Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will Boeser Be Gone At The Deadline?

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason look at other stories from around the NHL (3:00), they chat with Sports 1440 Edmonton's Jason Gregor (13:07) on what could be a busy NHL trade deadline for the Oilers, they chat with Whitecaps assistant coach Michael D'Agostino (29:04) on what has been a good start to the season for the 'Caps, plus they look ahead to the final three games for the Canucks leading up to the trade deadline (36:30). 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.

7-0-1 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour two of the program.

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working together with you and Step. First hour of the program's in the books. Go download the Hour One podcast if you want to get wall to wall. Recap and analysis from last night's three to win Vancouver Canucks over the Los Angeles Kings. Much needed for the Vancouver Canucks. No rest for the Canucks as well. They'll be back in action tonight.

Seven o'clock from Anaheim, where they will take on the Ducks in the second of a back to back. There's a bunch of other games on the ledger tonight. It's a busy night in the National Hockey League. It wasn't a wildly busy night last night in the NHL, just a handful of games, including the Canucks and the Kings. But the Winnipeg Jets once again found a way to win, this time a 4-1 victory in Ottawa.

That is their 11th consecutive victory. So the Winnipeg Jets this season now have winning streaks of 8, 7, and 11 games. They took advantage of an Ottawa team that was without Brady Kachuk, Josh Norris, and Shane Pinto to capture the 4-1 victory. But whatever the case, it's still a win is a win, and for the Jets, that's 11 in a row. But a loss is a loss for the Sens, and that's five straight now, and they are two points out of the playoff picture in the East,

and with as wide open as it is in the East, man, if Travis Green and the Ottawa Senators miss the playoffs this year, that's gonna be pretty disappointing for that franchise. The chase is so intriguing in the East, not just because it's tight, but there's so many teams that have so much riding on a playoff spot. Like Detroit is desperate to get back in the playoffs. They've been out for almost a decade.

Do you know there's a stadium series game this weekend? Yeah, in Columbus it's horseshoe. So I think tonight they pull Detroit and Columbus plays in Detroit and then Saturday there's a rematch at Ohio state between Columbus and Detroit again. Columbus, if you look at gold differential, they're plus four, Detroit is minus 10. And then you also got to consider the Rangers

as part of this race. They're up to, well, they're tied with Ottawa right now with 62 points and things are going much better for them. And you'd almost like with the addition of JT Miller and the fact that they were probably wildly underperforming earlier in the season, you almost kind of think they got a pretty good

chance of catching one of those teams. So that game this weekend at Ohio State University, I was listening to Brian Hedger from the post dispatch talking about, um, the, just how big a deal this is in Ohio and then for this team. So first off, it's the first time they've ever hosted an outdoor game, having it at, um, Ohio

state, they're going to have 90,000 people there. Dawn Waddell said that they're anticipating that there's not even that many people coming from Detroit because they sold so many tickets to Columbus Blue Jackets fans. Like, the split is going to be like, we're all cheering for Columbus. 85% to 15%, because Detroit's only three hours away.

You would think that a lot of the Red Wings fans would show up in droves. A lot of them just don't want to go to that stadium. They're like, blah. Yeah, right? I mean. A lot of them just don't want to go to that stadium. They're like, yeah, right. I mean, that's understandable. They don't like Ohio state. It's pretty cool though. If they play the, once they play this game, they, they would have played

a at Michigan stadium and now at the home of the, of the big rivals. The big, the big house at Ann Arbor. Yeah. So the other part of this is if you take away the outdoor game in the venue and everything, um, it's a huge game for playoff implications. I know we're only at game 59, 60 of the season, but Detroit and Columbus are the two wild card holders as of this moment. And they're going to be going, as you mentioned, head to head in two consecutive games. And for Columbus, you've got a couple of other things to add on to make this such a great story for them. One,

totally unexpected that they would be in this position through 60 games. Nobody had them as a playoff team this year, especially of course, in the aftermath of Johnny Goodrow's tragic passing just prior to the start of the regular season. It's been one of the nicest stories in the NHL to watch this team find its way this season. They play fun hockey too. They're an entertaining game to watch. Dean Evison deserves a lot of credit for what he's done there as the head coach, first year head coach. And now you've got an opportunity for them to really hammer home some, there's, it's tough to make solid footing in that Eastern Conference Playoff race.

Like you're always going to have someone at your heels, but if Columbus can get these results, you might be looking at them as being one of the best stories in the National Hockey League this season. So that's something that's going on right now as well. But on that note, Ottawa has now lost five straight, as you mentioned, and last night's game was a tough one for them, four-one to the Jets.

The other game last night, the Avs smoked the Devilsils five one. Not much to be said from that one. Marty Nacius has played very well since coming over from the Carolina hurricanes. And I thought it was this last night, man, I thought ranted in was going to be way bigger impact for Carolina than Nacius would be for Colorado. So I had this in the notes yesterday. We never got to it, but what is wrong with Carolina right now? There's a lot going on there. They almost goes beyond this random tree, but you got to look at the random trade

is the pivotal point to all of this. So they were shut out for nothing by the Habs on Tuesday. We didn't get a chance to get to this yesterday, but since Rantan has joined the Canes, he has one goal, three points, and of course, the all important minus two rating in eight games. Carolina is two, five and one since acquiring him. And he was pointless, obviously again, in that

game against Montreal, because they got shut out for nothing. It doesn't look right on the ice. They're playing poorly. It doesn't feel right because he's yet to commit to this 100 plus million dollar extension they're ready to give him. I'm not sure exactly how this is gonna play out.

