Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will The Canucks Trade The 15th Overall Pick?

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the NHL draft lottery results and if the Canucks might trade their 15th overall pick (3:00), plus they chat with Sports 1440 Edmonton's Jason Gregor (26:14), who sets up tonight's Oilers v Golden Knights playoff matchup. 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.

You know, I get it. They missed calls, but clearly a penalty. Hopeful for Anthony and his help. I love that guy and hope he gets better real fast. Seven o'clock on a Tuesday, happy Tuesday everybody, Halford Brough Sportsnet 650. Quite the musical selection. Explains the first half of this first hour of the show doesn't it? It's in that trumpet go. A couple coaches talking about a very serious and significant head injury.

We're coming through with the clown car music. The anger from the Toronto fan base right now on social media is one of the bonuses of a player getting injured. It's true. Silver linings everybody. I hope Stolarz is okay because he's been very good for the Leafs, but it is really funny to try and see Toronto

fans concoct these like conspiracy theories too. It's like, you're the center of the hockey universe. Now granted, you're a Canadian team and we all know Gary Bettman doesn't want Canadian teams to win. So he probably, uh, texted the department of player safety and said, by, by no means should Sam Bennett be suspended for that play, that if there was no injury, there's no way there would have been a suspension.

Should we also point out that the assistant general manager of the Florida Panthers is none other than Gregory Campbell. Just throwing it out there. Just throwing it. Got any more conspiracies? Fuel on the fire right now. I mean, did anyone else notice that Matthew Kachak was not suspended in round one for his questionable hit? Yeah.

He wants these Sunbelt teams to continue to do well because Gary Bettman is only thinking about his legacy right now. Is he not set to retire in the not too distant future? Where do you go for retirement? Florida. Is he not a lizard person? Don't play the music. We've gone too far.

You are listening to the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Breff of the Morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help. With over 3,000 five-star reviews, visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program. Hour two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk 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 them online at Jason.mortgage. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step. So prior to the break, Jason threw out the question in light of the Vancouver Canucks securing the

15th overall selection at this year's draft, in a world, in a future where they actually make the pick, we thought it'd be worth asking a question along the lines of, do you feel more of a connection with players who are both drafted and developed by the Vancouver Canucks. Okay, so I'm gonna go through a bit of background here before we start answering people's texts.

I love background. Okay, I was thinking, you know how sometimes we think of funny slogans for the Canucks? I would say here's a funny one. The Vancouver Canucks, in for a penny, in for a pound. You know, I've never understood that saying. Can you explain it to me? It's got math and money, neither of which I'm good with.

Humor works better when the audience isn't dumb. Are we talking about the English pound, the currency? Yeah, yeah. So if you're in for a little bit, then you might as well be in for all of it. Ah. You know? That makes more sense. God, you're dumb.

I am neither financially literate nor regular literate. A crazy stat that Thomas Drantz included on his latest piece in The Athletic, the Canucks have only selected in the first or second round three times since 2020. in a round three times since 2020. They ended up with Willander, Lekkerimaki, and Klumovic was the second round pick. Right. A few years ago. Now there were some quality picks elsewhere,

including DPT in the third round, but it would be nice at some point to get a larger pool of prospects, especially the blue chippers but maybe that's what they'll get anyway if Hughes doesn't resign and they're forced to rebuild ah ah ah just kidding they'll probably keep trading away picks another stat the Canucks have a minus six pick differential since 2020 so what does that mean well you get seven picks a year, right? Yeah.

So if you add it all up, they are at minus six since 2020. That's not good. They haven't drafted more than the allotted seven since 2009, which means they actually acquired a surplus in 2009. And it's possible, if look at the draft that they don't get a single NHL player from the 2020 and 2021 drafts combined. Now by itself, this isn't necessarily necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes trading picks for established players is the right move. But when you find yourself in the position that Canucks are currently, and

you look back on the last few years and see one postseason series victory, clearly the strategy has not penned out. You can look back and be like, yeah, it probably wasn't working with it. Maybe there was another method to build this team. Um, at this point, I do want to go into the Dunbar lumber text line and, and, and read some of some of your, your quest, some of your texts.

Um, now this is an interesting one unsigned if on read some of your texts. Now this is an interesting one, unsigned. If on balance they feel Quinn Hughes is not going to stay, they should just make the pick this year. They cannot cut corners and hope. If they are sure he will resign, then fine, trade the pick. Greg and Ladd Watson, it would be disappointing to lose Hughes, but it's never too late to start doing things the right way. I want to see this team build something and continuing to purge futures is not the

way we need to keep the pick and also keep our best youth. I mean, that's something that we brought up a few times, but I feel like doesn't get discussed enough. If you're Quinn Hughes, do you want to resign with a team that has empty cupboards in the prospect group? Right? Like it's all well and good. And I know we're all such short-term thinkers.

Um, and well, certainly the Canucks have been. So you're kind of like, yeah, well, the Canucks right now need a few forwards for their top six, especially a top six centre. And they don't have many assets that they can trade. So Patrick Alveen and Jim Rutherford have made no secret of this. And Ian McIntyre wrote an article that you can read at sportsnet.ca.

