Halford & Brough in the Morning - Who Could Be The Next Head Coach Of The Canucks?

Episode Date: April 30, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason talk the latest 'Nucks news with Canucks Central host Satiar Shah (4:27), plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Now you look and they missed the playoff by six points. They don't have a number one and number two centers. Their Vestna goalie might not even play half a season next year. Like what's left here? Oh no! We suck again! 8-0-1 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday everybody. Halperd Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halperd and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first entrusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com.

We are in hour three of the program. Satyar Shah, joining us on an emergency basis, emergency sat call in light of what happened with Rick Tocket yesterday. In case you missed it, if you've been asleep or under a rock, Rick Tocket, no longer the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks. We're going to talk to sat in a moment about all that. After the intro, it's going to be an emergency sad call.

Ooh, well played, dad. Thank you. Thanks, son. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step.

So instead of throwing right to sat, we're going to make them wait on hold for two minutes and 15 seconds, because we get some hot audio, hot, fresh audio right out of the oven that is the 32 Thoughts podcast. Here is Elliot Friedman from this morning's pod on the Rick Tauke situation. We'll play the audio and then we'll talk to Sat on the other side. Elliot Friedman on Rick Tauke from 32 Thoughts.

I think Tauke was burnt out. You go back a year, the Vancouver Canucks never thought they were gonna be in this position. They thought they were moving forward. Miller, Demko, Hughes, Pedersen, that great seven game series. They thought they were they were going to they were going in their opening window of contention and this was a chaos fueled year that ended very badly and with a lot of uncertainty. And Justin, I think he didn't want to face that again. The uncertainty. I think, you know, the I'm not blaming anybody for this. You know, Vancouver's a hot market. It doesn't bother me. High risk,

high reward. But I think between that and everything that happened this year, I think he had enough and wanted something fresh, something new. I think now a lot of people are going to look at Philadelphia. I do think the Flyers have interest. We'll see what happens. I do think the Flyers have interest. We'll see What happens I do think talk it's gonna have some options so he'll decide what he wants to do You know a big Nazar I was on on 650 and Bic was saying you know it was gonna be tough for him and Canucks fans to see Rick talk it want to leave Vancouver and go somewhere else like you said it would hurt. You know what Justin, I look at it like dating, okay. We've all had someone we've been interested in who we've liked more than they've liked us. If you like someone and they say no or they choose

to go with someone else, what are you going to do? Cry in the field position in the corner? No, you say that sucks, but the world stops for no one, and maybe you feel sad for a few days, but you move on. There's other fish in the sea, you go find another partner. You know, there's only 32 of these jobs, they're gonna have a lot of interest. I don't think this is what the Canucks wanted, but I just think at the end of the day, it was time for Rick Tauke.

And I think that's that's what happened. I think when the season was over and he really had time to think and process. It was just time. When Frege mentioned balling up and crying in the fetal position, is that what you want to do? Both Jason and I simultaneously were like, yes. Sure, she's not interested in you, but you could always find another rig talk. I think being balled up in the fetal position should be the new Canucks logo. That's right. Embrace the ball. All right. Pardon? It works. To the phone lines we go,

Satyar Shah joins us now on the Haliford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Sat? What's going on? So I guess, talk, didn't want to keep meeting pressure with pressure. No, he did not. He did not want to embrace the hard.

He let it go. No, apparently not. Apparently not. He's a quitter. He's a quitter. Yeah. And listen, when you're on the verge of being a free agent like he is, you can

make your choice and go wherever you want to go. So I don't begrudge anybody for it, but it's just kind of, you know, he, it's hard not to look at it and say he pulled the shoe a little bit, right? Especially if you go somewhere else. And as much as you hear about, you know, tough market, this and that, to me, those are just, I can't speak to talk and I'm not saying Elliot is wrong because XFUS is reporting on this, but how much of this is, if Quinn is locked up long term, you feel better about the situation in Vancouver, do you care about the noise as much?

No. No, this is, I mean, yeah. People ask me, it's kind of funny, it's like, which major issue the Canucks are facing do you think was Tuckett's main reason for leaving? I'm like, I don't know, I think they probably all played a role. Yeah, I'm sure exactly, right? And maybe it is the market, but I just find that funny to be a guy who's been through everything he's been through and he's like, yeah, I'm just not going to be, I don't want to be in

this market. It's just too much going on in the market. To me, it can be on that. Like it has to be with the situation with the team as well. And again, I'm not disputing what Elliot said. I'm sure that's part of it. I just listened to that and I'm like, it has to be more than that. You know, like there has to be more reasons than I'm just burnt down. I know the organization Rutherford said he had personal reasons for wanting to go as well. I'm to your point, I'm sure there are a lot of different things. It just doesn't, I don't know, the whole idea of, you know, I don't want to deal with a, with a tough media market and I was one of the toughest players to play in the league.

And that's the reason I'm not there. Just. I don't think that's comprehensive. You know, I don't think he sees a chance at winning. Yeah. No, I think that's the most fair way to look at it and most realistic way to look at it. You can actually look at the knuck situation and say, if Quinn was signed long-term, you have some time on runway. You can figure out what to do with Pedersen.