If you listen to the guys that cover the team in Carolina, specifically Corey Lavallette from The Athletic, he said don't misconstrue no activity with a negative connotation. Just because the deal hasn't been signed yet, you know, all signs still point to Eric Tulski and the Carolina hurricanes being very committed to getting this deal done and ultimately

putting more money in front of Rand and then anyone else can. But everyone. Because of the extra year, like total money is going to be extra. Yeah. But everyone from the outside of Carolina is kind of getting a different read on it and saying, mm, I'm not so sure about that because if it, Money is going to be extra. Yeah. But everyone from the outside of Carolina is kind

of getting a different read on it and saying, mm, I'm not so sure about that because if it, if this was the case, what's the holdup and is there a really bad fit? Like maybe Randon's looking at this and being like, I just don't see it here. Yeah. So we'll see what goes on there.

I miss Nate. Honestly. I miss his musk. I miss my car. Nate dog as he calls them. I miss Nate. Honestly. I miss his musk. I miss my car. Nate dog as he calls them. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so, and then obviously,

Randon's a name to be paying attention to going into the March 7th trade deadline. Some other names to pay attention to, and this was another thing we didn't get to yesterday. So you mentioned that Nick Caprio's at Sportsnet.ca had his latest trade board go up, 4.0 if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, and the lead story with that one was all the St. Louis Blues that could be available.

The only untouchable being Robert Thomas apparently. Not one, not two, not three, not four, but apparently five St. Louis Blues could be on the market. And one of them that's been on the market for a while is Braden Schenn. His name's been out there for quite some time. The Blues captain has a couple of years left to term on his contract, but the blues are entertaining the idea of moving him. And now courtesy of Elliot Friedman, there could be a deal in place here. At least some teams are talking about it where you don't get one Shen, but two shens, Luke and Braden. There is some

talk that NHL teams are looking into the possibility of bringing both aboard going into the March 7th trade deadline. Do we have the audio here? Let's play it now. This is Elliot Friedman from Saturday's headlines talking about teams contemplating bringing on both Braden and Luke Shen prior to March 7th. There's been a lot of talk obviously about Brady Shen and he told reporters in St. Louis this week, I think Luke Korak actually was the reporter, that he has not been approached of anything right now and is trying his best not to think about it.

But what I do think has happened is that teams have talked about uniting the Shen brothers, Braden from St. Louis and Luke from Nashville, maybe acquiring them in separate trades to bring them together. We'll see if anyone can do it. So part of the understanding here is that We'll see if anyone can do it. So part of the understanding here is that both players might be interested in a move because neither of them are tasting playoff hockey right now. Yeah, Luke Shen is an offer. Did you hear what Luke Shen said after?

Yeah. It was like, I've never been on a team that literally cannot score like we can. And I'm like, did you get shut out? Then you're using literally wrong. Yeah, because they didn't, they lost 4-1. But it was Tuesday night against the Panthers and the quote was, this is Luke Shen speaking to Main Street, Nashville.

One of my favorite publications from Nashville. You don't even really know what to say anymore as far as the overall team game. Nothing's easy, obviously, but I don't think I've ever been a part of a group where you literally can't score goals. The reporter in question did not follow up by saying you're using literally wrong. But it's it's been a problem in Nashville all season. They've got a terrible offense and they can't find the back of the net. And they just keep losing games.

Sam Cosentino from Sportsnet threw it out on the broadcast last night because we were just talking about the Winnipeg Jets. He said, I keep the fit of the possibility of them picking up Braden and Luke Shen, sending them back to there. They're not from Manitoba, obviously they're from Saskatchewan, but close enough. But adding those two guys, adding those two guys ahead of the deadline could put the,

the jets in that category where, you know, they're really good. Could the Leafs do that? Yep. Because Braden Shen with Craig Berube, they've had history, they won a cup together, and then with Chris Tano's injury right now. And Luke Shen, of course, has a lot of history

with the Toronto Leafs. Yeah, I wonder if the Leafs would be a fit there. Elliott doesn't throw this stuff out just out of nowhere. And I do think that in a very hockey move, everyone saw the energizing bunnies that were the Matthew and Brady Kachuk and what they did playing together for Team USA. And then of course, them talking about it,

ad nauseam talking about it, but talking about how great it was to finally get to play together on such a grand stage. And I wonder if people are trying to project that a little bit onto this Shen scenario. So as we move around, we're gonna have Jason Greger join the program in a couple minutes here. We should turn our attention to Edmonton,

who's also in a bad way right now, bleeding goals left and right. And we were very curious about what they might do going into the trade deadline. This, of course, was a team that, quite famously, went to game seven of the Stanley Cup final last year and were one goal away from sending it to overtime and possibly winning it, but they fell short.