And Ian, I guess asked Patrick Alveen recently like, okay, is this first round pick in play? And Alveen told him, I think those are the options that I'm discussing with Jim. Based on where some of the conversations go with other teams, if we feel that we could impact our team in certain boxes right away, right away, then I definitely think that that would be something we have more in depth conversations about. That is a very Patrick Alveen quote, and I will

paraphrase it for you. Yes, we are thinking about trading away this first round draft pick. So it's interesting because the minus pick differential that you alluded to is a big deal. So the other day, um, I don't even know how this ended up on my feed. I guess it's not that big of a stretch cause it's sports, but there was an interview that, um, Baltimore Ravens executive, Eric DeCosti is their general

manager. He did it about the NFL draft. It's like an hour and a half long sit down. It's kind of like a hybrid interview slash podcast because of its length. And he talks about his philosophy in the draft because the Ravens have done a really great job of drafting and developing.

And he said, what you need to remember is that all of us at the draft, we're all trying to accomplish the same thing. We're all looking at the same players. We're all trying to land the same thing, which is good football players. That's at the end of the day. You might have different profiles, but he said,

there's no one going way off the board in the NFL draft. Everyone, first and second round picks kind of has the same idea of who they want, right? Maybe you'll get a bit of a reach, but other people know the player that you're taking. It's not like you're taking anything on the left field. He said the only rational approach where you can guarantee any level of success is to pick more. Take more swings, land more players, give yourself a higher chance. Because there's no guaranteeing that if you draft, let's say you draft first overall and you draft

draft 25th overall, no one can tell you definitively that the number one pick is going to hit with a higher likelihood than the number 25 pick. The numbers suggest that it will, but there's not a scout alive despite all of them that suggest that they can. They can tell you that it will, but there's not a scout alive despite all of them that suggest that they can. They can tell you that it's a hundred percent going to work out. So when you hear that, and I think you agree with that sentiment, now what do you think about the Canucks getting nothing for Brock Besser or Pugh Suiter at the trade deadline and then missing the playoffs anyway? Pretty big miss, pretty big miss, pretty big gaffe. Especially from a management group

who in the past has made it very public and very definitively clear that they don't do that. They don't let assets walk for nothing. They don't let UFAs go to term and then say, you know, we appreciate all the things you did here, but not only are we not resigning you, we're getting nothing in return for you. I can live with moving the first round picks

to bolster the active roster so long as you're backfilling with picks. Because the Dacosta approach does make sense to me. He had a, the analogy I don't think was perfect, but he said, imagine you go to a restaurant with 20 of your buddies and you're all excited to try this restaurant because it's new and it's hip and it's cool and there's fancy lights I don't know. Anyway so chances are when you look at the menu you and your 20 buddies are probably not going to order 20 different things.

You're probably going to order three or four things that look really good or, you know, whatever. Like if you're with my buddies, everyone's getting a steak, right? 20 steaks, line them up. No one's ordering the vegetarian option. Everyone's getting steak. So he kind of likened that to the draft process. Like ideally, if you want to get the full scope of what the restaurant has to

offer, you'd either need more trips to the restaurant, right? You'd have to go back. I'll try it. Maybe I will try the Ratatouille next time. Or you need an even larger group. Either way, the idea is volume matters in these moments. So if the Canucks aren't going to draft high, fine. Rob Peter to pay Paul at the high end, but you got a backfill with prospects. And even if it has a 5% chance of hitting 5% is a greater percentage than zero. Yeah. That's math.

That's math. That's Alfred math right there. I'd rather have more for picks in the first and the second round. Right. But let's, but we also need to acknowledge that that might be a pipe dream because. Well, it shouldn't be a pipe dream for a team

that continually misses the playoffs. However. Uh, Trembas and Cilowak, uh, I feel that I have a better relationship with players the Canucks have drafted and developed in house. But my God, how that relationship can turn toxic when they get paid and stop playing well. Not speaking of anyone in particular, I do think

there's more of a relationship between fans and the players that are drafted and developed. You see them come in at 18 years old. You see them go through their various, um, development, whether that's, uh, going back to junior or going back to college, or maybe in some cases coming right away to the team, uh, too back to college or maybe in some cases coming right away to the team too early in some cases.

Sure. You know, Tremvitz does make a good point about what happens when players underperform after there has been a relationship built. I mean, the same thing happened to, I guess, a lesser extent with a guy like Jake Furtanen. Oh, shotgun Jake. Those were fun days.

And then that didn't turn very well and Jake ended up blocking me on Twitter. Decided it was fun. So, and the only reason I ask that is just from a marketing perspective, if that matters to the team. Um, you know, the, a lot of people are not going to be happy to see Brock Besser, um, move on from the Vancouver Canucks and, and they could probably

acknowledge like, well, I don't know if it's worth the money right now. The Canucks do need to get, get faster, but they'll come back with like, yeah, but I like the player, you know, like I like that we've had this relationship with Brock Besser and I don't want him to go to another team, you know. It's not real life, like we haven't gone through

everything with Brock Besser, but that's part of, you know, what makes your team your team, is the players that you actually like and you've seen grow up in In front of your very eyes. Besser is the perfect example for this question of do you feel more of a connection with players who are drafted and then developed by the Canucks because we've been doing this for a long time now, but we were right in our writing slash radio heyday when Besser was drafted. And then you do watch a guy quite literally grow up in your organization.

