Halford & Brough in the Morning - World Cup Fever + What We Learned

Episode Date: June 2, 2026

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with FIFA Fan Fest Director of Talent & Production Paul Runnals (1:20) ahead of the World Cup, which is less than two weeks away, plus the boys tell us what they learned (23:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

8.04 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford, Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt? If you are, Sands and Associates can often reduce your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are now in our three of the program. Paul Rundles, the director of talent productions for the upcoming FIFA Fan Fest, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off our three-hour. or three of this show was brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies and tools,

resources and safety training, visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. We're coming to live from the Kintech Studios. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. So the FIFA World Cup is just around the corner. So too is the FIFA Fanfest at P&E. Joining us now is as mentioned, the director of talent and productions of said fan fest. Paul Rundles joins us here. on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Night 650. Good morning, Paul. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing great.

It's a beautiful sunny day down here. So a sea of activity going on right now, getting ready for next week. Yeah, the excitement is building. And, you know, we wanted to take the opportunity to almost give you a platform here and speak to our listeners. And I guess, big first, easy question. What do you want people to know about this FIFA fan fest? So this is not the P&E business as usual kind of setup that they're going to be coming to. We have got an enormous site that has got a whole range of activities.

We've got nine massive Jumbotron LED screens. We've got two stages with over 130 bands performing across the 28 days of operation. We've got food trucks. We've got customized food and beverage areas, elevated experiments. ordinary amount of effort that's gone into building this out. We've got all kinds of sponsor activations, 3D interactive stuff. Like it is going to be a lot of fun down here. So what kind of work are you doing right now?

What are you busy with right now? Some last minute setup stuff. I'm just standing in the amphitheater, this gorgeous new amphitheater that's been built. And I'm looking at my team installing all of the production elements for next week. So sound lights, video boards, scenic elements, all sorts of stuff like that. But I can see all around me. I can see out to other parts of the site where there's tents going up and trailers being built and sponsor activations being built. So there's just a buzz of activity on this site and it has been all week.

Now, what should people know that are going to head out to this FIFA fan fest? Well, God forbid, we want the weather to be grid. So we want people to be hydrated. We want them to be bringing sunscreen. We want them to be ready to spend a day outside and enjoying all of the incredible activities here. You know, the site is free. I think that message is something that we want to make sure people really understand. There are options to purchase premium ticket experiences, which get you fast-track access and things like that.

But for 90% of the site, it is free to come. It's first come, first serve up to our capacity of 25,000 people a day. So if, you know, Canada match days, the final, some of the highly anticipated days are already showing signs on, you know, just through our ticketed programs and the hospitality stuff of, you know, probably nearing sellouts. So, you know, if you want to be here on those days, come early. But by and large, we want people to just come down and have a great time, bring the families and spend the day here. It's going to be a terrific experience, tons of energy, lots to do, lots to see. entertainment between all the matches, you know, it's a full days of worth of activities. What time does the festival open? Like on these busy days, maybe the games of the days where Canada's playing, and you want to get in there for free, what time does the festival open and should people even start lining up before the festival opens?

So the answer to opening times, it changes day to day because of the schedule, the match schedule. So we typically open two hours before the first match of the day. Some days that first match is at 9 a.m. Some days is not until noon. So our opening times do fluctuate. All of the times are available on the website. So people should check the website for opening and closing times.

They can see all the entertainment. The performance times for all the entertainment. They can see what time is all the matches and which matches are being shown. All that information is available on the website. So I highly recommend people check it out and get the, get familiar with it. And then as far as the high demand days, like we've got a team Canada match coming up on Friday the 12th. So it's our second day of operation. We anticipate that. You know, we got the Funk Hunters playing that night. We got down with Webster. We've got, you know,

we got a bunch of great music going on that day. It's heading into the weekend, the opening weekend. So we expect a full house that day. So that's one where if people are able to, I recommend coming early. But I'll also remind, you know, if you have a ticket, you're guaranteed access into the festival. So there's no. scenario where a ticket holder would be denied access, even if we're at capacity for the main site. So that's one of the benefits of holding a ticket for the amphitheater is that you will always be able to come in. And you can, in fact, you can come and go throughout the day. So you could come in the morning, watch the first match, leave for four hours, and come back on that

same ticket and be guaranteed access to come in and then maybe watch the concert that night. What are the ticket options? So there's reserved seating that's available, and there's also the lawn general admission area. Both of those are paid purchase tickets. The lawn is by far outselling everything. Like it's a cheaper price ticket, so we've got really, really strong sales up there. The reserved seating is, again, on the Team Canada days, the final things like that, weekends. They're selling very well.

