Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will The Canucks Re-Sign Tocchet This Season?

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk the future of Rick Tocchet coaching the Vancouver Canucks (3:00), plus they chat with Oilers commentator Jack Michaels on Leon Draisaitl's record-setting contract signed yesterday (25:52). 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.

702 on a Wednesday What's going on here? Is this like techno and polka coming together? I think so. Swedish clap dance. The Swedish clap, right? There's a hint of Christmas in there. Yeah.

Don't you think? Tell you what you don't want to get is the Swedish clap. Can you bring it up a little bit? Let's let it breathe a little bit. See what we're working with here. Yeah, you're right. I get the techno polka vibe. Yeah. Do you hear any Christmas in there? There's a little bit, see what we're working with here. Yeah, you're right. I get the techno polka vibe. Yeah.

Do you hear any Christmas in there? There's a little bit of Christmas in there. It's jolly. Just what we were looking to hit on September 4th. Just in time for spring. We do have a bunch of texts in. People trying to convince us to be excited about the Seahawks. And I got to say, it's working a little bit.

Steve in Vancouver, Texas, and you guys are sitting there talking about how you hate watched the Seahawks last year. Well, they finally have an innovative offensive coordinator, a head coach who is an innovative defensive coordinator and will run modern day defenses and offenses. The dinosaurs are gone, throwing their first round pick, Byron Murphy. How can you not be excited for these changes? I am excited that they moved on from Shane Walton.

I don't know. Maybe I'm a dinosaur too. And I think I was really swayed by Pete Carroll because I was so skeptical when he came up. And a lot of that was because I was a Huskies fan and I hated the Trojans. And he was the head coach of the Trojans. And I always thought he was a little bit hokey.

And he was. But it worked. I mean, I watched the Seahawks win. Well, I didn't get to watch it because I was in Russia. But they won a Super Bowl. When you win a Super Bowl and you go to two Super Bowls and people can say, well, Pete Flaude didn't win the second one. He reigned over the most successful era in

Seahawks football. You can say he was hokey, but most of the players that he had bought into that vibe. I do think he lost it in the end. I think he lost the room and maybe the game passed him by, but I don't just throw him out like you know like the garbage sure you know like he he the next guy for me has to prove himself just like pete did a hundred percent i think that's part of it and like what steven vancouver wrote like i i

mean i know i know all these things like i that's kind of the issue is i'm yeah, I should be excited that there's a new coaching regime and a new identity and a new staff. And I'm actually very glad that it's Ryan Grubb. It could have been anyone other than Shane Waldron. I did not like, and I look, I've gone down the road of being on Seahawks Reddit and talking about how Smith and Jigba wasn't put in positions to succeed last year.

And they're going to change that this year. And he's going to be even more down. Like I get why I should be. I want to see Byron Murphy or sorry. Yeah. Byron Murphy play. I want to see him play too. I want to see all these things,

but I'm just not genuinely excited, but I, and I don't know why now he did, you know, Steve mentioned a lot about an innovative offensive coordinator a head coach who is an innovative defensive we'll see we'll see sure but that that does segue nicely into what we're talking about in this segment which is coaching albeit at the NHL level because of all the things that we've talked about going into this Canucks season we haven't spent a ton

of time talking about Rick Talkett as it pertains to his future, both contractual and then what the challenges are going to be for him. Again, non-contract division. After winning a Jack Adams, having a 50-win, 109-point season, the bar is real high. The bar is real high for him. He was anointed the best coach in the NHL and got a trophy for it and he had the third most successful season in connect's franchise history you know i just think as vancouver media we haven't done a good enough job um stoking the fear about rick

talkett's future in vancouver and that's on us let's not waste any more time you know that's on us here's a guy that's got one year left on his contract reportedly plus a team option after that. Lame duck. Yeah. I mean, have we lost it? Have we lost our ability to stoke fear in the fan base?

Are we not? We're talking about, we're talking about the Jack Adams winner. He's, he's got one year left on his deal and that could be just like, nope, see you later. Are we falling short of making mountains out of molehills? I mean, what are we doing? Is it us?

What are we doing? What has the station been doing this off season? I barely heard word one about Rick Tockett's contractual status. They never said if it was underrated or overrated. So are we just going to approach, like every time we talk about Tockett, so what is he going to do for the final year of his time here in Vancouver? His outgoing season, what should we expect of Tuckett this year?

Joining us now on the program, Lame Duck Head Coach Rick Tuckett joins us on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsCenter TV. So on June 5th, Tuckett did a Zoom, and I think it was about the coaching changes that the Canucks did make to his staff. And Talkit was asked about going into the final year of his contract. And he said there have been no talks, no negotiations, but he's not concerned.