Who do they play tonight? They've got Florida tonight in the Stanley Cup. First, I can't remember if it's the first or second Stanley Cup in Florida. It's the first time they've been to Florida since the Stanley Cup game seven. So there's that hanging over this entire thing. But also hanging over this right now is the goaltending has been subpar. They don't know what's going on with the Vander Canes return to the lineup and the moves that they've made that they thought were going to be good additions in the summer, specifically

Jeff Skinner and Victor Arvidsson, haven't been great. So for more on the Edmonton Oilers, we turn our attention out. A good friend of the program joins us on the phone line, Jason Greger here. That's not ideal. Jason Greger on the Halford and Bref Show on sports. Nope, there it is. Also not ideal. We don't need to keep bringing up that dial tone. We can leave it on hold. We'll get to Jason Greger in a second. But the question obviously for Stan Bowman and Jeff Jackson going into this deadline is, do you have enough space to add? And if so, what are you going to add? Mm-hmm. They need some goal scoring, don't they? Outside of their.

Victor Arvidsson hasn't worked out, Skinner hasn't really worked out. Yeah. They gave Victor Arvidsson quite a bit of money, didn't they? Two years of four million dollar cap hit. Was that a signing or is that a trade? That was a signing. They acquired both of them in free agency, Skinner, because Skinner was obviously bought out and Arvidsson was let go. And it just simply hasn't worked out. We're going to try this again now. Jason Greger on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.

He joins us now, fingers crossed. Jason, do we have you on the line? You do buddy. Yeah. I don't know what, once you guys put me on hold it went off. So when I'm back, yeah. Oh, good. Yeah.

Did it. Hey, the orders wingers. It's like they, uh, that call was about as productive as they being this year. So is it worth asking the question of who's been less effective or has it just been that both these moves have not worked out for Edmonton? Well, neither neither has worked out. I would say Arbitton is less effective for sure. He's played basically he's been stapled for the most part to the best player in

the, in the league's wing and done absolutely nothing. Like how do you have six goals, five on five playing with Leon Dreisaitl who's been an absolute beast all season long? Like you know it defies logic really and for a guy who's been able to score in the past but honestly like Arvidsson he just hasn't looked comfortable here. Remember when Scott Hartnell had Hartnell down shirts and everything made up he's fall over and they made it they kind of made it fun? Yeah. Well Arvidsson could make his own shirt right now. Like that guy's on the ice more than the Zamp, only some games. It doesn't make sense to me. And he just, he really hasn't been much of a threat at all this year. You know, early on they weren't getting scored on. So that helped, right?

So you're like, okay, they're not scoring lots, but at least they're not giving up much. But now that's not necessarily the case. Skinner early on, you know, got crushed five on five with getting outscored. But actually since January, Jeff Skinner's I think second on their team in five on five goals. He's third in points. And when he's on the ice, the orders of outscore the opponent's nine to four. So, you know, Skinner should at least be in the lineup. His problem is like, I don't know if you guys saw the Washington game. So the orders, they're up one nothing, Dry Settle scores. Skinner gets a breakaway and gets like, his foot speed is so noticeable. He got caught from behind, he even got a shot away and then

they're one nothing game. Like that could have changed the whole game. And then they got obliterated. So maybe it wouldn't have, but his foot speed. And then the other thing that doesn't jive with him playing with McDavid and Dry Settles, he likes to hold onto the puck. And when you play with those two, you don't hold onto the puck very often, you get it to them. And so he'll hold onto it and then doesn't make many plays. I just don't think it's a fit stylistically. And I'll be honest, I thought I'd looked at his five on five numbers.

I'm like, Hey, this guy scores five on five doesn't need to score in the power play. Because that's, that's what Edmonton needs, right? Like there's no opening to come in to play on the power play in Eminton. So you need guys who can produce five on five. So on paper it worked, but you know, I had a guy who warned me, he said, man, Skinner's foot speed isn't going to work. And you know, he was right because it

hasn't been a fit, but he's been better than Arvidsson for sure. So Dry Saito has got 43 goals. So you're okay with that. And McDavid's got 22. He's become more of a playmaker, I guess, in the last couple of years, but I'm sure they would like him to score a little bit more.

What happened to Zach Hyman? 19 goals in 53 games. That's not horrible, but he set such a high bar last season. Well, last year guys, if you looked at it, and I wrote at the start of the year, Zach Hyman wasn't going to repeat that. In the salary cap era, there was two guys who scored more five on five goals ever than Hyman's 36 last year. Austin Matthews had 38 and Stamkos back in 2012 had 41. Like, he wasn't scoring 36 five on five goals again, right? Like he, you just weren't going to

do it. It's not, it's like, Ovi, the greatest score of all times, never scored 36 goals five on five in a season, right? Like, so he wasn't going to do it again. He's actually right on, he's just on pace for second highest five on five goal season. So you know what, he's 19 and 53, he's probably going to end up with 27 or eight. So a little bit down, like I thought Hyman would be more of a 35 goal guy. So early on, he just couldn't score to save his life. And I think the orders problem is they haven't been as good around it. Like they're, if you go look at their heat shot maps, and when you watch the game, they're taking a lot more shots from distance guys and don't have, they

don't have a lot of traffic in front, like outside of Hyman who bangs home rebounds on Emerson, they don't really't really have, you know, now there's not a boatload of rebound goals. I actually looked it up in the NHL. Like I think the most rebound goals by one team is like 28 or something. So it's not like it's a ridiculous amount anymore on what they deem a rebound goal. But Edmonton doesn't have a ton of net front presence. And Hyman to me would be kind of like, you know, he had to play with the bubble there. He broke his, had a terrible broken nose. And so he's a guy that I don't really worry about him. I like last year was an unreal year for Hyman, but I don't think he's a perennial 50 goal