And some of the days where we don't know what soccer is going to be played are a little soft right. now, but that's understandable because we don't know what the games are going to be. So once you get out of the group round, we'll start seeing ticket sales for those later days probably go through the roof. The floor of the amphitheater is a non-ticketed first-come, first-serve opportunity. So there's 2,700 capacity down there. So the first 2,700 people that come in on any day without a ticket, so they come onto the site for free, they come into the amphitheater for free, and they're,

able to enjoy the day in the amphitheater. If they leave the amphitheater to go out to the rest of the site, then they have to get back in line to get back in. Like, their access is good for as long as they're in the building. But once they go out onto the main site, then they're kind of back into the realm of the rest of the gang. And if they want to come back into the amphitheat later,

they just have to line up and it's sort of one in, one out kind of thing. But the amphitheater isn't the only place to watch the games at the festival. Absolutely not. So explain some of the other areas, yeah. So we have the center grounds of the P&E, which for anyone who's been to the fair over the years, we'll know it as an area where they've often put up a second stage. It's basically in between the Agridome and the administration building and the forum, that space in between those.

So we have a whole second stage going there, again, completely free to come in and see what's going on there. We have multiple screens in that area. We have entertainment in between all the matches. and then on the far west side of the P&E grounds sort of bordering along Renfrew Street, that whole strip between the Coliseum all the way back down, almost to Hastings Street, is activated with screens, with food and beverage areas, you know, some shaded areas, family seating areas, things like that. So there's lots of different opportunities and depending on, you know,

if people are with families and they're, They want to have an area that's a little quieter. We've got space for that. If they want to be in the thick of it with tens of thousands of other people watching matches, we've got that. You can really kind of choose your own adventure by where you, where on the site you choose to be. Got a couple more questions. Sure. Can you bring chairs in?

Can you bring anything into the fan festival? You're not allowed to bring chairs. There's a list of prohibited items. Again, that's available on the website. but chairs are just, you know, in a situation like this, they're too much of a hazard for people tripping, especially when we get into darkness. The ticket prices.

There's been a few things written about it. You mentioned that for the highest level tickets, sales are a bit soft for some of the matches. Do you think the prices might have been set too high? I don't. Truthfully, I mean, again, I think there's a couple of factors here. One is much like the Olympics, like the energy in the city until the Olympics actually started was a little flat. Once it started, the place went nuts.

We're anticipating a similar response here. You know, just to speak to the value proposition on the ticket. So, you know, for a $80 ticket, let's call it something like that, $80 to $100 for the highest price tickets, you get 12 hours of entertainment, be it matches, music, you guaranteed access. you get, you know, you get the ability to come and go throughout the day. So, you know, a lot of these bands that we've got playing here, whether it's Metrick or Alan Doyle or Bob Moses or Cromio or, you know, the glorious sons, there's so many bands here that would play a show at the, you know,

the or the orifice or something like that, and they would charge $80 to $100 just for the one performance. So when you look at what you get, I think that the tickets are priced well, and we've had a lot of positive feedback. So I think it's one of those things where once people actually see and understand what this whole experience is and what this incredible new amphitheater is, that they're going to want to be part of it. They're going to, you know, they're going to want to be down here. Who is organizing the FIFA fan festival? Like who is the, I guess you could say, promoter for this?

Who is accepting the risk? Who would get the profits if it does well? So it's the city of Vancouver as part of their host city agreement is, is responsible to deliver the fan festival. They have hired us as the producers to do that. But ultimately, it's the city of Vancouver with the support of the province, obviously, that are the funding agencies behind this. And it's all part of the host city agreement in being one of the host cities to the tournament.