And I think his exact quote was, I have a great relationship with Patrick and Jim. I'm not worried about it. I'm really honestly focused on this year. Those things will take care of themselves down the road. When there's time to talk, we'll talk. It's really about me getting myself ready, recharging my batteries, and getting ready for the upcoming year. Which brings us, fast forward, June, July, August.

We're now into September. Has there been time to talk? Yeah. Is it contract? Are your batteries all recharged and ready to go? Yeah. I mean, I would imagine that something's going to get done either in the next few weeks or the start of the regular season.

This is something. It's going to be a discussion point regardless. If something gets done, then it gets done. Like all joking aside about like stoking the flames here. Like there's no chance. There's no chance. They have then it gets done. Like all joking aside about like stoking the flames here. Like there's no chance. There's no chance. They have to get it done. There's no chance what?

They go into the season without anything getting done? Or they go like a couple games in and then they get a deal done right away. You don't want that hanging out there in the slightest. Especially since he's ticked. There's a team option. But he's ticked every single box that Rutherford and Alvin had out there. I mean, when they talked up Rick Tockett at the beginning of his tenure and the reason they made the hire.

It was all on Tockett, basically. Yeah. He's going to bring structure. Yeah. More structure. And then on top of that, a pile of structure. You'd be hard-pressed, actually, to find a lot of coaches that have lived up to the expectations and hype that the managerial group put on them coming in. Like, Tockett's got a lot of clout, got a lot of sway, and he's got the hammer in some negotiations.

Maybe he's negotiating with their words. Possibly. Right? Possibly, right? I mean, he's going to want to be compensated as one of the best coaches in the NHL, I would guess. If I won the coach of the year, I would want to be compensated as one of the best coaches in the league. But okay, hold on. There are some, and the Jack Adams can be a tricky one because oftentimes the Jack Adams winner is the guy that's dismissed like two years after winning it because the Jack Adams often goes to the guy

that has the best turnaround for a team. True. And Talkett was absolutely in that conversation. Coop has never won it. Right, because Coop had a good group of guys and he's kept them good. Yeah. Right?

This goes from boring. Yeah, like how hard is it to coach a good team? Yeah. Right? That sort of, that very stupid mentality. You turn a disaster into a playoff team that got over 100 points. That's a compelling story. But the key to long-term success and long-term employment is you have to prove that you didn't

just, you know, pull the choke chain and snap them in for 82 games. That you have developed a team that is going to be consistent like the Tampa Bay Lightning and Cooper year after year after year after year. And a lot of Jack Adams guys, they don't. Because a lot of guys come in with fire and brimstone or a lot of bluster. I don't think Todd did that, though. I don't think he did that. And I think a lot of what he did was design for long-term sustainability.

And where did he start? In a lot of ways, he started with that leadership group. And he talked about the leadership group a lot and how you're going to need the players like Quinn Hughes and JT Miller and Elias Pedersen as part of that leadership group as well. They need to do some of the lifting too. It can't just be the coach. 100%. Right? And if you go back to the AV years,

AV was a big part of the turnaround that the team had, but ultimately he handed off a lot of the responsibility to the leadership group. Because you don't want a situation where you need a coach after a bad game or a bad performance to come into the room and yell at you yeah mature teams don't need that they know right that they weren't good enough you know it's it's it's the teams that that aren't mature that that need that sometimes it's it's an interesting angle to take because we had don waddell on the show last week uh and he was talking about bringing in dean evason as the

new head coach and he said and i remember it really stuck out to me players want to be told what to do like and that and i think that's an interesting thing because they want the instruction as to what's going to make us successful in terms of structure, where we need to be, how we're going to play, where does the F1 go in this situation, all those sorts of things. What you're talking about is the part where the coach can't tell them what to do all the time. That's the motivation part of it. And that's the, are you going to have accountability in the room? Are you going to push each other? Coach can't be the leader.

Players have to be the leaders, right? So I think that's an interesting dynamic. I got a question for you. Given all that Rick Tockett achieved last year, what does Rick Tockett need to achieve this year? Well, he needs to keep winning. That's the most obvious one. He's got to fix the power play.

That would be number two on my list and i know he's going to help have some help from yogi and and the sardines but ultimately the power play is rick tockett's responsibility and he's said as much and the third one i would have is get the most out of pd that might be number one get the the most out of Petey? Power play's a challenge. Power play's a big challenge, for sure. And winning's going to be a challenge, too. Keep winning. But that might be his most difficult one,

because that might not be an X's and O's thing. That might be what we were talking about earlier, of motivating, prodding, and then helping Pedtersson figure out how to navigate, like how difficult it's going to be as a number one frontline guy that's going to draw a lot of attention from the opposition. And what we were talking about earlier with Dreisaitl,

how are you going to find a way to succeed in tough spots on the ice? Uh, I want to read a quote from Rick Talkett and this is from Drance's interview with Talkett during the off season. And, um, Drance asked him basically, you know, how do you approach getting Pedersen to a place where he can be his usual self going into this season with the understanding that he was not his usual self at the end of the regular season and into the playoffs. And Taka said, with Pedersen, the year and a half that we've worked together, it's about building the relationship and the trust. He's a great kid to work with and he's a very confident kid, but there's some knowledge that I have for him. Things that he has to understand he has to do if he wants to be a top player.