You're watching, you know, pirated streams of North Dakota games. And I remember watching at the end of his final season at North Dakota, with almost equal interest to Canucks games at that time, are they going to lose? Is he going to turn pro right away? When will he make his debut? Those are exciting times. And it's, it's innocent. Like he can do no wrong. Is he gonna turn pro right away? When will he make his debut? Those are exciting times. And it's innocent, like he can do no wrong.

As soon as Ekman Larson, for example, was traded here, as soon as JT Miller was traded here, he was under the microscope right away. Sure. You know, there was like, all right, start doing stuff right now. Louis Erickson, start doing stuff right now. And I don't know you. I don't know you as a person.

All I know is that you cost us a first round draft pick, or you cost us this cap space. You've been in the NHL for a while. You start performing right now. Go. And then there's the inverse, where Besser talks about, you know, I always will consider this home. Girlfriend, fiance, whatever it is, is from Vancouver. This is-

Dogs love the wilderness here. Dogs, yeah. They love it. Love the beach, right? I mean- They love the mountains. There's all of it. And so that's a special connection.

And that's a special thing. In part because of, you know, the NHL's collective bargaining agreement, the way contracts are set up, it's designed to be like this. You're designed to be drafted by a team and you gotta put in years with that team before you're able to shake loose. Right, you mean, that's the way it's supposed to be. The very least, what, five years?

Minimum five or six years, you're supposed to be drafted, be part of the family, they talk you up, they do all the things at the developmental level to get you ready for the next step. And when your dreams come true of making the NHL, it's supposed to be with this team that's invested in you, and you in turn have sort of developed an affinity for the team and the market and whatever else.

So, I mean, I think there's something to it. And I think it all goes back to the notion of, you know, if there is this like little bit of like magic and specialness to it, why don't they drop more? I want to read a text from Nate in Richmond. And we kind of hinted at this idea that Nate is getting at. His text starts, Hughes isn't dumb. If we go all in and mortgage our entire future

for a couple of chances at it, but then years three to eight of his deal would look bleak again, he's not going to sign. We still need to maintain a long-term focused approach. Do not make panic moves this year. Keep your assets and sell Hughes on competing long-term. Build another year of assets, hell even trade Chronic for your center depth. Oh, the irony and go for it in 2026, 27. Next year is such a stretch. I don't disagree with anything that Nate wrote there. I don't.

I push back on one thing. I think you're downplaying the immediacy factor, Nate. I think you're downplaying the immediacy factor, Nate. Think you're downplaying how some, and by that I mean almost all, players are wired, which is the now. I go back to what Dylan Larkin said in Detroit in his end of year media availability where he essentially threw his general manager

under the bus because they didn't make moves at the deadline. Like he wasn't saying, oh I understand that it might be more pragmatic if Stevie Y didn't go all in at the deadline because we didn't have a more or the greater than 50% chance of making the postseason. Like he wanted them to make a move right then, right now to push them just into the playoffs. Never mind winning in the playoffs. Just getting in. I don't know if Fuse is wired like that though. I think I could see what he's saying. I think all pro athletes are wired to win now.

I don't think a lot of them have a lot of patience. If he's gonna be signing a long-term deal though, I think he would be looking at it long-term. What would give you the idea that he's different than any other player who wants to win like right now? Cause he's smart and he's a hockey guy. Like not in a hockey guy, it's a sense of just like, you know, you're a hockey player.

I mean like, he's like a- I agree with you Doug. He's an intelligent like, he's a student of the game. Yeah. I know what you're saying, Halford. Like, like the players spend on average less time than we do. Yeah. Extrapolating the long-term, right?

And apparently so do the Canucks. But, but I do think I, I, so I agree with both of you because with, when it comes to Adog, I think Hughes is the type of guy that would take more into account. Especially if he's signing a long deal. And especially since he's the captain of the team. He's like, okay, well, what is this going to look like for the rest of my career if I sign on here for another eight years, which the Canucks will want him to do?

Yep. Now there's always, I guess, a chance Canucks will want him to do. Now, there's always, I guess, a chance that he could sign on for less. Austin Matthews signed on for less in Toronto. He could go that route if he sees a little bit of promise. He's still gonna get to sign a big contract once that one's done. I have no faith that Canucks are interested in thinking long-term though. I just don't have any faith in that. You can't say no. Why? Yeah. I wonder. Yeah. I just don't think any faith in that. Because I don't think. Why? Yeah, I wonder, yeah.

