organization or experience, I should say. Sebastian Cosa with the Grand Rapids Griffins last year but those aren't the go-to guys that you want to sort of play in a tournament when they don't quite have NHL experience so it's always tricky with the goalies obviously John Gibson

was a unique one in the first go around for that North American team. It was Gibson, Hellebuck and Matt Murray was the third goalie on that team way back in 2016. Hey Scott, this was great man. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the last vestiges of your vacation and travel safe. Cheers fellas and I'll be seeing Vancouver's own Wilson Bjork and Braden Cootes tomorrow at some point. Nice, enjoy buddy. Thank you. Scott Wheeler from the Athletic Prospects Expert here

on the Halford and Bruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Yeah, the Halcyon days of the Young Guns team back in 2016. I loved it. A moment in time that'll never ever ever be replicated. Now. Which is fine, it should exist as one of those weird things that happened in time and they tried something and ultimately the 2016 World Cup of Hockey was kind of a bust with the pan-european team. I think that was more of an issue than

Young Guns for me. If like the the team Europe was was a weird one, Young Guns was fun because I was at least like, ah this is like you're trying something. The problem with the Young Guns team was it took the best American players off the American team. Yeah. Well, that's an American problem. I don't know what to tell you. Here's the thing.

When you look back in time and the 2016 World Cup of hockey will always go down is a glorified exhibition where they tried some new ideas and I think went a little too far afield from a tried and true method of international hockey Which is find the rivalries that matter Embrace them and then as we saw the four nations Dive even further into it like the four nations term It was just sort of a prop to make sure you got Canada versus the US Yeah, with all due respect to our Swedish and Finnish listeners like you guys were there as secondary characters That was about-

They could have their own thing. Sure. And they did to a certain degree. Those mad, and those games mattered between them. But the reality of that tournament was, hey, we've got a great thing here with Canada versus US and international rivalries. It's been on ice, pardon the pun, for too long.

How do we go about fixing it? My idea was have a summit series between the two, but I guess maybe logistically and at the risk of alienating all the other nationalities that play in the NHL, you couldn't have an NHL backed summit series. So they did this. The 2016 World Cup, it was just too far afield. And again, they had baked into the recipe there,

the Canada versus US rivalry, but they cut the rivalry out of fit the knees because all the really exciting players from the American side of things that you wanted to watch were taken by another team, which left you with the Brandon Dubinsky's and everyone else in the world who were representing their team internationally,

which is not what you want to see. And I'll say, this was a very, very good year. 24, 25 was a very good year for the National Hockey League. They got a Stanley Cup final, which wasn't as good as the year prior, but still had all the storylines and all the narratives from, I mean, the 2024 Stanley Cup final was an all-timer. That's a top 10 Stanley Cup final

ever in the history of the league. But they had that. They achieved labor peace with very minimal negotiations. And I think the most crucial thing that happened this year, all due respect to what the Florida Panthers did, most crucial thing they had was they got a revival of international competition and the blood feud that had been missing for so long. And they got in such a dramatic and important way. Yeah. right. Like that game mattered. The four nations mattered to a lot of different people and a lot of

stakeholders in hockey. And it set the table so perfectly for the Olympics that I think it exceeded even the NHL's wildest expectations. Yeah, I do think some credit has to go to the players for fully buying in because I mean, the concern going into it was like, I don't know how serious are they going to take it? Is it going gonna be a glorified all-star game and then it was immediately not that like immediately the first shift that Canada had it was like oh this is crazy this is awesome and then yeah Canada

versus US both games were incredibly intense and yeah I don't think it could have gone in an ideal scenario it couldn couldn't have gone better for the NHL. And it definitely, it was needed desperately. And I think it went a long way in the U.S. as well. Okay, we got a lot more to get into on the Haliford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Hour one is in the books, hour two is on the horizon. Jason Greger, Sports 1440 in Edmonton is gonna join us.

Yes, we're gonna talk a little Oilers, but we're also gonna talk some big picture NHL stories. Jason's done a lot of off season deep dives for sports 1440 on league wide trends, a drop in like 190 point, the high end scorers in the league. What's going on there? Why have power play opportunities dried up so much, especially over the last year? We'll get into all that with Jason Greger at seven o'clock and then at seven 30 white caps manager Jesper Sorensen is going to join the program.

The caps are back in action tomorrow, Saturday, a 7.30, a late kickoff at BC Place against Sporting KC. There's a lot on the table for Jesper and the Whitecaps, including replacing injured center back Ranko Veselninovich and the potential debut of new signing Kenji Cabrera. So we'll talk about all that in the seven o'clock hour and it's all coming up next on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.