Quinn is here. You have some young guys coming up. You have cap space coming up in a couple of years. You're building a little something. If you're patient, you can see it through and build something through it. But you don't have the luxury of patience because you don't know what's happening with Quinn. And I think that's the big thing. It's the unknown.

And if you're him and you have all these unknowns, do you want to sign a four or five year contract, your big last deal with Vancouver? I think thinking about it, I'm sure he thought he had other better options. But to me it's just probably more to do with better options. Now that's not to say that the situation in Vancouver has been great, but the noise is something that he's enjoyed and we can talk about that as

well, something that they haven't been able to control is the noise in this market, but if this team was in a better position as far as chances of winning and keeping Quinn, I think we see talk it back. Yeah. I mean, the challenges are huge. This off season alone, even if you'll say, okay, well, I'm going to give Pedersen the benefit of the doubt, which I don't, but some people do. That he'll be back as a legit top six

centre next season and he'll put the work in. You've still got to find another centre, probably, um, and you got to find one or two goal scorers, especially if you let Suter and Besser go, that's a very, very difficult off season to, for everything to go right and then, um, come back and try and prove it on the ice. No, it is.

I mean, and even Rutherford, the way he spoke about it yesterday, he didn't, you know, exude confidence about being able to pull it off. You know, he spoke about how they went off track, they were on track and they're going to try to get back on track, right? And all you can say is that you can't promise because it's a foolish promise to make, cause

there's no guarantees about it, right? It's a very difficult task to have in front of them. I think they understand how difficult the task is. And maybe at the end of it, you're not going to be able to get, you know, figure it out anyways, and then you're kind of stuck in a position if you're talking, you're probably thinking about it and saying, did I just made a different decision two years ago? You don't want somebody in an organization feeling that way.

Right. Um, and I, I do think there was surprise by the team and I checked in this morning, but it's kind of like, I think the search has begun today and they're just moving on in terms of, okay, we just have to go and find somebody else. Now it's, it's, it's kind of like next guy up. It's how we approach injuries. One guy's out. We got to go find somebody else. He's not all in and we've got to find somebody else who's all in here. But the coach is a big part of it too, because when you talk about that task, now you're adding

another head coach to that big off season plan. Okay. Let's try and put a silver lining on this. Um, or at least, you know, maybe throw out the phrase blessing in disguise because you never know. You never know. Right? Maybe this next coach is, is a better fit for the team.

Uh, I certainly haven't, uh, seen a lack of Rick talk of criticism throughout the season. So what does, you know, if you, if you, if you're Jim Rutherford and you're Patrick Alveen, what are you looking for in a new coach? What's the number one job of this new coach, whoever it is? Well, I think one, as much as we heard

Rutherford speak, I think one big part of it is going to be the relationship between Al Geene and the head coach. And then after that, it's going to be a lot about, obviously Quinn is a big part of it, but I do think Quinn is one of those guys that's very low maintenance. It's not even so much about finding a guy that's

right for Quinn, it's just find a competent head coach that can help the team be good. And what's the best way to get better is get your best players be better. You don't worry about Quinn, but you kind of need to get that number 40 guy to get a lot better. And you can't make the hire solely for Pederson, but it has to be somebody you feel like can get the best out of Pederson, especially if that's the guy you're bringing back next season. So I think qualities aren't going to be too dissimilar as far as what the priority is for the head coach. It's going to be about structure. Their staples are going to be similar. Even before the higher talk, there was a big talk about structure when they got rid of

Bruce and what they wanted. So I don't think philosophically they're going to hire a coach who's different, very different at the very least. And now maybe it's a coach that you've seen before that has coached offense, but it's going to be a coach that they believe can impart structure to the group. So I think those are going to be the big things, but you also have to look at somebody I think who's a really good communicator, if he can get through to players and somebody that can, you know, get through to your top guys to get a lot better. We're going to sit here and talk about offense and play style. To me, that doesn't, that to me doesn't matter to me. That comes down to the personnel you have. That's going to dictate ultimately how you can play

and how good you can be offensively. So that's going to be the part of it. But somebody that can create the structure, but then get through to players. And the biggest player to get through, we all know is number 40. Sometimes I do think the connects have gone the wrong way with Pedersen and the motivation.

It seems to be like they want him to, you know, it's almost like they poke him and they prod him and they want him to be like, well, I'll show you guys, you know, and they're just waiting for that moment. And I don't know if that's the right way to do it. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think with him, it's been known that

tough love doesn't work. Like he's a positive, positive reinforcement type of guy. And I will say like, you know, I even asked about the whole talk in the Patterson thing. It's like, you know, we don't know how talk it truly feels about Patterson, but as far as what the people with the team say from his interactions with the player, there was mutual respect. There was never any like, you know, yelling at this player or being rude to him or whatever but he's blunt and he's straightforward and I do think that you know what people have said is

that talking to has had a soft touch with them so they that's part of the frustration this year is that they tried a bit of everything right yeah I'm going that a hard sure they try and it's like you right she can't you know you start banging your head against the wall a little bit right so I think there's some of that but I do think in general, and I think they understand this, Pedersen is a positive reinforcement guy and you can't have a guy who's going to be a yeller and yelling at him all day. That's not going to work.