man. He probably should have been closer to a 35 goal guy. But you know, sometimes a guy like him and how he plays, you know, some of those pucks go off the post instead of going in. He's one of the few winners I don't really have a concern with overall, because I think he can, you know, he could get hot pretty easily. But they're after that guys, like it's being a, it's kind of being a wasteland. Outside of Corey Perry, like how do you have your oldest guy playing as well as he is in limited minutes? Like that's great for Corey Perry, but it's bad for the rest of the

wingers that Corey Perry is basically being your second, you know, most productive winger five on five after Hyman. So is goal scoring the biggest concern or is it keeping goals out of the wingers that Corey Perry is basically being your second, you know, most productive winger five on five after Heimann. So is goal scoring the biggest concern or is it keeping goals out of the net because last four games have not been good defensively or goaltending wise? No, like Edmonton steals, what are they fourth or fifth in goals? I never really worry about their goals. Like, would you like a few more consistent guys? Sure.

But that's, that's every team has weaknesses offense isn't their weakness They're sixth and goals five on five. So I'm not really worried about that They to me where I worry about their offense They're not quick enough as a group and they have like they might be the most least aggressive Forward group in the NHL right now when Kane comes back, which probably won't be tell playoffs Obviously he would address some of that but But I think like you guys watch games, there's 82 games. Some games you need a guy who can change the momentum. Kiefer Sherwood will run around and hit guys and all of a sudden the bench livens up and you're like, okay, we're in the game. Edmonton doesn't have that. Like not

at all. So I think that's what they need upfront. Their penalty kill is dying right now and this is the craziest stat of the year. So the orders are 27th on the penalty kills this year. They played 57 games, 58 games, 58. For their first 15 games they were awful 59%. Then for the next 30 games, which is more than half their season, they had the best penalty kill in the league at 87.1% but now they suck again and they're like to be 27th when for half the year you were first it just shows you how bad the other half of those two seasons have been and so they can't get a stop. They got the guys who were good on their penalty kill last year was the main reason why they went to the Cup final at 94% but their penalty kills got a sharpen up.

I really think they missed Cody Cece and Vincent De Harney on their penalty kill. It really worked with them and they missed both of them on the PK. Okay. Um, please add some clarity to the Evander Kane situation to me, because this whole thing as a complete outsider, I'm sure I'm missing a lot

of the details has seemed odd to me. Just the timing of his surgeries or whatever he's had going on and I don't know, like is he expected to be back during the regular season? Is he expected to be back for the playoffs? Is he around the team? Do they want him around? Like what is going on with Evander Kane there? Okay, so good questions.

So Evander Kane stepped on the ice for the first time in like eight months last week. And I talked to guys, he skated her and so getting on the ice doesn't mean you're close to playing, just getting on the ice for the first time in eight months. And he was going about 60% pace, right? Cause that's all he could.

He had double hernia surgery. He had torn abductors fixed. Like he had major surgery. then he had there they they had to fix up something in his knee nothing nothing structural or anything but so that kind of delayed his rehab a little bit more but was probably smart to do now I was told the he tried to rehab which a lot of guys have tried before because surgery is always the last resort so we tried that for a few months it didn't work then he had to have the surgery, so he had the major surgery.

I've been told from very good sources, he's like at the earliest, it would be April 1st, like that's best case scenario, April 1st. So here's the thing, because he's on LTIR, there is a strange odd rule that if you're on LTIR for a period of time, you can go on what's called LTIR conditioning stint because normally when you're on LTIR for extended period of time you can go on what's called LTIR conditioning stint because normally when you're on a conditioning stint you're on the roster and you count against the cap but they allow LTIR guys who've been out for a long time they can go on a conditioning stint for three games and go down. So in theory Emonton could put him on an LTIR conditioning stint to the minors on April 10th and then he could go down

there play three games then the regular season ends they could recall him he doesn't count on the cap if he wants if he thinks he's ready and wants to play on April 10th so guys we're talking like a nine day window that if Vandercane would have to come out publicly and tell everyone look at me I'm healthy Why would he do that? Right, like I see people talking about it and Vander Kane, hey, he's got a reputation, we all know his reputation, he's been kicked off a few teams, right?

So he beats to his own drum. So I get all of that. But to me, that's like such a weird scenario. I think Stan Bowman, are the orders concerned that maybe he's a wild card and they don't 100% know if he would say he's healthy or not? Okay, sure. But I'm not going to let that stop me from using his LTR money because now, because the

orders aren't good enough in their current construction. They're still very good. You got McDavid, you got Dreissel, you got a champ every time, right? But and they got lots of other good players, but they need to tweak some things. They need to add a little bit grit to their team. I still think if they could find a right defenseman in their second pair, Connor Murphy or someone, I think they would do it.

So I would use the money because, Hey, someone else guys, someone else could get hurt March 10th. And then it wouldn't matter. Right? So I, I, to me, they have to use it. I think they will use it. And I just, you know, Kane, this LTR conditioning stint to the, to the miners

makes sense for everybody. Every player who's out that long should always will use it and I just, you know, Kane, this LTR conditioning stint to the, to the minors makes sense for everybody. Every player who's out that long should always go on a conditioning stint. Cause the NHL is damn hard and it's even harder, you know, when teams are ramping up for the playoffs. So why wouldn't you use it when it's a legal

outlet to use? Why wouldn't you use it? Yeah, it was funny. If he's ready to go. We were talking to Frank Ceravalli yesterday and he brought up the notion of like, they don't quite trust that Kane wouldn't do that. I'm like, what? Like, so he would come back with seven games left in the season.