I think he realizes that after last year. Saying that, he does a lot of great things for us. He took a bullet because sometimes he played with a rotating cast of wingers. That was just the way our team was going. It was nobody's fault and for the most part, he kept his mouth shut in the sense that he just played. I give him a lot of respect for that.

He goes on to say that he wouldn't mind if person once in a while just came into his office and said, Hey, I want, I want to try this, or I want to play with these guys, or I think it can do this. And then he says, and then make sure that if you do ask for things, it's not so much that you make sure you deliver, but you make sure

you do the right things. That's all. Yep. There is a sense, and I've heard it from multiple sources, that Pedersen is sometimes tough to get to. Like, I don't want to say he just wants to be left alone,

but he doesn't actively reach out for help. Yeah. And that includes going to the Sedins, which you would think, and maybe this is silly, they're both Swedish or they're all Swedish, you know, I mean,

that's kind of silly, but, um, you know, I don't, I don't think he, I don't think he uses that much from what I've been told. And I,

and, and I, I think there's some, some, some, some interesting ways that talk it delivered that message and then make sure that if you do ask for things, it's not so much that you make sure you deliver, but you make sure you do the right things. What, like, what does that mean? That's a little bit cryptic. It is. Um, okay. I'm going to go down a road. I'm not trying to compare the situations at all. I coached soccer for a long time,

and I did have a guy come up to me once. He was a very good player, but he was very quiet and not demonstrative in the slightest. And during a time when we were losing, he just came up to me and he said, stop playing me up front. Play me out wide on the left and it didn't suggest it and didn't demand it but just said this is what you should do yeah

in a very interesting way because it was a very short and direct right i remember thinking okay it holds more gravitas if you will because the guy never says anything so the fact that he's saying it and then and it worked when we did it. He played better. It opened things up. And I remember asking him later, like, well, why didn't you say anything earlier? And he said, well, it wasn't my spot to say anything.

I'm not the coach. And so it was interesting because the guy was a very talented player. And if he had said anything, anyone would have listened because he was really good. And he had that kind of like clout within the team and it wasn't because he was aloof or he didn't like to like it had nothing to do with his personality he just he felt like a team worked in a certain way and that's where he slotted in right i understand what you're saying yeah and i i do wonder sometimes like sometimes you think you're doing. Yeah. And I do wonder sometimes,

like sometimes you think you're doing the right thing by taking a step back and like, I don't want to be the guy that's going to demand a place somewhere. I don't want to be the guy that's going to complain about the players I'm playing with. All the Canucks offseason signings are because PD is fine. Like, can I have some wingers, please?

Well, that's the thing. It could go both ways. Give me a couple wingers. If you go into the room and be like, I told the coach where I want to play, one coach might be like, son, I like your moxie. I like your chutzpah. I love it.

You came in here and you told me what you wanted. Another coach might be like, you loudmouth son of a. Let's go talk about this in my office. You must never do this again. Who do you think you are coming into my office telling me where you want to play? Right? And it's a totally risky thing.

And it all comes down to it. But I think Talkett has been banging. You should ask Bonus what he would do. Don't you think Talkett? Seriously, man. The guy would be like, I respect the honesty. Don't you think Talkett has been banging that drum that he wants to hear more from Pedersen for a long time? I'm sure it's different with every player, right?

He's probably like, JT, don't come into my office and tell me who you want to play with. Again. I know who you want to play with, okay? Please raise your hands. JT, put your hand down. I've received your texts, and I've read them. I get it! You have nine unread messages from JT Miller. Remember when

they were trying to decide on a captain, and it was almost like they were having a contest. And it was, at the end of the day, it was really easy, I think, for them to make the decision between Hughes and Pettersson. It wasn't even a contest. And you would hear her talk and say, like, Quinn has been good.

He's been louder in the room. He's been speaking up more because he's shown that he wants to take over and not take over, but have more influence on the team. Pedersen's still a working project. Yeah, and I think there's an element of you can push a guy to be – it's such a balancing act. You can push a player to be something that they're not, but you can't get them to abandon who they

are does that make any sense what i just said like you got to change something but then there are also some non-negotiables sure that's it i mean no it's difficult you want to do this this is the way we play this is the playoffs and it gets hard so figure it out but this is the tough part about coaching because you know when we talk to all these guys, the one thing they say is like, you have to develop relationships with every single player. Gone is the guy that comes in and is like, there's one set of rules for everybody. You know, this is the way I'm going to approach every single player. I remember Travis Green talked about it and he said it was mostly from his time in junior. Like you learn to talk to each guy individually and figure out what makes them tick a little bit more as opposed to an old school coach that was like, here's the rules.