And I know that's going to frustrate some fans because they're like, dude, there could be a break, but you got to show up and you got to perform. And I will say for all the talk about trying to get Pedersen going, I think organizationally there is fatigue about, oh, what do we have to do to coddle this guy? It's like figure it out. But at the same time, you can't hire somebody who's going to be the direct opposite, um,

personality wise. And I ultimately don't think they're going to hire somebody who's going to be a torts type guy. Right. But I think Peterson in general, when you talk to people close to Peterson, he's always been a positive reinforcement type of guy. Yeah.

And, and they may be frustrated and they may be angry. And I actually think you could kind of hear Jim Rutherford getting a little more riled up as he was talking about our impact players. And I'm not talking about Quinn Hughes or impact players need to step up and win a game. I was like, Oh, who are you talking about? Probably not Philip Peronik, right?

Like, the only, the only other one still there or still under contract is Elias Pettersson. And the fact of the matter is that this management group pushed to get Pettersson signed, so they own it. So they can be angry at him and they can be frustrated about him and they can, if they want, they can throw him under the bus and they can blame him. But they own this situation and they need to figure a way out of it. Now I'm as frustrated as anyone that it

constantly seems to be like, well, you know, like can, what about a new winger? Like, would that help? Okay. What if we trade the guy who's being mean to you? Would that help? What if, what if we brought in a coach that was nice to you and, and spoken in a nice way to you? Like that help? What if we brought in a coach that was nice to

you and spoken in a nice way to you? Like that really frustrates me because it brings me back to the big questions like, this is the guy that's going to lead you to a Stanley Cup? Because believe it or not, sometimes things get a little negative out on the ice, right? Like so. Yeah.

So I mean, it does bring me back to that, but the fact of the matter is like this management group owns that Pedersen contract. They were the ones who pushed hard for him to sign it. Now they're going to make the best of it. Absolutely. I mean, they own the entire situation here.

You know, like it's kind of like when a new party comes into power, your mandate isn't everything you do. It's also what you don't do. Cause that tells you the things you are doing, right? Like your mandate is everything that you do. Your action speaks to the things you do and you don't do because that tells you the things you are doing, right? Like your mandate is everything that you do. Your action speaks to the things you do and you don't do. So if you double down on the core that is okay.

You didn't draft this team. You don't put this team together, but you double the triple down on the group. So that's your decision. So you now own it. You can't put a pass to the other management team. Say these weren't our players. You had a choice. You decided to go with these guys.

And now you're in a situation where JT has to go. Now we all know that situation could have been out of their hands. They moved Bo, you know, you have to move somebody and made sense. Patterson right now, we don't know what he's going to be. Quinn may not be here long-term. If you get through next year, Patterson doesn't find his game and Quinn's not going to be here long-term. Who gets the blame for where disconnects find themselves?

Now, I know people are mad at ownership. You can always point a finger at the very person at top. And that's in any organization. The bosses always wear it, right? The CEO, anybody at the very top, when things go bad, they're the ones that are going to face the criticism. But if you look at management, like this is a huge year. Like you can go from being a management team

that people have so much confidence in, to being the management team that fumbled this group of players. And you can look at J-Team say, whatever, Bo, whatever, Pederson, okay, whatever, but Quinn, and you know, that's big. That's a big option. Like do you want to be remembered as a front office

that fumbled Quinn, or the front office that took advantage of it? I'm glad you brought up- You have to refine yourself. I'm glad you brought up the front office and the management because I did have a question, there's sort of non-Rick Talkett division here, but I have noticed in recent months

that Jim Rutherford has been more and more of a central speaking figure when it comes to media availability. Now I know yesterday it was because Patrick Levine's at the U18s in Dallas, right? He actually physically wasn't here, so that task fell to Rutherford. But end of year media availability, it was kind of the Jim Rutherford show. Globe and Mail interview with Gary Mason, that was the Jim Rutherford show. So I went back and I

found the, I remember the article distinctly, it was from right after the Boudreaux firing, January 2023, when they introduced Rick Tauke, and the quote was, I decided that I need to zip it. I'm not going to talk about the team. I'm going to let Patrick and Rick talk about the team and just stay away from those things. That was two years ago. And it feels like that dynamic has shifted as well. Have you noticed this too, or is it just something that I'm maybe focusing on and maybe don't need to be focusing on? I'm maybe focusing on and maybe don't need to be focusing on. Well, I will say I'll give credit to this. I think it's presence of leadership

in situations like this. And we saw before when turmoil happened, we wouldn't hear from leaders under the previous management team. How often would we criticize the organization for Travis Green having to face all the questions all the time? Sure. Travis is always the guy to had to deal with everything and

when things go awry you have to have your leaders be available. So I think I will give credit when things are getting worse you want the very person that's making the decisions management wise to be the front-facing person. I'll give credit when things are getting bad. You know I think that's fair for that to happen. Is it a sign of Rutherford taking over the ship, so to speak? I think, I don't know if that's what you're going at, but I mean, fair to kind of wonder about that. I think it's always good to be able to. I'll jump in. Sorry, not to cut you off.