He'd be like, actually I'm healthy. Oh, I'm going to screw up your salary cap situation. You're going to have like, I was like, I was like, Frank, you know what you're saying here that we were the most wild moves that I've ever seen in the NHL and he would be one of the most wild moves that I've ever seen in the NHL and he would be loathe forever. And then I was like, yeah, I could maybe see him doing that actually. But what it would do like if Andrew Kane, you know, he said he's finally healthy,

like feels good, which is great. He's got one more year left in his deal. He was not an old guy. If you look by today's terms anymore. He'll want another contract. If he did something like that, that's the most self-sabotage thing ever. Now, someone would say he's done in the past. I guess maybe I'm more of a glass half-full guy to look at it realistically. Hey, I don't even know, and they don't even know for sure if he'll be ready to go because all three of us could have the exact same surgery and all three of us would come back

at different times. Not everybody heals the exact same timeline and all three of us would come back at different times right like not everybody heals the exact same time so no one even knows if he'll be ready but they're always I always find anytime people we talk about a what-if it's always the worst case what-if rarely do humans talk about the best case what-if right so I don't know I think I think it's too much worrying about oh geez the worst case scenario I think the orders are gonna use the LTIR money and the orders are gonna use the LTIR money, and I think they should use the LTIR money because they got a really good team,

and you know what, you're in the window to win for as long as you have dry solomic David, and if you can take a few swings, I would take a swing at the deadline. Hey Jason, we got about 90 seconds left. I did wanna ask about the goaltending before we let you go. How much concern is there around Stu Skinner right now? Well, there's lots by the fans for sure, and you know, hey, Stu Skinner's had an up and down year. There's no question

He now the order is keep in mind. We talked Kevin Woodley. I know good friend of your guys He he talked about the environment of a goaltender and and Edmonton is 27th since November 15th when they were winning guys And we're one of the best teams They're still 27th in the NHL in odd man rushes against five on five and 24th in high danger chances off the rush. I don't care who your goalie is that's gonna hurt you. Now Skinner where he struggled the most is being the first period right getting lit up in the first so yeah he has to be better. There's no there's no doubt I think the fact that you know last year what he did like he'll play really well but when he plays bad he's

had a tendency to play really bad so I don't know if there's a fix for it like I know everybody's in love with John Gibson right now and everybody loves Jordan Bittington because he won one game but like was Jordan Bittington great in the first three games of that tournament? Not really. Lots of people were like play Aiden Hill so I don't know you could go get another goalie but as you guys are living it in Vancouver right now outside of maybe four four goalies in the league, does anybody really know from game to game or year to year who's going to be good? Not really, no.

Jason, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. Enjoy all the games tonight and the rest of the week. We'll do this again soon. Awesome, boys. Have a good one. Thanks, Jason.

You too. Thanks, Jason Greger from Sports 1440 in Edmonton here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. They don't seem to be in a very good way at all right now. No. Awesome boys, have a good one. Thanks Jason. You too, thanks. Jason Greger from Sports 1440 in Edmonton here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. They don't seem to be in a very good way at all right now. No. You know, and I'm really curious to see what

they're doing at that deadline. That whole Vanderkeen thing is weird. It is strange. Like you would think you would have an understanding between the team and the player about what's going to happen. Right? Can we use your LTIR?

Like what's he saying? Like maybe. Maybe, maybe. But maybe I'm going to feel healthy with one game left and then you got a problem. Can we use your LTIR? What's he saying? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe I'm going to feel healthy with one game left and then you got a problem. It's just so weird. Anyway, we got to go. Who's coming up next?

Michael D'Agostino is going to join the program. He, of course, is the assistant manager for your... It sounds weird saying assistant manager. Like he's at a Denny's or something. But he is the assistant manager of the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Whitecaps are in action tonight. Your chicken fingers are ready, sir. Damn, we're out of shredders.

Yeah, he's gonna be in action tonight. I came all the way for the shredders. Not behind the concession stand, but on the pitch is the Canucks take on Deportivo Soprisa, the Costa Rican team in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions Cup match. Tonight that goes at 7 o'clock from BC Place. Mike's going to join us next to talk some whitecaps

here on the Health and Embroidery 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 3 to 4 on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. 7.35 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday everybody. Halpern Brough Sportsnet 650. Halpern Brough of the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for sales, financing, service for parts.

We are in hour two of the program. Vancouver Whitecaps assistant coach Michael D'Agostino is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of hour two, hour two of this program is brought to you by Jason Hominec from Jason.mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at Jason.mortgage. To the following lines we go. The Vancouver Whitecaps are in action tonight. 7 o'clock from BC placed the second leg of their CONCACAF Cups match against Deportivo

Soprisa. They are down 2-1 on aggregate, so they need a result tonight. Whitecaps assistant coach Michael D'Agostino now on the Halfiford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Mike, how are you? I'm great, how are you guys doing? We're well, thanks for taking the time to do this. First question, is Jaden Nelson indeed the fastest kid alive? I think if you went off the game against Portland, you probably could say he's up there for sure, but no, he's definitely quick. I didn't know he was that quick over that much distance, to be honest with you. I know he's very there for sure. But no, he's definitely quick. I didn't know he was that quick over that much distance, to be honest with you.