The bus leaves at eight. Make sure you're on it. That sort of thing. Okay. I want to read a few texts here from, I like this. Me, the me guy. Okay. He's all about himself.

This guy. Selfish. Texting and said, Rutherford said when they took over that they don't sign coaches until their contracts are up. Sullivan in Pittsburgh won a cup on his last contractual season, then got signed. I've heard that too. Maybe that's how they operate. Maybe that will be revisited when everyone does their media in a few weeks.

There was another one who, Todd has bad texts in. As mindset leaders in this sports market, please decide which issue we are going to focus our panic on. I just spent the last few weeks stressing out about injured goaltenders, and now you drop coaching panic on us? What the hell, guys? Focus.

Here, I'll throw one at you. If that's the way that Rutherford operates, sometimes you can get burned that way. Do you remember when Barry Trotz won a Stanley Cup with Washington and they didn't have a contract done for him? And then he was like, see you later. Yeah.

I'm out. This is a two-way street. And a lot of it, the conversation when, is a coach going to get a new contract? It's always, will the team give him a new contract? It's a giving of a contract. What about the accepting of a contract? When it comes to Rick Tockett?

Yeah. Again, I... He might have options. Yeah. I bet there's He might have options. Yeah. I bet there's probably not a price. I'm sure there's a price to it, but there's probably not a price too high. Because this is Rutherford and Alvien's guy.

Right? I mean, that's what I'm saying. We were joking earlier about stoking the flames and stoking the fire, but the reason I'm having such a hard time doing it is I don't envision a world where this isn't signed, sealed, and delivered because of what the executive has put in place.

They wanted Talkett. They wanted Talkett from the moment they came in. You know who they didn't want? Bruce Boudreaux. They wanted a guy that was going to be almost the polar opposite of Boudreaux when they came aboard. Well, if I was Rick Talkett,

then I would respond by saying, then re-sign me. Yeah, and they will. And they're going to give him a lot of money. But you know, Rutherford has a bit of an ego himself. Sure. And he might say, well, that's not how I operate. Yeah.

I mean, they're going to need to get this done. Like, again, if you want to go through- At the very least, just be like, hey, Rick, we're thinking of you. Just throwing this out there. We're not going to do it now. But we like the way you're operating. We'll touch base. Just do a little thing like that. Just reach out to the guy. Just say now, but we like the way you're operating. We'll touch base. You know, just do a little thing like that.

Just reach out to the guy. Just say, hey, we like you. If you want to go through. This is just another storyline to look forward to at training camp. It's one of the things. We joke about stoking panic, but well, not really. It's good for ratings, but. Yeah.

Ha ha, joking. Ha ha. It is one of the things that we'll talk about going into camp. And if, um, Talk It wants an extension, then that'll be a story. But if Rutherford and Alvin don't operate that way, then, you know, you're going to

have a, you're going to have an interesting situation there. I can't wait till they're all up on the table together, or behind a table, not on the table dancing. They're sitting on the table. Yeah, dancing on it. Wow. Well, okay, here.

But do you remember last year? Yours truly went in there and got the quote of the preseason. Are you doing that again this year? If everything goes 100% – No, he's going to live on last season. I actually don't think I will. No, you've got to. If everything goes 100% – No, he's going to live on last season. I actually don't think I will. No, you've got to. If everything goes 100% right, then I think we're a playoff team, right?

Yeah. So that's what we're going to get. We're going to get those three guys probably up there together. It'll be Tockett, Rutherford, and Alveen. Maybe it'll just be Tockett and Alveen, but it's always interesting when the powers that be come together at the beginning of the season and kind of set the agenda for the year.

Bruf, you owe it to the market, to the fan base, to the listeners to go in there and get an even juicier tidbit, even a juicier quote. You got to up yourself. You know what I'm going to do? The pressure's on, man. Just to give a perspective. You got a reputation to maintain here.

It's got to be a PD question, doesn't it? Yeah, you only show up for one. What's wrong with that guy? You only show up for one press conference all year. You only ask one question and it's just a firestorm. Although this year I'm just going to be like I have a question about the PK. It wasn't as spicy as we thought it was going to be.

Before we go to break, just so you understand, we were talking about the Jack Adams winners and a couple people texted him. So Talk It won it last year. The winner prior to him was Jim Montgomery, still the head coach of the Boston Bruins, right? Okay. Before him, Daryl Sutter won it with the Calgary Flames.

So he's obviously no longer there. Prior to that, Brendamore with the Hurricanes. Yep. Prior to that, Bruce Cassidy with the Boston Bruins, of course, no longer there as well. Before him, Barry Trotz with the Islanders. He's gone. Prior to that, Gerard Gallant with the Vegas Golden Knights.