I mean, I just don't think that's the thing. I mean, I wish it was. I really, really wish it was. I just don't see it. I think they want to keep pushing for a playoff spot and getting into that final seed. But you say that, but I'm more excited at the prospect of trading the 15th overall pick than I

am having them select it and waiting. I don't mind that. This is a much weaker draft than next year's. Like if you were theoretically to trade a pick, this would be the draft to do it in since it's not as deep. So you might as well trade it at that point if it's number 15, because who knows if that's even a national player

necessarily. And next year's draft is supposed to be, well not supposed to be, it is terrific. Someone also astutely pointed out in the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650 650 that, uh, by calling Quinn Hughes smart and intelligent earlier, you essentially were calling Dylan Larkin dumb.

Well, you know. Now what do you got to say for yourself? Yeah. Maybe, maybe he is. I don't know. I don't know Dylan Larkin. Uh, Brandon in Vancouver, the only time Canucks and long

term are in the same sentence are if the words don't think come between them. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like if, if again, you look at their draft history over the last little while, and I realize along the way they've got some decent players by trading away first round draft picks like JT Miller and Philip Peronac. But I think the question you should always ask then is to what end?

Like what did it result in? And that was always going to be the question with JT Miller, right? When you got him at the age that he was and you thought about, okay, you got him for the prime years, and the price was paid, okay, he played well for the most part in Vancouver, played very well. Right, but they had minimal postseason success. To what end? Yeah, I know. They're in a conversation with the Bostons and the Tampa Bays of the world, who are like, when you have that conversation with What NHL teams have the fewest first-round picks over the last five or six years?

Vancouver's in a conversation with a bunch of teams that have a ton of postseason success and a ton of postseason appearances And so you're doing like which one of these things is not like the other It's the Canucks who have missed the playoffs in eight of the last 10 years. It's problematic, but again, at some point, I just wanna stop banging my head against the desk, trying to come up with an approach that, quite frankly, no one in that organization is interested. Well, here's the thing.

It has to come from ownership. The direction, whether it's long-term or short-term, has to come from ownership. That has to be the message given to management because if you are Jim Rutherford or if you are Patrick Alveen and maybe you've received a message like, boys, if you don't turn this thing around, we're going to find someone else to do this job. Ownership has already said that they made a mistake in keeping Jim Benning too long. So that's their

thinking with this management group. You don't want to keep guys that are running this thing and you don't want to give them too much leash. They already said that. So if you're Patrick Alveen right now, are you thinking five years down the line? Nope. That's why the messaging has to come from the top. We are a long-term organization, and this is the way we do things.

Don't make moves to save your job. In fact, if you make moves to save your job, then you're going to lose your job. But that message has clearly not been sent to any of the management groups. It's like, hey, we got a problem. We need this fixed by last week. We are going to turn our attention moving forward to the Stanley Cup playoffs. We got two games tonight. Washington takes on Carolina in the East. Edmonton goes to Vegas to take on the Golden Knights in the West. Coming up on the other side of the break, Jason Greger

from Sports 1440 in Edmonton is going to join us. We'll talk about what happened in the first round against the Los Angeles Kings and then what's going to happen in this round. We got a lot more to get to on the program. Don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Vic Nazar. Have your say and join me on the People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts 730 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday everybody. Halford Brown, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Breath of the Morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-trustee.com We are in our two of the program Jason Greger from sports 1440 and Edmonton is going to join us in just a moment here for our two Our two is brought to you by Jason Hominuk at Jason dot mortgage if you love giving the banks more your money

Then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you visit them online at Jason dot mortgage before we get and shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.mortgage. Before we get to Jason Greger, we need to do the one to watch brought to you by Delaney's OK Tire. Tonight's one to watch in net for the Carolina Hurricanes, we assume it'll be Freddie Anderson after getting knocked out of the earlier series

against New Jersey. It seems as though Freddie Anderson is good to go for the second round series against the Washington Capitals. The Carolina Hurricanes give a nice little bonus a couple days ago by signing him to a one year, $2.5 million extension. So maybe that signifies that he's healthy and ready to go. Anderson was the better of the two goalies in the first round. They will need him going up against Logan Thompson in that for the Washington Capitals

tonight. That game, a reminder, is the first of two games tonight. It is the first of a doubleheader. The second, of course, is the Edmonton Vegas game that we're going to talk to Jason Greger about in just one second here. It is time to put on your Toyo tires, whether you drive a car, light truck, or van.

Toyo tires are designed to perform in all kinds of conditions. Visit Delaney's OK Tire in Langley and Aldergrove. OK Tire service repair and tires. To theaney's OK Tire in Langley and Aldergrove. OK Tire service repair and tires. To the phone lines we go. Jason Greger from Sports 1440 in Edmonton joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Jason, how are you? Excellent fellas, you? We're well. You know, it's funny when we were looking back on that first round series

between the Oilers and the Kings, the one thing I kept saying is, like, don't let this series end if they can go best of nine or best of 11, whatever, because it was an absolute roller coaster. There was a million emotions and narratives running left and right, tons of goals being scored, lots of drama. Have you had a chance to really decompress and take in what happened in that first round,

or are you too busy focusing on Vegas and what's next in round two? Well, it was an entertaining series for sure. I'm not surprised by the outcome. I was actually quite surprised by how heavily so many people were picking the Kings. And I'm kind of like, you guys watch LA? They're the same team.