I don't know where I'm going with it. I just noticed it. And I've had people reach out to me noticing it as well. That's a very Halford, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know where I'm going with anything. I'm going somewhere though. Especially this, but I think I'm going somewhere. It's a fair thing. I just view it as unless there's more to it

and I don't know more to it yet. You know, when things are going as bad as they are and it's been such a disappointing season, you have to have your very top leader be present and be forward facing. And I'll give credit that he's doing that. And I do think he feels a lot of responsibility, like that question about, you know, what about your future?

He took a beat before answering it. And I'm not saying he would have preferred to retire already, but if he looked at it and said, Hey, we're on the right track last year, maybe one more year, two more years, I can move on and I can hand this over to Patrick. We have a really good situation. We have the coach, we have the players. We're on the right track. I've done my job. It's now to pass, I'll pass the baton. I can now this over to Patrick. We have a really good situation. We have the coach, we have the players. We're on the right track. I've done my job.

It's now to pass the baton. I can now go and retire. Did you look at it now and say, I can't lead the situation yet. You know, and you look at it, you're like, I've had a follow-up game career. I've won multiple Stanley cups and a great player at a great manager career. Am I going to walk away and create a mess in my last job? Or am I going to face and face the music and own up to it and try to see this plan through and maybe stay an extra year or two longer than I thought to make this happen?

I just wonder about that. If I want to talk about Rutherford now wanting to stay here, does he feel an obligation to not leave this team in a mess before he retires? See, now that's where I was kind of going with it because if you look at the two executives, they really couldn't be any different in terms of where they're at in their managerial careers. You've got Rutherford, who's closer to 90 than he is to 60 and has had a Hall of Fame career and is in the twilight. You've got Patrick Alveen, who's 50 years old and in his first general manager gig and is the first Swedish general manager in the NHL. So he's like, he's right at the beginning of this. And I know that they've worked in tandem before and they'll probably continue to work in tandem for a while unless

something very dramatic happens. But there's a dynamic there, especially with Rutherford, where it's you're in a certain stage of your career, time is of the essence, and I do wonder if sometimes that plays more into where the organization is at philosophically, as opposed to someone that's willing to take a longer term look at it. Yeah, and I think that's fair, I think that's fair. I think what complicates all that is, are you forced to look at a short term

because of the quimp situation as well? And it's like, can you take the long-term approach with this team? And unfortunately, it just seems like ever since these guys came in, and this is going to create the conversation or maybe philosophical discussion about what you should have done prior to this years before, but they came into a situation with a very little room for margin for error. And I think they nailed it initially, but now you're kind of back to having no margin for error again. And if you're looking at taking a long-term approach, short-term approach and maybe the short-term

or long-term approach is the right way to go about it, but can you truly do that? And Rutherford, as you mentioned, is impatient to begin with, but can you even afford to be patient with Quinn Hughes' status? No, I think we're gonna have another year where the mantra is, if everything goes right,

we're gonna be okay. That just, that seems what like and that's it's a risky way to do business But it's the way they're gonna do business anyway sat we're way up against it for time And I want to thank you for joining us on an emergency basis this morning. It's always great getting you on the program I wish it was under better circumstances because yesterday wasn't a great day for the organization, but alas we're walking through it Thanks for doing this today, but I Thanks for looking up in Cleveland though. Oh yeah. Yeah, you know what? We have 17 quarterbacks, maybe one can win a game.

Thanks, Seth, appreciate this buddy. See you buddy. You got it boys, thanks. Seth Tiershaw here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people texting into the Dunbar-Lumber text line right now that are just throwing their hands up in the air and going, I don there's a lot of people texting into the Dunbar Lumber Text Line right now that are just throwing their hands up in the air and going, I don't know, man.

So on that note- I don't know how they're going to get out of this. Do you remember that old, remember that, it might have been at the old station, we had that clip that we played from the West Ham supporters group and it was like, how are we going to get out of this? Yeah, I do remember that one. How are we going to get out of this? Yeah. It was so perfect. get out of this? Yeah.

It was so perfect. You could just sense the desperation. They trade Petey for picks and prospects, trade Demko for picks and prospects, trade Hughes for picks and prospects. I think- Yeah. But I mean, that's it, right? They'll be forced to start an official rebuild, the first we've ever seen.

Because they won't have a choice because they know Hughes is gone. And obviously we know the Pettersson and Demko situation. So it's just like, well, we have these assets, maybe we lose a couple of the trades, but at least Quinn will get you a huge haul. Obviously you don't want to trade the best player in franchise history, but if you know

he's gone anyways, well, it's rebuild time. I just, I look at, it's only hockey. It's only hockey team, but relatively speaking to the sport, it would be profoundly sad. Of course. If the Canucks were forced to trade Quinn Hughes to start a rebuild. I mean, if he's gone, then they don't have a choice.

This franchise has been waiting decades for a player like him. And are we looking at a situation where the Canucks get him? They get the guy, they get the guy, they get the number one defenceman, the one piece they've been missing for all those years and he leaves and you look back on his time and you're like, yeah, he

was amazing, he won a Norse trophy. To what end? Got to the second round? Yep. It would be very, very sad. Like again, if I'm the Canucks and I'm the one who makes the final calls on this, I am looking at this past decade and going, we must be doing something wrong.