I know he's very rapid in terms of going left and right and changing direction, but for him to open up like he did against Portland a few times was quite impressive. How familiar were you with him prior to acquiring him? Cause I knew the name and I knew that he had been capped by Canada. I knew that he had played in Europe. So yeah, I watched a lot of Rosenborg games.

I love, yeah. I got this, I got the satellite package for Rosenborg games and I was, I knew the player. I did not realize that he was this dynamic. How familiar were you guys with him prior to getting them? Yeah, quite familiar to be honest, especially us as Canadians watching him, you know, play for our youth national teams back in the day and getting chances with the first team. You know, we had some other players within our club that were playing with the youth national chief national team and we always saw him playing with Toronto FC and playing there and doing very well. He had a very good game against us in the Canadian Championship finals three years ago, I think it was, and really gave us a lot of problems. From there, we

really took a lot of notice. We weren't surprised that he got to move to Rosenborg and, and, and, you know, big things were coming for him. Um, you know, we're kind of, you know, happy in a way that, uh, it didn't work out so well for him. You know, obviously we wanted to work out for him in the future, but for us it's like, you know what? Didn't, didn't have the greatest time there, especially when he went on loan to Germany. But, uh, you know, we're really happy to have him and he's been a great, great addition in the off season.

You know, listening to him talk and then watching him play and how demonstrative he was in his celebrations, it feels like he's got a chip on his shoulder or that he's out there with something to prove. Is that an accurate read? I would say 100%. I mean, I haven't heard the words come out of his mouth, but he definitely has the sense of he wanted to come here, he wanted to prove a point, he wanted to show everybody that he is the player that everyone thinks he is and that he had a little bump in the road,

but the future is very bright. He's a very young individual at 22 this year, but I think he's going to be a fantastic player for us this season. We're speaking to Whitecaps assistant coach Michael D'Agostino here on the Haliford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, Mike, let's set up this match for the listeners tonight. It's the Whitecaps, it's Deportivo Soprisa from Costa Rica. Walk everybody through what happened in the first leg in Costa Rica. An unfortunate end to the match, but not a terrible result given this is over two

legs. Yeah, the result is pretty evenly balanced. You know, We had a really good first half down there in Costa Rica where it's never easy to play, really difficult atmosphere, tough crowd, tough team. Did very well in the first half. We kind of wobbled a little bit in the early parts of the second half and later in the game and we conceded a 93rd minute goal, which does change things a little bit. But given the fact that we've gotten one away goal, it means that if we can go out and get a one no win tonight, we go through. We're obviously not playing for that exact result, but we know that if we don't concede and then we do score, we do have a chance. We will go through to the next

round and play Monterey next week. Without getting into too great a detail or giving away a match strategy, what is the plan for tonight? The plan is to go out with a really strong team. Obviously we do also need to think about MLS. That's our number one priority is to be as strong as we can in the MLS. So we have a couple changes tonight but in general we're looking to put out a really good strong squad, go out there and be aggressive right away. We're not going to sit back, it's our home. So we want to kind of take the game to them very early and look to be aggressive, both in the press, the repress, and then also with our attacking options. So we'll go out there.

We know they're strong on set plays. They're a big team. So we're going to try and mitigate as many as we give away with them on those. But yeah, we'll be ready to go. And I think the mindset is going to be to go be very aggressive against them. So it's only been a couple of matches under the new gaffer, Jesper Sorensen. And we wanted to get you on the show because you've got that unique vantage point where you worked alongside Vandy Sartini for a while. And now you're also working under the new manager as well. So again, for the listeners that might not be familiar with Sorensen's

preferred style of play, what are some of the key differences that they'll see? Listeners will see like maybe tonight or on Sunday for the home opener, the differences between Sartini and Sorensen? Yeah, anyone that knows me knows that, you know, I've spent a long time with Vani and have a lot of respect for him and very good friends. The differences between the two playing styles, I think Jesper, in terms of being re-aggressive on the, let's say called the repressor, the counter pressure, um, he has a little bit more of a man to man mentality with that. So if we're, we have the ball further up the pitch and we're looking to attack, if we lose it, he

wants right away guys being aggressive around, around the ball. We had kind of three circles of pressure that we call it. The immediate is the guys right around the ball. They're going back, they're trying to win it. The next day guys are trying to get back in the position to go man-man. So it's a little bit more aggressive in that sense. In terms of attacking, a little bit more of let's find four or five little passes to try and break lines, a little bit more, let's say, possession-based team with Jesper compared to Vanni, and then defensively just a little bit more man-to-man even when we

defend near our goal. So not crazy changes, just I would say a little bit more man to man, even when we defend near our goal. So not crazy changes, just I would say a little bit more attention to the repressure and then also a little bit more attention to keeping the ball and being a more possession type team. Vanny was such a unique personality. What is Jesper like? I don't want to say they're complete opposites, but Vanny's a very loud, as you know, personable,

exciting, passionate kind of guy and Jesper is a little bit more calculated. He's definitely got, you know, when he's guarded down, he can be a funny, exciting and then, you know, cool guy around the locker room and around us, but he's definitely a very calculated person, very organized, you know, both in his own mind and outside. And he has a good plan. I think he's got a great vision for the game. I gotta give him credit. I was walking into something blind with being with Vani for almost five years

and Jesper's coming in and doing a great job of kind of saying, you know what, you guys have done a really good job in the last three and a half years. I'm not coming in here to blow it up and change everything. I wanna learn what you guys have done, learn how you work. And at the same time, just, just add his personal touches and adjustments to it. So it's been a really good, smooth process.