He's gone. Like, go down the list, right? It is tough. They're like – coaches are like politicians. They are fresh-faced one year, and then, you know, the stuff adds up. The Jack Adams can be a double-edged sword because you could be on top of the world because you're anointed as the best coach in the NHL.

Tuck made a classic mistake. He raised the bar successfully, but then that means it raised the bar for him. Yeah. When you raise the bar organizationally, see, that's a mistake that the Halford & Brough show has never made. Not once. Don't raise the bar organizationally. See, that's a mistake that the Halford & Brough Show has never made. Not once. Don't raise the bar.

Then you've got to leap over it. Time after time after time. Keep the bar low, man. Set your expectations as low as possible. You can just shuffle over it eventually. We're like a high jump competition that never goes anywhere. The bar just stays the same. This Texan, maybe they can give our talk at a piece of paper that says,

Rick, we like you. Do you, check mark, like us? Maybe like us? Don't like us. Y or N. Just circle one. Who would be the go-between there? Who would be the class gossip that would go back and forth with the piece of paper and really enjoy it?

Who would it be? Quinn? I think maybe Miller. Miller's always involved. I think he would like it. Just to know that he's disturbing things. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season.

Get your tickets now at bclions.com. Coming up, we're going to go to Edmonton. Jack Michaels, play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers, is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers is going to join us next on the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50. You know,

players like Leon are special. Like it's just, there's, there's not many people in the world that can play hockey like he does. And, um, you know, there's,

there's no way we could ever replace what Leon brings to the table. So he's a huge part of our team. He has been, and he will continue to be. And for me, it was never a question. Certainly there's going to be challenges in the future, but that's for us to figure out down the road. 733 on a Wednesday, Halpert Brough, Sportsnet 650.

That voice you just heard, that of Oilers General Manager Stan Bowman. Talking about the deal that Leon Dreisaitl signed yesterday to extend eight years, eight more years in Edmonton, as Dreisaitl said, he'll be an Oiler for life. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in 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,

be it sales, financing, service, or parts. For more on the dry saddle extension, we go to the phone lines now. Jack Michaels, play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Jack. How are you? Morning. You guys tracked me up. I heard it. Don't pretend the tone wasn't there he wants to spend eight more years in edmonton classic bc attitude right there i heard it you

know you guys are you guys are really like crowing about dry saddle choosing to stay in edmonton. And the rest of Canada is saying, oh my God, he's going 84 years in Edmonton. Imagine the humanity. How is he going to do it? How is he going to live?

You know, I get it. It's a little provincial rivalry. I understand. Well, we love it. Well, one, I'm glad that you pointed this out

because the rivalry is so back, right? It's great and it's perfect and feuding back and forth. Yes. You know what? Let's try and call Jack.

My voice is coming through on the call there. Do you want to drop the call and try and call him back? We'll try and get a better connection there. That's Jack Michaels from Edmonton. You could hear that, right? Yeah, there's a big echo. My voice is coming back on the back. Yeah, I think he might be on speakerphone.

Don't need to hear you twice. No, once is enough. Sometimes that's even too much meat seeker you guys hear that at the break uh you know so there's two there was two takeaways yesterday in listening to all the media coverage of the dry cellar contract and what was what jack was talking about is everyone at edmonton is like see he chose to stay and everyone's like why would he do that but the other one was um and spec phrase that is like the canary in the coal mine, that everyone was wondering what would happen. Because Drysaddle was the first, and then McDavid would be the second, right?

And now that Drysaddle's there, everyone's just- Isn't the canary in the coal mine usually a bad thing? Like the canary's dead? It's supposed to be foreboding. Oh, my God. What happened to that canary? I guess if the canary lives, it's a good thing. Right.

So it's not always foreboding. We're going to try again here with Jack Michaels, play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers. Sorry about that, Jack. We had a bad connection. We've got you now. You got me? Yeah, we got you.

And this sounds better now, too, which is good. So let's just start with the reaction that we were talking about. It was twofold for me. One was everyone was saying, like, not only are great players wanting to stay at Edmonton, but now guys are coming here to try and win a cup. And the other one, and, you know, we were talking about Speck mentioned this in his stand-up yesterday. This sort of sets the table.

The inevitability, I suppose, that Connor McDavid will soon follow suit with a similar deal next summer to stick in Edmonton as they try and chase the Stanley Cup. Well, I certainly think yesterday's developments made that a more likely scenario you know in all seriousness I think what people I think what people sometimes you know with all the jokes about the weather and and everything you know fail to understand is if you really like break down number one I'm in the summer here the summers here are great number two you know in the winter time you know you're traveling half the time including a week and a half you know in the in the dead of the season where a lot of guys get away to places like tabo

and stuff like that and when you're here you're insulated in a, you know, a hockey kind of environment. So I think for the, I think for certain hardcore guys who also, like me, I mean, I always wonder, to be candid, like when I'm in Hawaii and I, you know, talk to everyone and everyone from either Orange County or L.A., I start thinking, well, where else would they go on vacation? The nice thing about Edmonton is in the winter, like, you've got a lot of choices that are all better, right? You know, I mean... I'm sorry, I'm laughing. Is the sell job, come to Edmonton.