They don't four check and they play man to man. Now to play man to man defense with only four defensemen was one hell of a coaching decision and your players are gassed because of it. Now the orders, hey, their biggest flaw continues to be their biggest flaw and they can get goals like no other team in the league and that's obviously what happened in the first two games of the series. They were all like, they gave up 20 high danger chances in two games. And then they switched goalies and they only gave up 30 in the next four,

which is better, but still not great. And so if they do that against Vegas, who I think is a better offensive team than LA, that won't be a long series. So, you know, Edmonton historically never makes it easy on themselves. I guess, other than the one series against LA that they won in five, they usually will make life interesting. So I guess it's fun to cover it. But I expect this series to be a lot more emotional.

Like there wasn't, there was really no animosity as exciting as the games were. There was really no hatred between Edmonton and LA, which is funny because it's the fourth year in a row they've met, but the Kings didn't really have any physical players, they don't play that style. I think Vegas, they got a few more jerks on their team, and I mean that as a compliment. And I think we'll see probably a much higher charge emotional game, and I don't think we're gonna see

eight and a half goals a game like we saw I haven't been LA Jason I have a question for you Did Evan Bouchard have a good series or a bad series? Because on the good side he had seven points in six games including four goals. That's pretty good on the bad side He was minus three and there are a bunch of plays that you can think of where you're like, oh, that wasn't great defensively. Yeah. But we start first two games were bad. Um, you know, in, in game one, he was direct responsible for, uh, for the

third fourth goal, it was, it was a two, one game and, and you know, he just kind of gifts the goal from behind. Like you put a pass from behind the net. Now he's trying to hit McDavid. I get it in theory, but I'm like, dude, like, what are you doing? And he put it right under nose tape. And then, you know, the other giveaway led to Kempe wide open in front. So, you know, when, when he makes some, some turnovers, they're pretty bad.

Now the difference is he produced right. And now offensive defense and around the league, there's very few of them that are elite defensively all the time. Uh, look at Cale McCarr, don't look at Kale McCarr series against, um, uh, Dallas. He had, uh, he had three points in one game and that was really it. It was kind of a non-factor the rest of the series. It was one of their best guys. So, you know, Bouchard, Bouchard was huge for him.

He scored two goals in each game, three and four. So, um, I'd say he was, I look, I always, when I analyze a lot of players, I don't rate their bad plays 10 times worse than their good plays. So Bouchard, now he can make some awful defensive plays. There's no debating that. And they'll lead directly to goals. He has the ability to score more, you know, to score what you did. So he had two blatant giveaways in game one. He scored two pretty huge goals in game three. Obviously that power play goal after the challenge was a set play and was pretty sweet actually, but I'd still say he was more of a positive than a negative

in that series. And they're better, him and Nurse just don't play well together. So I think the more they don't play together, they'll play together for five or six minutes a game. That's fine. But I wouldn't have them as exclusive D pair. What's the latest on Matias Atcom and how much do the others miss this guy? He won't play at all this series. And let's say they win, I'd say best case scenario is he's back later in round three, if even he's back. That's best case scenario.

Yeah, they miss him. There's no question. But the Jake Wallman acquisitions massive for them Wallman was great in the first round John Klingberg the free agent signing for nothing like he surprised me how he came back now LA is the perfect team for him to play again if you give John Klingberg time and space he'll kill you right like that's his forte his lateral movements, but where he struggles is if you watch in the game, when he has to defend off the rush, just a straight line off the rush, he's still his, his backwards acceleration.

Isn't there. He can go side to side really good, but he can't go his speed is noticeably bad on in open space when he's just trying to backwards skate so I'll be curious to see like if I'm Vegas and everybody's always playoffs is all about game planning and looking at at weaknesses on the other team I think Vegas is going to like LA didn't for check it's a mind- blowing to me how you don't four check. And they don't, and they lost again. And so now their GM's out.

So maybe they'll figure out that eventually can't just win with defense just because you won in 2012 and 2014 with it, doesn't mean you can win with it in 26, so we'll see. But if I'm Vegas, I'm four checking Klingberg hard and I wanna see how he reacts to it. Because I won't be surprised if we see Troy Stetra come in for a few games. We're speaking to Jason Greger from Sports 1440 in Edmonton here on the Halford and Breff

show on Sportsnet 650. How big an impact did Evander Kane make on that first round series? Yeah, he was, like him and Trent Frederick. Like the order is forward to depth. Like I was calculating the numbers and they've got, they might have the best offensive depth in the NHL right now. When you consider that of their forward group, you know, 32 times they've had a 20 goal season, 16 times a 30 goal season,

six times a 40 goal season, six times a 50 goal season, one 60 goal season. Like they got a boatload of offense and Kane comes in and it's not just offense with Kane like you know his honest arrogance is very noticeable right. He's not afraid of anybody, he's physical, he gets in everybody's face and so now you've got to start this series he's on one line Trent Frederick another huge body who's physical and is coming off a high ankle sprain and looked way better in the last three games of the series than he did earlier and just because he told me you know he doesn't have to tape his skate so tight anymore so he's got a little bit more ankle flexion so that helps him skate and then you got Pod

Coles and who's physical and Corey Perry who gets in your face like they got one of those guys in every line so Edmonton I've always believed plays better when the games are a little bit more emotional and And so now you've got some guys. But yeah, Kane came in, he scored two huge goals for them, including that goal that ended up leading to the challenge, probably the worst challenge in playoff history by Jim Hiller. And yeah, he was a big influence on the series. And you know, Hamahai and the Newtons and the Hopkins, they're going to start as the

second line. And you know, I think they're going to have to be important, obviously against the Hurl line most likely for things. Ankle flexion helps you skate. I've been doing it wrong my whole life. Whole life. Okay.