And, um, you know, I think we're in a good spot. Uh, have you spoken with Banny lately? I'm curious how he's doing. He was always so great when he came on the show. We loved that. We love talking to him and he was always so game to do it. So I'm just wondering about what he's up to and how he's doing. Yeah, he's, uh, he's waiting for the next thing.

I speak to him probably honestly, every second day. So we're in touch quite often. We had a few dinners in between our crazy preseason trips. He's in Vancouver still looking for that next opportunity. He's had a few things obviously that he's been thinking about. But he's doing fine. He's doing great. And I think he's just waiting for that next chance that fits for him. Beautiful.

Well, Mike, we want to thank you for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. Best of luck tonight, obviously, and then on Sunday as well for the home opener. Hopefully we can do this again soon. Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. Yeah. Thanks for coming on.

That's Michael D'Agostino, Whitecaps assistant coach here on the Haliford and Rough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay. We're going to talk to Drantz in about 15 minutes, but we should just talk about what's ahead for the Vancouver Canucks. There are only, Friday, March 7th, they have a game, so that would be after the trade deadline.

So there's only three games left. Man. Until the trade deadline. The trade deadline came so quickly because when the Four Nations break happened, we, I thought there was going to be a lot of like moves and tinkering and rumors coming out, but everyone was fixated on the tournament. Yeah. And now we're back and it's so, like the trade

deadline. Yeah. Was there any trades? I was watching hockey. Yeah. Oh, there might've been. Uh, so tonight, obviously the Canucks are in Anaheim to play the Ducks and then they complete

this five game road trip. Uh, well, I guess, yeah, five game road trip. Um, Saturday in Seattle against a cracking team, that isn't very good, but you know, it's the last game of a road trip and you never know what these games, um, and then they come home, they play Anaheim again on Wednesday and they actually have quite a bit of time off between, you

know, the Seattle game and the Anaheim game at home. That's when you wonder if the business is going to get done and if they're going to resign Brock better then, because they probably looked at it and been like, okay, well, look, we've got a few days there. If we need to, we just, we can really get down to business and talk to these guys and see if we can hammer out a deal.

And if we can't, well. Has your, um, predictory senses on that one changed at all? Do you think that they're going to resign them? Or do you think that they're going to trade them? Or do you think they're going to let this go past the seventh?

I would be shocked if it gets past the seventh and he's still a Canuck without a contract. Okay. I know, I know Frank suggested that, um, on our show yesterday and Frank may well be right about it. I mean, he's probably talking to more people than I am. Sure.

I'm talking to nobody. And, uh, but it would just seem like a weird move for this management to make because this management group has been so kind of like open about the fact that they're not going to do that. And this team, like, like for me, if I'm thinking about it, doesn't all the leverage then go to Brock Besser?

Yeah. It's kind of like, well, so what are you going to lose me for nothing then? Right. You're going to look pretty bad if that happens. Cause I don't know if you guys have noticed, but we're not going to be favored in the first round. Yeah. Like I don't think you could spin it as Brock being our own.

No, no. There's no chance. No. Um, you know, I think for me personally, I'm a little more pessimistic that he's going to sign just because frankly of his role right now with the team. Yeah, it's a muted role. You know.

Compared to what he's been in the past. Yeah. But I mean, that's pretty short term. I know they'll probably look at his entire body of work with the Canucks and it's an impressive body of work, but there have always been things that I've just, I've been wondering about whether, how, I think they like Brock, I don't know if they love Brock and you hear

constantly that they want to get faster. Well, he doesn't add a lot of speed. Um, they like Leckermackie and I'm not saying that Leckermache would be able to fill in for Brock Besser right away. In fact, I think that would be extremely unfair to Leckermache to give him that role of filling in for Brock Besser, but I don't think this management group is sitting here and going like, this is our year.

Last year they might've been, right? So they bring in Lindholm and they bring in Zdorov and everything's going right. And hey, you is our year. Last year they might've been, right? So they bring in Lindholm and they bring in Zdorov and everything's going right. And hey, you never know, maybe, maybe we could come out of nowhere and make a deep run or even win the cup. Nobody's thinking like that right now.

Not, not with the way things have gone, not with the way that Pedersen is playing. So for me, you're not really thinking about what kind of team you need to put together to make a run in the playoffs. You'd want to make the playoffs, I imagine. Ownership wants to make the playoffs for the revenue. But is Brock Besser at 28 years old with his skating and with the way the team is constructed right now, is he like a gotta have? No.

See, like that's the thing. It feels to me like- By the way, it kills me to say it that sharply and that definitively. I hate it. But no. So I think they're probably thinking, look, if we can get Brock for below market and if he blinks and says, fine, I'll sign this deal that's on the table for you, I know I can get more and unrestricted free agency, but I want to be here, then they'd probably say,

okay, yeah, we'll keep you. That's great. But if he's like, no, I want to get kind of what I'm worth here, they're probably going to be like, well, we need to make some changes to this team. Like this team right now is not a contender and we need to get back to that. And I don't know if keeping some of the same

core pieces is going to accomplish that. I mean, the tough thing for Besser is that his contract year came a year early, right? He scored 40 goals a year too early almost. Yeah. For leverage and negotiation sake. If you go back and look at that season last year, you're talking about a guy who was 17th in the

entire national hockey league in goals. But then he wasn't given the extension because they could have given him an extension, right? I know. And I think that probably, but it allowed. We'll see if it speaks volumes. It allowed the Canucks to kick the can down the road, which I think they were more

than happy to do on Besser, right? It was almost like, well, you did it once, we've got you on the contract for next year. Let's see if you can do it again. And the answer so far has been no. So it's Besser's speed, but it's also just the general understanding that wingers of all the positions in terms of skaters are the easiest to find, right?