You don't always have to be here. You'll appreciate your vacation even more. Well, you know, I think, to be honest with you, when you're a hockey player, you know, the hardcore guys, I don't know, I mean, to be honest with you, when you're a hockey player, you know, the hardcore guys, I don't know. I mean, some of them don't like going to the rink and flip-flops. You know, I've overheard comments from our guys over the years, that would be weird, you know, to show up.

You know, I mean, just, you know, it just depends on what you're all about. You know, and you're right. I mean, there's so many different ways to look at it, but I just think when you have the core guys, especially if you're an offensive player playing on a predominantly offensive team or a team known for its offense, you know, the good ice, the good players around you, you know, a good ice, the good players around you, you know, a lot of guys want to be here. You know, I think if they weren't a good team,

then Edmonton's going to have a hard time. I don't remember a lot of free agents flocking to the Oilers in 2012 and 2013, but when you get McDavid and Dreisaitl on your team, you know, all of a sudden Zach Hyman wants to come. Victor Arvidsson will take a flyer, and Adam Henrik will take a below-market deal. You know, Jeff Skinner will do the same thing, hungry to get to the playoffs. I mean, it's not all about the city all the time. It has to be, especially for a veteran team,

with veteran guys, with veteran free agents, do you have a chance to win? And guys like Adam Henrique and Jeff Skinner, who've gone a decade without even seeing the playoffs, let alone winning a championship, Edmonton looks pretty damn good. So there's more than just you don't have to be here or what the weather is or it's fun to play in a hockey market. I do think they've built something here, and it starts with McDavid and Drysaddle. So if the question is, did Edmonton's hopes of getting McDavid back out of the fold

rise incrementally with yesterday's signing, you're damn right it did. Jack, I know you've got limited time here but maybe you could answer this in just a just a few minutes what is the biggest challenge now that dry cell is signed and let's assume that mcdavid will resign too what is the biggest challenge for stan bowman to get the team over the hump? Well, I think you're going to have to at some point bring in or develop some prospects that will even out this team's core a little bit because it's amazing how quickly Edmonton has gone from a young and up-and-coming club as recently as two years ago to the oldest team in the league.

I mean, that's how quickly that can change. And if you're going to extend the championship window, even with McDavid and Dreisaitl on your team, you're going to need more players coming in on entry-level deals or younger prospects that might work out from other organizations, put Colson being an example, and I know there's going to be some raised eyebrows as soon as I bring that up, but those are the kind of things that are going to have to pan out for Edmonton

to extend this championship window from three or four years to six or seven because it can turn around quickly. I think it was the 2016 Chicago Blackhawks that won the Western Conference, were out the first round, and next year weren't within 10 points of the playoffs. It can flip quickly. And the key to not letting your team get too long in the tooth is to have those inexpensive, younger, cheaper players arrive and contribute and fill out the roster around the foundational pieces that you're going to have, you know, for much of the next four or five years. And it's not just McDavid and Dreissel I'm talking about. It's Hyman, it's Nugent Hopkins hopkins it's nurse they're all going to be in their mid 30s

in the next few years so you better have some guys in their mid 20s coming up and not just you know occupying a spot on the roster but actually contributing jack i know you're up against it for time thanks for squeezing in a hit this morning we really appreciate it uh enjoy the rest of the day and the rest of the time off and enjoy the start of the regular season when it gets underway. You bet, guys. Always a pleasure, no matter how many passive-aggressive

undercut total comments you make. It's our way here. It's how we manage living in this unaffordable city. See you, guys. See you, Jack. Thanks, buddy. That's Jack Michaels, play-by-play voice of the Edmonton Oilers, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

I just love the idea that the negotiating with Leon is like, okay, so half the season you are on the road. You don't always have to be in Edmonton. There are a lot of great markets that we get to visit, like Winnipeg. Okay, there is – so I'm going'm gonna text in new edmonton sign edmonton one beautiful city that is also affordable so you can travel and vacation to get out of this godforsaken dump edmonton you'll other part of it is that there have been a number of players that and that have fled not edmonton but various markets i mean

i think the most sure the most glaring one was kachuk right oh i think back to Pronger. Right. But most recently. Recently, you mean? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And here's the thing. Everyone says, oh, Matthew Kachuk chose, you know, he didn't like the cold and he didn't like the endless winters. Yes, but he also picked a pretty good hockey team. Like they were ready to compete. They were ready to contend. They had really good players.