What have we accomplished really? We must be doing something wrong. So let's take our ego out of it and try and find a better path because what this is doing can't be good for business. And you've got a very upset fan base. You've got people that you want to keep in your organization that are saying, actually, I don't

want to be here. And that should tell you a lot about the way things have been going on in Roger's arena. Get your, what we learned into the Dunbar lumber text line at 650-650. We'll read them on the other side and maybe have a few laughs if we can. You're listening to the Alfred and Bref

show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Mick Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets. Weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time.

On the show. 832 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford and Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and 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 are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to you by Campbell and Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. Are we good with the technical difficulties, Gregory? Yes.

Oh, Gregory. He survived. Okay, good. We're gonna do some what we learns. We're gonna do a follow-up what we learned. From earlier, I said I would track down all the information that anyone needed to watch the Whitecaps match tonight as they take on Lionel Messi and Inter Miami. Five o'clock our time is kickoff from Chase Stadium in Miami.

The channels are One Soccer, Fubo, and if you're a Telus television person, Channel 980. Watch parties. If you wanna go to Goodco on Granville, 965 Granville, you can go there. If you wanna go to Dublin Calling, also on Granville, 900 Granville, you can go there. Or you can go to Fable Diner and Bar

at 755 Richard Street to watch as well. Those are the three viewing parties. Those are the three channels. Cheer on your whitecaps as they look to advance to their first ever CONCACAF Cup final. Should be on June 1st, if I'm not mistaken. So there you go. There's all your information.

That is what you've learned. Moo County. Do we get a cut of the bar event for those places that we just promoted on air? Uh, no. Oh. Free water. There you go.

Free water. Can confirm. Okay. Yeah. Um, okay. I learned that, uh, it's been such a busy show and lots of news about the Canucks and we've talked about the other Canadian teams in the Stanley

Cup playoffs that I don't even know if we mentioned that New Jersey's out. Oh yeah. They got eliminated last night by the Carolina Hurricanes in overtime. Um, the Devils went into this with not much optimism that they were going to do anything in these playoffs.

When Jack Hughes got injured, I think that pretty much ended their chances. Um, so Carolina will advance and they will play the winner of Washington and Montreal. And, you know, I think Washington is going to win the series, not exactly a hot take, but I wonder who people will consider the favorite between Washington and Carolina.

Washington will have the higher seed, but Carolina has accomplished more in the last little while than the Washington Capitals have, like in the last four or five years, I would say. I think that Carolina with Coach Chetkoff and Nett is a much less daunting opponent than with Freddie Anderson and Nett. So Laddie, what is the update on Anderson?

Is he, could he potentially be done for the playoffs? I'm hesitant to say anything when it comes to Frederick Anderson. They gave zero information. They're like undisclosed day to day. Well, they also might be extra careful with a guy like that too, right? So the timeline could be anything with a guy like that. Like Kuchetkov was whatever yesterday and 35 shots, but it was a double overtime game Markstrom was the far superior of the two goalies yesterday that was a very

good performance by really nice stick smash at the end yeah very yeah quality yeah cuz he knew his season was over I do want to point out that now that New Jersey is eliminated that does give the Canucks an opportunity to interview former Abbotsford Canucks head coach Jeremy Collidaneton, who of course was on staff in New Jersey. Just throwing it out there. Just putting it out there. Just throwing it out there. What a lot of people forget about Manny

Mulhaltry, wasn't he like just like a kind of like a last minute fill in for Colleton? Like not a fill in, but it. No, not a fill in. It didn't come. He got the full time job. He wasn't a substitute teacher. No, no, no, no.

But you know what I mean? Like it wasn't, uh, there was some uncertainty there. He was a late hire. A late hire. To replace Colleton. Yeah. That's how you would classify it. Colleton wanted to get back into the NHL, but there, here's the thing.

I don't know exactly how to frame the end of the relationship between Colleton and the Canucks because part of it was, and there were multiple reports that he was, um, on the radar of a number of NHL teams for a variety of positions. So the allure of getting back behind an NHL bench probably played into this whole thing. And as you mentioned, kind of left the Canucks

with like, well, if he's going to go, we got to find a coach and then Manny was there and it worked. Yeah. Manny was hired May 27th. Yeah. And he's done a really nice job this year. I don't think anyone can deny that. It got off to a slow start in Abbotsford. They caught fire at the end of the year. They're currently in the midst of their Kaldorov playoff chase. So it's gone well for him in year one as a head coach at the American League level. Could you guys get down

with the idea of... Get down with the sickness? Manny Malholtra head coach at the American League level. Could you guys get down with the idea of? Get down with the sickness? Manny Malholtra head coach, Sadeens as his assistant. Yeah, I was thinking about it. And then maybe another experienced head coach on the bench. What about Alex Burrows? Get him to coach. He is a coach now.

I mean, would that just be? Would be awesome. Would it? And the Sadeens as assistant, Burrows coach. Is that just something that kind of like sounds cool on paper, but might not actually work out all that well? I'm sure it wouldn't work out, but I still

want to see it though. Who coaches the defense out of that group? I guess man is pretty defensive. Great question. So Burr's not behind the bench anymore, by the way. He's in a player development role now, not unlike the Sidians. Okay, well take Burr out of the equation,

because he's not with the organization. But. Yet. Yeah. Okay, take Burr out of the equation because he's not with the organization, but- Yet. Yeah. Okay. But take him out of the equation for the sake of this. Couldn't you see the Canucks like, all right, we need, we need to sell something here.