Paul, thanks for joining us today. Lots of great information out there. And I hope it's success out there at the P&E. And I can't wait to see the new amphitheater, because it looks pretty cool. It is very cool. Well, I hope to see you down here. Thanks, Paul.

Appreciate it. That's Paul Reynolds, FIFA Fan Fest director of talent and productions here on the Halpertam Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. So I wonder if they're expecting some people to buy the tickets when they get out there because they're like, I don't want to wait in line. Give me a ticket. I don't care if it's $100.

I just want to go into the amphitheater and I don't want to wait in line. I don't know what the walk-up is going to be for... here's the thing, June 12th, Canada, massive, opposed to other days, the walk-up and the free ticket might be a great option. Because, you know, there's, there are going to be some soft times during the group stage where the matches aren't going to be filling fan fests across North America. Targeting lazy people is never a bad idea, though. Because, like, I might be one of those people where I'm just like, I don't want to, yeah,

I don't win this lineup. Yeah, exactly. That's almost, it might work on me. That right there, the last 10 minutes we spoke with Paul, was the most clarity I've gotten on exactly how the operation is going to work. And it hasn't been... So in the amphitheater, there are three sections, basically. There's a section, I think it's at the front,

where it's free, but you're going to have to line up. So for a Canada game, you want to get out there early. Okay? So the Canada game, the first game against Bosnia and Herzegovina, that's a noon start time for us. So get out there as soon as the festival. opens and maybe even before then, even if you have to sit there for a few hours, if you want to be in the amphitheater and you don't want to pay to get in there.

Okay? Then you go back and that's where the premium, premium experience, you're going to get real tired of hearing that phrase in this World Cup. That's where that's going to be and the tickets are like 100 bucks, maybe if maybe a little bit more. Okay. And then behind that is the grassy knoll, the grass area. And I think the general admission, that's general admission, so you're just going to sit there. Right?

And you can't, so I don't know, I guess maybe you can bring in a blanket. I don't know. Check the website beforehand. So you're going to sit there and that's going to be like $40. And I have a very good feeling that that will be the first area of the ticketed sites to sell out. And then maybe some people might be like, well, okay, fine. I'll pay the $100 and I'll sit in a seat and I'll get ins and outs. but you want to think long and hard,

especially for the big games. Like if you want to go out and watch Canada play, obviously, you know, the other big games are going to be England, Spain, France, that sort of thing. But the fan fest does look, look, it looks pretty cool. And, you know, if you want to go out there

and enjoy some food, it sounds like there's going to be a lot of food trucks and also areas where you can, you know, it's not just food trucks. It's actually just, you know, good food out there. So go to the website and check it out. Like, as cynical, as cynical as we've been about some of the FIFA stuff, us, I think just in general, I'm not even talking about us.

I'm just talking about, like, people in general, I want this to be successful. I want people to have fun at the World Cup. If you are a sports fan, okay? if you don't want to get over your cynicism and you hate FIFA and you just would say, I don't want any part of this, fine. But just know that as a sports fan, as a Canadian sports fan, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

The World Cup is in Canada. And it's coming to our city in Vancouver. And Canada is playing two games in our city at BC Place. that will not happen again in my lifetime. Yeah. Right? So as cynical as I am about this, I'm also very excited. I'm going to be hanging Canadian flags outside of my house

and maybe an angler flag as well. Sure. I want people to get excited for this and I want them to enjoy it. At the FIFA fan fest, if you don't want to pay for it, you might have to make some sacrifices and wake up early and go out there and get in line and maybe you're going to have to wait a bit, right? But I think the experience, especially for the Canada games, is going to be terrific.

I think you're going to have a really good time if you want to go enjoy this. And I think there are going to be some people that are like, I don't want to be part of that. But all I will say is that I've talked to multiple people that when it came to the Winter Olympics in 2010, they're like, you know, like I actually made plans tonight. And I went out of town because I didn't really want to be part of it.