Yeah. Well, you think about it, right? You want it, you lead four, they all talk about the ankle flexion. Yeah, of course. And so he, like, remember when we were little, I don't know, we used to tape our. Bend your knees.

Yeah, but you used to put it, you used to tape our. Bend your knees. Yeah, but you used to put, you used to tape so tight around the bottom of your shin pad, right around, or some kids even had, they would tie their laces behind their skate. And like you realize now just how moronic that is, but at the time we're like, hey, my skates are tighter, it's way better. It feels good.

It feels more solid. Yeah. But you're, and I think when you're a kid, you're not strong enough to. Maybe, yeah. You know, not possibly. I don't know. I'm just a bad skater and I just have to live with it.

Um, Jason, convince me that the Edmonton Oilers can win the Stanley Cup with Calvin Pickard as their goalie. Uh, I can't because I don't think they will. Um, uh, Stuart Skinner is going to come back in, in the playoffs at some point here. I think Skinner's top game is better than Pickard's top game. The problem is Skinner's bottom game is worse.

And although I don't really like in games one and two, I know people would just look at the numbers and see, oh, you know, 12 goals against obviously with goal-tenning. Anybody who watched those two games, like I mentioned, they gave up 20 high danger chances in two games. Like it was awful. Like Adrian Kempe had like one Mississippi two Mississippi oh now someone's gonna try to challenge me the guy was picking corners left and right and so I don't skinner didn't play bad but he didn't make a big save in those games right like he didn't let in a bad goal he just

didn't make a big save and you need your goalie to make a big save at some point so I think he'll come back in here I look at like Pickard on the season he was below expected on high danger chances but he stood on his head on high danger chances in the four games against LA so is that gonna continue? Odds would say no. The other area where he struggled and I got this from Kevin Woodley is on screens and traffic. Well, that's kind of the bread and butter of Vegas. So I won't be surprised if we see Skinner and I don't think it's a problem. Like Emerson's team is they're not built to have their goaltenders dominate games and steal them games all the time. Right now Pickard actually did that in the playoffs last year.

I know he got pulled for two games against Vancouver, but then when he came back, he only allowed one goal in game six, one goal in game seven. Now, they didn't face a ton of shots, but he just had to be solid. And then he actually outdue a lot in that Dallas series and stole him game six. So if you look at his 15 games after he came back from being banished, he allowed two goals or less and 11 of them. Like that's pretty good, right? So he makes 2.6 mil, Pickard makes a mil, it's 3.6. We all just saw what happened to the Vezna candidates. Kemper got lit up, Hellebuck being horrendous, Vasileski got lit up. I strongly have said I would not be one who's

going to pay big money for my goaltenders because so much of it depends on the environment in front of them. And so Edmonton could win with both goalies as long as their team defense is consistent for the majority of the time. If they're going to play Santa Claus like they did in games one and two, it ain't going to happen. Right? So as Edmonton, their goalies, can they steal one game? Sure. But if you think like, if Edmonton goes at, Hey, our goalies got to steal us games. They got to play great. It's not going to happen. They're not paid that way. Like Stuart Skinner is not an elite goalie and that's okay. Right? He's not an elite goalie, but so don't expect him to be and then get mad that he's not an elite goalie I've never understood

that like Edmonton fans they rip on the goalie I'm like hey Stuart Skinner his 50 games last year under Knobloch he was top 10 in every meaningful statistic what else do you want right like he had to he had two bad games in the playoffs against Vancouver two in his other 21 games he had a 2.14 goals against and a 916 save percentage. It's more than good enough for a $2.6 million goalie. Speaking of team defending and the goal tending, how much are both those things gonna be tested by the Vegas rush?

And I know that Chris Noblock talked about this, I think it was yesterday, talking about how good they are on the rush, how dynamic they are. Maybe the highest scoring team in the National Hog League in terms of goals off the rush. Yeah, they are the number one. They led the NHL in Russia.

And the funny thing is, Vegas isn't a fast team. And so it's a great example. Everybody talks about speed, speed, speed. We all need, no you don't. You need smarts and you need some finishing ability. And they're like Jack Eichel, obviously he's good. He's very good off the rush. And where Vegas is actually excellent is their transition game on

turnovers high and then like if you, and the orders have a propensity at times. To make a turnover six, 10 feet inside the offensive blue line. And now you go the other way and they're dead and that can't happen. And I think if they want to beat Vegas. And you know like I went back and looked at when they lost in 2023 and they as much as they lost that game giving up goals they didn't score a lot in their losses like they only had 10 goals in their four losses in the series and four of them came in one game. So I think Edmonton's offense is gonna have to be better than it was. I actually think their offense is deeper now than it was two years ago.