We need to, we need to, uh, like with all due respect to Jay Woodcroft, they hired Jay Woodcroft. They were like, you know, it's Jay Woodcroft. I don't, I don't know what I mean. Do you know what I mean? Like, Manny with the Sidines is a great idea. The way this has gone down, marketing wise, great idea. I think, I think everything wise, it's a great idea.

Here's another, here's a follow up. Do you think they'd be up for it? Here's my follow up for it. Can we get down with this? I would be okay, I'd be okay to try it for a year, just because I know next year's probably gonna be a throwaway year anyways. So like, it's just, there's nothing, you might as to try it for a year just because I know next year is probably gonna be a throwaway year anyways So like it's just there's nothing you might as well try it here might as well try it if anyone was got Gavin McKenna

Next year's draft. It doesn't go well. You got a potential stop I can't handle you you could take for handle you I'm just saying you were trying to hire John if there was one You need a timeout You need to not well, I still want coop. I'm just you know, I'm just you also want to rebuild Coop could be an assistant. Yeah Okay, obviously coop would be awesome, but I'm I'm I understand that's probably gonna happen I'm just saying like if there was one year to try the Manny Sadeen thing behind the bench next year is the year to Do it because they're probably Gonna have a tough time next year and if it doesn't work out worst-case scenarios. They got a hydraft pick

I think it would would you like to start accepting more blame for the problems that the Canucks are having I don't step right up I mean, I don't know how they're gonna sell it to Manny. They'd have to lie probably but uh, yeah I'd like to see that you hire them on the pretense that they're going to do a good job I don't know you're trying to saddle them with like this awful season where they're gonna race to the bottom of the league Which is one of the dumbest things I've heard like we're gonna get three iconic members of the organization to go to the bottom Well, you hope that they don't but you understand they might know but then that isn't good for any of them To be on a sinking ship. The idea.

Well, that's why you have to lie to them. Next season's going to be great guys. Ignoring whatever you're doing over there. I will. I'll go back to what you. I'm just talking about what they would think about. How are we going to sell this? That's what I'm saying. Sell it to who? Well, I already sold it to a dog, right? Like, you know what, you know what I mean? Well, sell it to the fans. The toughest customer in the business. Can you imagine being a, the fans wouldn't be the tough part. I don it to the fans. The toughest customer in the business. Can you imagine being a fan? The fans wouldn't be the tough part.

I don't think the fans would be the tough part at all. The Sedens are beloved. How do you sell it to Manny and the twins? I think it's selling it to the players that they're going to inherit, because none of them have that experience before. Manny does not have NHL head coaching experience. The Sedens do not have behind the bench NHL experience.

You're talking about a wildly inexperienced group. Neither did Marty St. Louis. But at the same time, you have to get your first gig somewhere sometime. Everyone starts at some point, right? Everyone's got a starting point. St. Louis is a great example. He was coaching like youth hockey in Connecticut.

Yeah. And he got elevated to behind the bench. It was like, I've done some great work with Billy. Right. We he got elevated to behind the news. It was really good youth hockey. I've done some great work with Billy. Right. We're all agreeing about the same thing here. We are. Yeah.

You just have weird motives behind your ears. You just, I like to think long-term. I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but you're extremely malleable. I know. It's true. Like any idea that has a semblance of like, oh, that could be cool. Yeah. You just dive. It's true. Any idea that has a semblance of, oh, that could be cool, you just dive. Very excited.

Very excited. Let's go for it. I'm very excited to be here today. Yeah, let's go for it. When you were a kid, did you often dive into pools that didn't have water in it? Yes. Because you saw it from a ways away and you were like, let's go. It looked shiny from a distance.

Cannonball. And then, oh, a dog's falling into an empty pool. I was hospitalized a lot as a child. Okay, all right. MooCow, whatever that was. Can I cheer you up with some nice audio? Yeah, please do. And end this bickering between you and Adog.

This one takes, Adog is the perfect type of person to be radicalized. Yeah. You are, it's very easily. But. You are very easily made to do it. But it'll be like a new thing every day. I like the way Strub thinks. A-Dog has now been rebranded as Hate Dog. He does not like anything anymore.

Okay, go ahead. What do you got? What we learned, a player in the Texas Rangers organization by the name of Keith Jones II, not Keith Jones' son from the Philadelphia Flyers, different Keith Jones. Got it. It's his first full professional season in the in the

baseball career that he has he was called up from low a the Hickory Crawdads to the Hub City Spartanburgers you guys yep he had never hit a home run before and I guess the announcer for the Spartanburgers anytime a family member shows up to watch their kid play he likes to have the mom or the announcer for the Spartanburgers, anytime a family member shows up to watch their kid play, he likes to have the mom or the dad in the booth for one inning. Well, Keith Jones, the second, with Keith Jones, the first in the booth,

stepped up to the plate, the base is loaded. Two-two, the pitch. That's out of here. That's out of here. It is laid on. That's out of here! The first ever Spartan Ferns Grand Slam comes courtesy of

Keith Jones II Yours truly. With his debt in the booth! Pick the perfect day, pick the perfect inning. Oh my God. Oh my goodness. I can't ask for a better sprint from that one. That's the perfect inning. Oh my God. Oh my goodness. I can ask for a better sprint from that. So there you go. That's my son.