I think it was going to be a big hubbub. Biggest regret I've got. Hmm. You know? Yeah. Like, I regret that because everyone had a good time in Vancouver. Now, I'm not promising the same scenario in the Winter Olympics. But, again, as a sports fan, you should try to embrace it if you can.

Because, you know, look, you're not going to get these opportunities very often. And I have talked a lot. about this city and really the lack of big games that we've gotten to a joy in the city, compared to, remember when we had, you know, 2010, we had the Olympics, the Canucks were playing big games all the time. The Lions hosted a Grey Cup and won it in 2011. That was an incredible time to be a sports fan. We've had a bit of a drought.

Yep. You know, from time to time, we've had big games for sure. The White Caps had a couple of big games last year that were great. But I remember being at that Whitecaps game at BC Place against L-AFC, and I'm like, this is awesome. I'm so glad this is back in Vancouver. I'm so glad I can get excited about something. You know, this is cool.

So for me, I'm going to make the most of it because I think this is going to be fun. I'm excited for Canada to play. I'm excited for England to play. You know, if you don't want to be a part of it, I respect that decision, but I'm going to make the most of it. And we're going to have fun about the World Cup on this show. They're going to talk a lot about it. I'm, you know what, like I'll just take a different tact here.

I'll be, I'm more curious to see how much damage FIFA has inflicted. Because this is unprecedented to a large degree. Like with the Winter Olympics when it came, there was a sort of tried and true playbook about what the competition looked like, what you could expect. Oh, there was a sense of familiarity about it. This is a very unprecedented tournament in terms of. size, scope, length. Yeah.

You know, the amount that tickets have been priced for some group stage matches, which could be, quite frankly, poor, both in terms of quality and atmosphere, it's, it's untested. We might be fooled. These matches might end up being really compelling and really engaging because of the magnitude of the event and what's at stake. but because we've never seen this before just the size of the event I don't know what the response is going to be

it's a month long competition well like I think it's like I kind of agree with what Paul said like and I know you touched it too a brough but it's like the leading up to the Olympics people were excited but it wasn't until it actually started that it got crazy like it was like it just it was like a wave that hit the city what I'm saying is I can see it happening with FIFA the same with the World Cup the same way but the Olympics is like bars it's going to be awesome it's going to

to be crazy. People are going to get into the hype like right away once it starts. The big difference for me is that the Olympics was two and a half weeks. It was jam packed. There were a lot of different price points of entry for people to go to see things. And it wasn't just soccer. Right? So there are some very inherent differences. And I, as a, as an observer of how things have happened in this city. with all of these big events, I mean,

I made special note of, I'm going to see what the lead-up is to the Whitecaps L-A-FC match and what the aftermath is. And it was an interesting development because the White Caps did 50,000 twice last year. Right? They did it when Messi came to town. They did it when L.A.F.C. and Sun came to town.

And that was, you know, and look where the white caps are now. The dynamics of everything. It's really just fascinating to watch it because it's such a unique city and this is such a unique event. I'm not really in the predictory game on this one. I'm going to wait and see what happens.

But we got one final half hour to go on the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Real quick, we forgot to mention this earlier when we were speaking with Dwayne Vanneau, but that's our BC Lions rundown. New for 2026, speaking of things to do this summer, summer series and Friday night Lions games. For information on season ticket packages, visit BCLions.com forward slash season tickets. Also, another reminder for the hometown heroes lottery. Amazing prize homes, world travel.

cars, cash and more. Win with BC's bravest. Tickets at London drugs. You must be 19 plus to play. Know your limit. Play within it. One final half hour of the program coming up. It's what we learn time. Get yours in. Dunbar Lumber's X-Lexline is 650, 650. Tell us what you

learned over the last 24 hours in sports. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2pm on SportsNet 650 or wherever you. you get your podcasts.

Favorite part of the show. What's that say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God. This is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time.