He didn't choose a terrible team in Florida. He chose a really good team in Florida and he won a Stanley cup. There is something to be said for what dry saddle did yesterday in that he probably took a look around and him and his agent probably saw what else was out there. And they probably thought a few things. One, you're going to get a hundred plus million dollars from anybody yeah everyone's gonna pay you the money so take

that off the board could you get a little bit more money sure but you're probably gonna get a lot of money here then it comes down to well what's really fundamentally important to you and as hokey as this sounds the guy did choose winning because if you were to look at it right now i challenge anyone listening or anyone in the studio to say that edmonton doesn't have the best shot in the western conference of winning a stanley cup right now um i i hate saying it but they were one way they were one goal they were they were right there last year i mean there's teams that i wonder about vegas and Colorado and Dallas and Vancouver even. I wonder about all of them for sure.

But if you were to ask. I think the odds makers would probably agree with you. I don't know what the odds are. I'm sure the Panthers are the favorites. No, for the West. No, I'm talking about the Stanley Cup. You know, I would even put the Oilers ahead of the Panthers given the departures that they had. They've been weakened, right?

That's what he chose. And he said it yesterday. I think he said, like, you know, he talked about the insular little thing that they built with the players. And I think that was probably a nod to, like, yeah, it's not the greatest city in Alberta. I was going to say in the world. It's not the greatest.

In northern Alberta. Yeah was going to say in the world. In northern Alberta. The top half. Come to Edmonton. It's not Fort McMurray. Yeah. I think that there's something to be said

for the fact that he just looked at it and he's like, I want to win. That's what it came down to because it had to work both ways. Dreis mcdavid sort of had to have the nod across the table like okay you ready to do this you ready to commit to this for eight more years because that's what's happening that's that's the only way they're going to win like the the audio that we played from bowman uh and i'm not sure because it was kind of and he didn't even need to be there was no heavy headheadedness either, right?

Who? With Dreisaitl. Do you remember when Petey was being convinced to sign, there was a little bit of leverage used by the Canucks, according to reports. The Oilers had zero leverage. Right, none. Bowman said, he's like, we can't replace Dreisaitl.

He said he's a very unique hockey player, and he actually said there's very few people on the planet that can play hockey like he can. When you say that, you basically said, like, here's your blank check. Please don't make it too painful. And he didn't. He could have taken the full 20% of the cap, and he didn't. Two things. Number one, I love it

when people text in to the show and say things like, well, why wouldn't you choose Edmonton? Housing is so affordable there. How big a house do you need wouldn't you choose Edmonton? Housing is so affordable there. How big a house do you need? He could buy Edmonton at this point if he wanted. They're not making 80 grand a year. He could just be like, I want.

He's making a lot of money. He could go to Edmonton and just like go to the mayor or whatever. He's like, I want to buy your whole city. And they'd be like, fine. You got more than enough money number two it's a great rivalry because the stereotypes of edmonton the stereotype of edmonton versus the stereotype of vancouver is perfect and i know a lot of people were really upset by what frank had to say about vancouver during the playoffs last year and how he described Edmonton as this blue-collar city.

And Vancouver, there's a lot of, you know, look at me and look at how much money I have. I know a lot of people who were in Vancouver were upset because they're like, well, that's not how I am. That's not how my friends are. Go drive around. Yeah. Vancouver is a lot like that.

Go look around. We're like the supercar capital of the world I think there's more McLarens here than there are in Dubai there is that element of the cities even though geographically they're not

worlds apart they're in the same country we both have a passion for hockey we're very different cities. I went at it with Oilers fans on Twitter quite a bit. It's fun. But you have to keep it fun. There's always that spaz out there that's like

I'm going to kill you. I'm like oh god. Tone it down. I will say the number one trip that I got was enjoy paying your crazy high rent and every time I was like oh he got me. Right. Because he's right. Exactly. Like, oh, that one stinks.

Well, they know it too, right? Right. They know it too. I've told this story a few times, but I'll tell it again. When we went to Edmonton during the pandemic, because we couldn't go to Mexico because we didn't want to get stuck down there with a positive test. And the girl was very excited about going somewhere where it was cold and there was going to be snow.

And we landed the plane in Edmonton and the girl looks outside. There's snow on the ground. A lot of it's brown because it's the airport. And she says, it's a winter wonderland. There were a lot of people on that flight that thought she was being like a sarcastic, spoiled Vancouver girl. Oh, wow. Right?

There had to have been. Wasn't she like 10? Yeah, but can you imagine? Can you imagine? It's a winter wonderland. We know what Edmonton is and it ain't a winter wonderland. Shut up.

The first word was right. The second word, less so. Okay, we got a text in here. Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. If you want to weigh in, 650-650 is the number. Also, if you want to try and win four-packet tickets to see the Canadians in playoff baseball action, Northwest playoff action next week, it's a Tuesday against Spokane.