That's pretty great. That's a pretty great moment right there. And it's just a minor league home run, but to have your dad in the booth and get that genuine reaction from him, that's pretty awesome. The Hub City Spartanburgers. Their first ever Grand Slam, you guys.

Yeah. Where'd he come up from? The Crawdads? The Hickory Crawdads. I'm looking at the Sparta organization. I'm gonna get a Spartan Burgers. I'm gonna get a Spartan Burgers hat. It's pretty great.

Is it cool? It's a burger wearing a train conductor's hat with a baseball bat over its shoulder. It's got it all. The best logo I've ever heard. One could assume they sell Spartan Burgers at the Spartan Burgers Arena. Wait, what is the logo?

Did you just call it an arena? It's the Spartan Burgerers Arena. Wait, what is the local? Did you just call it an arena? It's the Spartan Burger. It's a hamburger. Okay. It's got a hamburger wearing a train conductor's hat with a baseball bat over its shoulder. Oh. Look at him.

Are you gonna get a Keith Jones jersey? Yeah. Keith Jones the second. That's actually not, that looks like, it looks like a restaurant. Yeah. Is it? I don't know.

Okay. All right. That's what they're going for with the, it looks like a diner kind of logo. Yeah, it's cool. Do you wanna join a team that's like a fast food restaurant? Sure do. Hit a home run and put the fries in the bag.

Is there Mascot a Spartan burger? Is it the burger guy? Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. This is, I love everything about this. It's nice sometimes when you, like, kinda join the show for five seconds, we've been talking about it for three minutes.

This looks awesome. Okay, mooky on me. Ah! Fire up that damn matrix. (*drum roll*) Human Editions, what we learn brought to you is always by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Our favorite, the AJ's sauce pie, an upside down

version of the bar pie with fresh mozzarella and basil only at AJ's pizza or online at ajs.pizza. Okay. I'm going to read this one for AJ, what we learned from Troy, the retired bread guy. We are perhaps watching under the radar, I might add, the greatest hitting performance in baseball history, Aaron Judge could give us a 450 home run season.

Yep. We talked to, uh, at Dan Burke about this last week during his weekly hit and it was like. No, no one's hitting 400. It's like the fourth. Those days of hoping that's going to happen or gone. Have you seen how low the median batting averages in major league baseball now?

It's shockingly low. I think it's 238. It's crazy. Somebody posted a cut of all the players coming up to bat. I think it was the 2002 All-Star game. Every single player, 337, 340, 325, 330. Every single player down that lineup was hitting well into the 300s.

I miss those days. Well, there might have been some juicing going on. Oh, and people understood that contact was hitting well into the 300s. I miss those days. Well, there might have been some juicing going on. Oh, and people understood that like contact was key. Little small ball, right? Slap a couple singles around. Go the other way. That's right, oppo, single. Hit over the wall 450 feet.

They did a lot of that too. What's the median average? 238. That's like, ridiculous. I remember as a kid, I'd be like, ah, Manny Lee is up to bat again. Yeah. What's he hitting, 238?

Now he's average? He's an average hitter? Let me confirm. Well you guys understand the theory behind this, right? The lower batting average is not as important if you're hitting premium hits when you do get hits. Obviously they're going for the home run. I was trying to hit dingers.

Because, wait a minute, hold on. Is a home run better than a single? Home runs are good. I don't know if you heard this. What? Yeah. Right, like, oh, because there's another sport now. Is a three pointer better than a two pointer? Yeah, but- I gotta do the math on that.

I think it's better by one. But that's only until they introduce the four pointer. Oh, okay. Yeah. Then the four pointer's gonna be. So all the analytics guys got together and they're like what if Yeah, we tried harder to hit home runs Hold on and less hard to hit singles a lot of the old school guys were like it'll never work Speaking of blue jays did not get the man. Yeah, it's three-pointer. We both been been watching the Celtic City documentary on HBO, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So much of the early episodes,

the footage is pre three point line. Yeah. And it is just, it's wild. I'm like, why would you ever shoot from outside if there was no advantage for it? Like, guys used to get yelled at all the time when they take a 17 footer. They're like, what are you doing?

Close into the rim, there's no point. And now look at it. Okay, basketball Phil, what are you doing? Close into the rim. There's no point. And now look at it. Uh, okay. Basketball Phil, what we learned now that the Bucks are eliminated, it's time for the Yannis trade rumors to start. Miami, Phoenix, the Lakers or the Raptors, the Bucks don't control any of their own first round

picks. See, he got in a fight last night. Until 2031. He got in a, he got in a, a verbal spat. They're not physical, but verbal altercation with Terese Halberton's dad on the floor. They were johning at each other. Then Yannis went on a big rant afterwards and yeah, everyone was saying that's... So that- Are the Bucks kind of like done? They're done? Cause Dame is-

Dame did his Achilles. They got bounced in five games. That was a pretty stunning quick exit for the Bucks. And it wasn't that long ago that you and I were having guests on from Milwaukee talking about this great moment for this long suffering franchise and when they won their NBA title and it hasn't gone great since then. Jamie in Penticton, what we learned, Kuzmenko immediately went out and bought a harmonica this morning. Did you see the look of pure joy on his face during the anthem last night?