And Edmonton should have learned, I think, from last year, although they do at times seem to be somewhat of a stubborn learner in the fence. We know what we're supposed to do, but we just don't like to do it all the time. So they made that series harder on themselves. It dug an O2 hole and then fought back out of it and probably need a little bit of a, you know, a break with that terrible challenge to, you know, put game three away. So I look at Vegas and I see a team that isn't as quick as they were two years ago, but I like, I love their defense.

They're big, they're long, they can move the puck. And I think Edmonton is going to have to attack them down low and I expect it to be a much more physical series than the Edmonton LA was. But if Edmonton propensity for turnovers in the neutral zone or high in the offensive zone, if they do that too often, they're going to play right into Vegas' hands. So I think Edmonton's probably got to get this, try to get pucks deeper and control the puck below the top of the circles. Did Matthew Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov foreshadow what a high end, high

talented dynamic scoring duo can do against the Vegas Golden Knights? Well, they did for the first four games, but then they didn't do it in the last two and Hey, I like Kaprizov and Boldy, but then they didn't do it in the last two. And hey, I like Capri's often bolded, but obviously they're not McDavid and Drysaddle. So there is that, that, that matchup, I think. And I'm curious to see what Chris Knobloch is going to do. Um, Edmonton won games five and six, they scored six, five on five goals. McDavid and Drysaddle weren't on the ice for any of them. Like that's a big plus for Edmonton because historically those two aren't going to go three, four games, you know, no offense. They're not Elias Pettersson. They don't disappear for long stretches offensively. So, you know, you would think that those two

that will get going and if the other guys produce, then they should be fine. But it'll be a great matchup. Putting William Carlson on that top line with Eichel and Stone, I think we're going to see a lot of that line, especially in Vegas against McDavid and even in Edmonton. Chris Noblerk doesn't really ever, he doesn't shy away from matchups, which if you look back at 2023, I thought that was the biggest mistake Jay Woodcroft made. He, for whatever reason, Jack Eichel's line was killing the orders and then on home ice, he wouldn't put McDavid's line out against him. It didn't make sense to me, right?

It was almost like, well, geez, can't put McDavid out against Eichel. I'm like, what the hell can't you put McDavid out against Eichel? McDavid's pretty good. Yeah. So that one, that, I know Chris Nambach is not going to do that, right?

But it will come down to Emerson as much as their top guys are going to score. Because there's not going to be many power plays in this series, guys. Like Vegas doesn't take any penalties, like record low penalties in the regular season and Minnesota was tied with Edmonton for the fewest power play chances in the first round. So their power play is great, it'll always score, but they're not going to get a lot of chances.

They're going to have to win this series five on five. You might have already mentioned this, but McDavid and Dry Settle at five on five, how has Knoblok done this most of the season? Have they been together or have they been separated? No. Most of the season they've been apart. And you know what, even like, well I shouldn't say, the only time they play together lots with stretches here or there, but then they always play together on the first shift after a penalty kill, which makes sense.

Makes sense. You just killed it off, right? They mean sitting for two minutes because they don't really penalty kill that much. They did a bit against the Kings, McDavid did, because the Kings ran four forwards. And so they, they wanted to try to get LA uncomfortable. Didn't really work, but, um, on the power play anyway. So he hasn't done it. Like this is actually for them to play the same lines, four games in a

row. It hasn't happened all year, right? Now part of that's due to injury, but part of it's, you know, they moved guys around and, and their defense core without at home, they basically kind of run five defensemen and then Emberson's the number six and he'll play nine to eleven minutes depending on how the game goes and they rotate guys like Bouchard last game played eight minutes with Wallman five minutes with Ners five minutes with Kulak right they just kind of they move their guys around and their forward group does that quite a bit like Corey Perry will start the game with Drysone

McDavid but he can't play all the minutes they play so Hyman gets a few shifts with them Evander Kane gets a few shifts even Trent Frederick gets a few shifts. So the order is like under knob block I don't really get too caught up in oh, here's the starting lineup. These are the lines like yeah, they are but It's a it's a guideline really, you know in a lot of games like it's their basis point, right? It's I don't know when you're in junior high, I guess have a home room but you're not really in your home room very often right so that's that's kind of what it is for for the orders and like there's when we see the lines and fans freak out every day i'm like do you not watch the games like who cares that nurse and bouchard skate together in practice they don't play together very much in the games right now dry Dry Sona McDavid, they'll have played more together lately. I still think for me, they're better when

they're on separate lines because now I've got two of the best players on the ice, at least one of them for over half the game. Yeah. Right? Minimum between the two of them. So I like it apart, but they've had more success and when they are together, there's no doubt

they score more. That's like both of their numbers go up when they play together so I get why you do it and the last time anybody scored four goals in a playoff game was when dry subtle McDavid played together in game one against Vegas in 23 when dry so had four goals so who knows they'll probably go to it and how long it'll stick to me is the question I think if they win you know they keep together a little bit more, but depending on how the series goes, you know,

I could see them splitting them up at times because they have enough depth now that you have lots of wingers that you could play with both of them that they can produce, right? Like no offensive is silly plot Colson, but when he's your top six winger and God love him defensively, but he can't score in the ocean. So, you know, he shouldn't be a top six player.