Yeah. Defenceman, top four defenceman, tough to find. Centres, tough to find. And the connects are going to be focused on centres. So it doesn't, there's a lot of things that are adding up to him not resigning in Vancouver, but then again, you know, you go back to, well, what do the Canucks look like if they,

they better have a plan in place, and I'm sure they do, because there's a lot of times that, you know, moves have been made really quickly with this group, corresponding moves, right? Like this happens and then this happens right away. It's not like this management group has been one that goes, well, we'll trade away this guy and then I guess we'll find out what happens after that.

Then we'll get started on that. Because they're usually, they're usually, you know, working on a few things at the same time and we don't hear about them. The blindingly obvious answer to what the plan is, is you're gonna need to bring in some goal scoring at the deadline. I don't think that you can move Besser out

and not have a follow-up move that brings in some offense. Because right now, I mean, it's pretty thin when you're looking at that forward group and you're looking at who's going to score goals. You put Besser in that list just because there's not a lot of other guys on it that have scored in the NHL with regularity like he has. And especially, especially if you have aspirations

of doing anything in the playoffs, you're going to go back to last year and be like, he was our best goal scorer in the playoffs. Like what do you think they could get for him? You think they could get a first round pick for him as a rental? It used to be that. Yeah, you get a first round pick for him as a rental? It used to be that, yeah, you get a first round pick for a guy like that.

You could make a very compelling argument to get a first back. Yeah. Look what you're getting here, right? This management group loves to acquire first round picks and then immediately flip them for something else. So.

That's the kind of thing I could envision. Yeah. You move them out, you get that pick and it's burning a hole in your pocket. For a younger, faster winger that maybe doesn't have the body of work that Brock Besser does, but your pro scouts like. So Jeremy and Langley just texted in, Besser may not be fast, but he can play fast and think fast. I don't disagree with that, Jeremy, but I think we're trying to look at it more through the lens of what the management group sees and wants

as opposed to style of play. Cause I, you know what I look at, honestly, when they brought in O'Connor and Heedle, that's a specific profile of player that is more mobile and more straight line speed and more dangerous using their feet in a speed capacity than Besser is. And I'm like, well, that's kind of a tell that's something that they are

targeting and identifying. I mean, they really target two things. It's like guys that are bigger and faster and then two former penguins. That's what they love. Right. So if you can find one of those out there, go get them. If it's not on the penguins, then maybe it's on another team. But I think the more, more serious point there was look at those two players

and the profile of player. And that's probably what they need. Cause you were talking about this going into the season when they had made all the additions at forward, you're like, that's great. They brought in Bluger and Sherwood, not Bluger, um, Debrusk and Sherwood and a couple other guys, but they're still not really fast at forward.

Like who's their burner? You asked that question a thousand times. Yeah. And we never had an answer. And it was a, it was a good text, like who's their burner? You asked that question a thousand times. Yeah. And we never had an answer. And it was a, it was a good text, like who's pushing the defense back. And some of that is style of play and some of that is, you know, you can create speed through

the neutral zone by, by doing things like sometimes you've just got to take, take a step back to create the speed and you got to be in sync with your defense and your, your centers and your wingers and everything. And like, you can create, there are ways to create speed and there are ways certainly to, uh, not create speed, you know, like if you're not head

manning the puck, then nobody's hitting the blue line with, with speed. Like those are just kind of like basic ways of playing, which you should know at the NHL level. But in terms of just having a guy that can pick up the puck and all of a sudden, okay, so the example I would have, a perfect example of this, look what Adrian Kempé did against the Canucks last night. He picked up the puck, he lost, I think Pedersenerson was on him He shook off Pederson pretty easily and then picked up a nice pass through the neutral zone And then just like Tyler Myers was like, oh my god this guy's yeah, right like whole going to didn't slow him up through

the neutral zone and and then he hit the blue line with speed and he was able to get a good shot like that's That's the type of player that the Cocks need. And frankly, they need a couple of them. But to like Sean and Van who texted in and Jeremy and Langley and Mike from Burnaby, all pointing out the same thing, like a team that

struggles to score goals is going to trade one of the best goal scorers. Yeah. Yeah. I understand. We're not blind to that. Yeah. Yeah.

I want to make this abundantly clear. Like I understand your argument. I don't think that it's a slam dunk of a move. But if I try and go through the lens of what management and the executive is thinking, this is where I end up. I take no joy in this. The Connector's not going to give him the eight years that he probably wants.

They probably want to give him five. He probably won't want that because he can get way more on the open market. If it's eight, then the cap hit is coming down. Yeah. Well, what I'm saying is like, he's probably like, well, I know what I can get on the open market and the Cucks just aren't going to do that. So it seems like it's, that's the way it's just going to have to be.

Thomas Trance is going to join us next on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650.