I did not, but I can imagine it. I can imagine if there's one player on the Kings that's enjoyed the harmonicas the most, it's Andre Kuzmenko. Yep. He also scored yesterday. He's, he's, he's, he's, he's been impressive. I know, I know when the, the Kings have been in a position of

trying to protect the lead, he hasn't played much, but maybe he should considering how they've protected the lead. He's just really added a dynamic to their power play. He's good at like, he doesn't throw the puck away. You know, he respects the puck possession. He's not reckless on the power play. He's very creative on the power play.

He's very creative. And I, and I, and I do think that, um, you know, in, in hindsight, I realized that Kuzmienko was not a talk type of player, but now that Tauke is not the coach anymore, a conversation needs to be had about like, okay, is there a place on the team for guys that are not perfect players, but add an element of talent?

Because if you watch Kuzmenko with the puck, and he obviously scored a lot of goals here in Vancouver, like I just don't think that the connects are in any position to be like, we've been knocking it out of the park perfectly, right? I mean, you know, the interesting thing about Kuzmenko is probably the number one driving reason he was driven out of Vancouver is because he wasn't

Tauket's style of player. Yeah, he wouldn't forecheck. Yeah, and now Rick. He didn't forecheck the way he wanted Tauket wanted it to go. I guess he's no longer here. We haven't. So it was forechecking overrated.

Yes, wildly overrated. We should. Yeah, I was like, do you- So it was forechecking overrated. Yes, wildly, wildly overrated. We should- Yeah, I was like, do you think Petey was like, do I still have to move my feet or what? I'm off the hook with that, right? I could just stand in one spot and go, gliding is back, baby. Gliding is so back.

I missed it. I will say, and I don't think we've touched on it a ton today, but one of the more soul crushing parts of yesterday was the realization that this management group, in addition to throwing tons of money and tons of term at Tauket, they had put all their eggs in the basket even prior to that with him being the architect for the culture and the style and made a lot of different moves solely based around Rick Tauke and his personality and the way that he wanted to coach and the type of players that he wanted to coach.

Like that is what's gotta be the most damaging from a management perspective is you put so many eggs in that basket. Tauke was the guy. You remember when it was that very acrimonious divorce with Boudreaux Do you remember they had an advertising campaign that had structure? Yeah That was it was one word, but it was effective

Everyone knew what they wanted and it was I was talking stuff that really sells. Yeah, so the sizzle of yeah staying in position Garbage in a cool wet sack, but he was always there see that stick lift But like from from the start to the end. He was always their guy. That was one thing. They never wavered on right? Yeah, he was their guy when Boudreaux was still working They waited until they were ready to get him out of TNT and then for his entire tenure, he was always the guy. And then at the end, they made that even more

abundantly clear by giving him a massive offer. Like you're our guy. Their statement when he decided to leave, like it was still very positive. It was actually reminiscent of their kind of message when JT left. They have not said a single bad thing about JT. Nope.

And I. Publicly. No. I, you know, we talk it, it was like glaring yesterday and we're still kind of living in the moment of it, but there are some commonalities there for sure. Totally.

Yeah. Okay. I'm going to have to trust Woodrow, the eligible bachelor here. What we learned, the Utah hockey club's YouTube page has been updated to Utah mammoth. And then promptly taken down. Oh, okay.

There was a couple different, I want to say either social media profiles or platforms. DJ Bean, I think was one of them, the guy with black. No, sorry, Utah's specific ones. There was like two or three different ones that had the changes reflected in them. Okay.

Whether it was a social media profile or a specific platform that they're using, they kind of quote unquote leaked the mammoth stuff and then it was promptly pulled down. Making the rounds of social media. Yeah, so I think people had some screen grabs and stuff. I thought they were gonna go Yeti, Sounds like they might go Mammoth. Whatever. Oh, they can't do Yeti. That's the legal thing. Oh, they already shot that down? Yeah, it's because the Yeti mugs.

Yeah, they're not letting them do that. Mammoth is the plural of Mammoth, right? Rob in Dewak, what we learned. The general abandoned his troops at a very very dire time of need. Ran away when times got toughest. What a chicken, hashtag deserter, quitter. Wow. How does Canucks Marketing sell the team next year? Like, what would they, what's the slogan? What do they, how do they sell it to the fans, this team?

Manny and the twins, why not? Two more years of Quinn? Let's go for it. What do they, I'm genuinely curious to see what they're gonna do. Yeah, it's Quinn Yu's final year. It's like how they promoted the Marc Andre flurries final year. Come watch them, maybe for the last time ever, in a Vancouver Canucks uniform.

Oh, that's a good way to end the show. We gotta get out of here for today. But we will be back tomorrow. Signing off for now, I have been Mike Halford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been Adog. He's been intern Kieran. And he's been Laddy. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.