We're giving away a four-packet tickets to the best of what we learned. Keefe. That's not Keefe. A lot of people in the inbox as well asking about this Meat Seeker app. Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute. Keefe writes in. So McDavid is getting like $17 million, eh? Oof.

Keefe. I'm not sure. I don't know what McDavid. So the last deal that McDavid signed, the eight-year $100 million contract, much was made of the fact that he didn't go for the max. And that apparently his agent, who I'll remind you, was at the time Jeff Jackson, who now works for the Edmonton Oilers,

said Conor could get whatever amount of money he wants. We're pretty cognizant of that. Conor's current deal is under-marked. Yeah. He took less than he could have got. Yeah. He's on $12.5 million. The fact that Conor McDevitt

is not the highest paid player in the NHL at all times is hilarious to me. He should be, right? That's just a given. But at times, it's like the quarterback thing in the NFL. Remember that 12-minute window where Kirk Cousins was the highest paid?

It happens. You can't do anything about it. You just have to wait your turn. But the idea that the Oilers shouldn't keep both those guys, I always roll my eyes at that. You can't really overpay McDavid or Dreisaitl. As long as those guys perform,

they're worth every penny. The problem you get is when you overpay someone like Darnell Nurse. That's exactly right. When you pay a guy to perform at the highest level and he performs at the highest level, it's mutually beneficial. You know what I mean?

It's when a guy starts becoming identified by his contract. Like that's the thing. No one ever brings up Conor McDavid's cap. Half the people don't even know what it is. It's like whatever you pay him is fine. Yeah. And Dreisaitl's in that category. And that's why they're you know they're

a favorite to i mean i don't know there was always that narrative in pittsburgh that the penguins were never going to win the cup with gino and sid and i guess you throw letang and maybe even flurry in there making as much money as they did and And for a while, that narrative looked to be true, but we all know it was ridiculous and it wasn't true. What needed to happen was for them to make some really smart moves and for them to develop some youth down on the farm that could come up and contribute. And that's where you had guys like, you know,

Brian Rust or Connor Sherry sherry yeah and then you made some nice trades you got some guys at um barga basement levels you bring in phil kessel essentially built that entire um line and this is jim rutherford's work here with hagglin who they got from anaheim maybe and then then Bonino, which they got for Vancouver because they realized that Brandon Sutter was going to need a new deal and they couldn't afford to pay him. So they brought in Bonino,

who was on a much more affordable contract. At that point, they make him the 3C and they made it work. It's efficiency. It's not about the star players. You pay the star players as long as they perform right and the funny part is the only place that it hasn't worked is toronto the only place it hasn't worked everywhere else it's pretty it's it's pretty much like chicago paid cane and taves

they made 10 million and and they won um did they but did they ever win a cup when those guys were at their their biggest contracts i don't know i think they won the one did they ever win a cup when those guys were at their biggest contracts? I don't know if they did. I think they won the one in 2015. But I got to double check on that. Double check on that. But point being, those guys were the two highest. But they found value elsewhere.

They found value in Duncan Keith. Well, that was a long-term contract that they signed. But they also found value in, do you remember, it wasn't the same goalie. No. They found value in Corey Crawford. The Kings found value in Jonathan Quick before those guys got paid the big money.

You just got to find value somewhere, whether that's a trade for someone who has, you know, Phil Kessel had depreciated a little bit in Toronto. You bring him into a place where he doesn't have to be the man. Yeah. And he's a very effective player. Maybe it's with young players, and that's why jack is

talking about they got to find some younger players like and they do and the reason i bring up toronto is like matthews again i don't there's probably not a number you could pay him he scored 70 goals last year like it's remarkable right like you pay marner i'm regular season mitch marner you pay whatever the price i mean he scores a bunch of points and he's a selkie candidate where they ran into problems, I think, was that they tried to extend that philosophy too far and that they paid Tavares like one of those guys.

And in the end, that ended up being a deal that really hamstrung them. But you're right. You pay your star players and then you're efficient elsewhere. And that's the recipe for success. We're up against it for time. I'm getting yelled break in my ear. We got a lot more to get to in the final hour of the program. Very excited to talk to our next guest.

Coming up at 8 o'clock, longtime NHL coach Rick Bonas is going to join us on the program. Got a lot of things to talk to Rick about over the course of his career, which spanned nearly four decades in the National Hockey League. And then at 8.30, we're going to dive into the Dunbar-Limmer text message in basket for some What We Learns. A reminder, the best what we learned today. Hashtag it WWL and put a ticket emoji

into your text. You will be entered into the contest to win a four-pack of tickets to see the Vancouver Canadiens in Northwest League baseball playoff action against Spokane next Tuesday, September 10th at Nat Bailey. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.