Round two, game one goes tonight from Vegas. It's the Golden Knights and it's the Euler 630 puck drop hour time. Jason, thanks for doing this today, man. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. It should be fun. Hey boys, thanks man.

Enjoy the playoffs. Yeah, you too. Thanks Jason. Jason Greger from Sports 1440 in Edmonton here in the Haliford and Bref show on Sportsnet 650. I think you have some news to pass along. No, I'm going to pass along a text first because I thought this and I nearly said it.

I should have said it. Tatiana in Langley says, Hey, only we are allowed to speak on Elias Pedersen. Our thing. Not your thing. Our thing. Hey, I've criticized this guy all year, but it still bugs me when a guy from Edmonton comes on

and takes a shot at him. I have some news to pass along. Yeah, no, I know. There's news out of Buffalo. Yeah, courtesy of the After the Whistle podcast, which is a podcast featuring two former Buffalo Sabres in Craig Reve and Andrew Peters. After making his presentation to the owner, Terry Pagula, it sounds as though Kevin Adams will return

as the GM of the Buffalo Sabres for the 2025-2026 season. So despite the fact that Buffalo has the longest active playoff drought in the National Hockey League. He's the modern Jim Benning. He's this Eric. Let him cook. Let him cook. He actually is. He's Jim Benning. Let him cook. Somehow still has a job. Buffalo fans are like, what? So the Sabres finished on a bit of a job. He's onto something. A couple of fans are like, what? So the Sabres finished on a bit of a heater. Are they going to read into that? If they have, it's another sign of the complete dysfunction that has overridden this team.

Do they just not want to go through the interview process? Does it seem like too much work? I. Again, according to Peters and Reve, multiple days of presenting the plan moving forward. So it obviously took some level of convincing. Yeah.

I don't think he walked in there and Terry was like, I'm ready to give you the job. Just say you want to come back. I think that it needed to be. And now for the swimsuit competition of the presentation, that's where you want it. Yeah. You have to answer some skill testing questions.

You know. How do we get peace on earth, Kevin Adams? And he has to answer. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but it might work for us. One more chance. One more chance, Kevin Adams. I also do wonder- I like the way they're trending. I do wonder if some of this has to do with too many, there have been a lot of changes in Buffalo without question. I've lost track of the amount of head coaches,

the regime changes have been. That's why Benning got so much time here. As we just mentioned this recently, that's why he got, because I think they were like, we can't keep firing people here. We have to have some consistency here. And when you keep firing your decision makers, the next guy comes in and he's like, okay,

we're going to, we're going to undo what this guy did. So you end up spending a lot of time undoing and less about building. So if you're a restaurant, you should stick with that really awful chef because you just need consistency sometimes. You can't just keep cycling chefs through. You got to keep the consistency.

He might learn a few things. He's like, okay. Maybe get some air as a chef. Cook the beef next time. Right? We've had a few incidents here where we didn't cook the beef. Cook the beef? But now it's written down on a Post-it note in front of us that you have to cook everything. Milk in the fridge. Okay. We'll try it. I will say this, the counter argument to all of this is that with the consistency and you gotta give a guy a chance is that at a certain point,

I think the guy does show you what he is. Like I think what LA did with moving on from Rob Blake was hey, we like some of the things that you've done here for sure, but you've never won a playoff series and you've gone up against Edmonton four consecutive times and lost all four. There's no reason to think that that's going to change if you stay here. So we're going to make the move. Rob Blake got seven, eight years on the job in LA, if I'm not mistaken. So a long enough time. I don't know. The tricky part is figuring

out where it's patience and it's crosses over to insanity, right? Where are we, why are we doing the same thing over and over again in the name of patience when we know what the result is gonna be because we've seen it countless times. So I'll be very curious to see what the reaction is like in Buffalo. That news came down about an hour ago

and it's still relatively early, so we'll wait and see. But I can't imagine a lot of Sabres fans are thrilled at the notion of running it back. Well, I mean, we're just thrilled in general. Yeah, it's true. early, so we'll wait and see. But I can't imagine a lot of Sabres fans are thrilled at the notion of running it back. Well, I know we're just drilled in general. Yeah, that's true. As Sabres fans. Jesse Granger. At least they live in Buffalo.

Yeah, it's beautiful. Jesse Granger will join us next. We'll talk a little bit about the Vegas Golden Knights, a team that frankly we haven't spent that much on because they just kept on winning this season. So we'll check in with the Vegas Golden Knights ahead of their series with the Edmonton

Oilers, then we'll do some What We Learns. And just a reminder to you, get your What We Learns into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. You are for some reason listening to the Alfred and the Bruv Show on Sportsnet 650.