On the show. 831 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Bruff, Sportsnet, 650. Halford in Brough for the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. got dead. Reach out to Sands and Associates during regular business hours

and they'll get back to you within 20 minutes. We are in our three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three is brought to by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies

the best in tools, resources and safety training. Visit them at BCCSA.ca. So you learn this intro. I feel like you can nail the sat one eventually. It's too much counting. Try and count to. Try and count to 40 while speaking aloud.

It's 45. Just take note of the big clock right there. Can't do it. Can't do it. Can't do it. Count 45 seconds from then. Whoa, do it? I'm just going to keep doing it the way that I'm doing it. Okay, do we have what we learns on our side of the ledger here?

We're going right to the humanoids. What do you want to do? We're going right to the humanoid. All right, let's do it. Humanoid submissions for what we learned brought to, is always by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway, from corporate events to special events, there's no order too large.

Order online at AJ's.com. I'm going to read two what we learns about the same topic. Noah from the Heights. What I learned is the Patriots really thought they had the biggest trade deal of the offseason on lock with AJ Brown just for the Rams to drop a nuke

of an offseason trade to get Miles Garrett. Unbelievable. That was so far out of left field yesterday. Sheldon from Surrey, what we learned with the trade for Miles Garrett. yesterday. The Rams made the Thai Simpson pick look even

worse for them as they are all in now. Okay, so that's an interesting one. And also one more from Sheldon from Surrey. What we learned, the Seahawks must trade for Max Crosby to combat what the Rams did yesterday. Okay, now you can talk.

Where do we begin? So the trade itself, Miles Garrett from the Browns to the Rams in exchange for Jared verse, pretty good rushing edge himself, a first to second and third round pick. A massive, massive bounty paid. But to be fair,

Miles Garrett is, I'll say it, clearly the best defensive player in football. He is a marvel and still playing at a remarkably high level, as evident by the fact that he put up, what was it, 23 sacks last year. So,

the Rams are in go for it mode. They made the move for McDuffie earlier in the offseat. from Kansas City to solidify the secondary. Now they get Miles Garrett. There is also rumblings out there that Aaron Dahl might come out of retirement. What? That's terrifying. So, love it if you're into like front office aggression and go for it mode.

Could be Matt Stafford's last year in the National Football League. But the Ty Simpson draft. By the way, he's a quarterback. Now let's unpack this. The Rams used the 13th overall picket this year's draft to take the quarterback or what they perceived to be as the quarterback of the future. Now, not only did they not use that 13th overall pick to draft a win now type guy, like maybe another wide receiver of the number that were on the board. They also reached for Simpson, who was not expected to be a guy that was going to go

in the first 15 picks of the NFL. That was an absolute shocker. Really doesn't make any sense, but they are a wildly aggressive team. I think that they are going to be, fascinating to watch and quite frankly easy to watch because they've got seven prime time games this year they are fully committed to trying to win a Super Bowl in the last year of probably

what's going to be Matt Stafford's last year of his career and it's a great case study I just can't come to grips with the Ty Simpson pick it does not make any sense fun day in the NFL though by the way so that buried not only the AJ Brown news but also the news that Russell Wilson is pivoting to television

television. Right. It's going to be an analyst this year. He will not be playing quarterback. I wonder how he's going to be at that. Is he going to be good or annoying? Okay. So my thought here is that it sounded like networks were clamoring to get him on board. It sounded like he had a lot of options. By the way, he's now finalized a deal to join CBS sports and be one of their NFL analysts. So obviously, network executives thought highly enough that there was a bit of a bidding war

for his services. Every time, I heard that. My first question was, why? Like, he is well spoken in the sense that he doesn't stumble over his words. Yeah. And he's smooth when he talks. I've never found him to have a ton of substance when he talks. Yeah. It felt like a lot of empty calories all the time and catchphrases and little, like, things that he had been working on. Like, I'm workshopping a new Russell Wilson catchphrase, you know, I never felt like there was a lot of deep analysis or thought-provoking material coming from Russell Wilson ever. We'll give him a chance though.

Sure. Yeah. Hall of Fame, that's not going to happen now, is it? It was a very popular debate topic. There aren't a lot of quarterbacks that sink their Hall of Fame candidacy more than Russell Wilson has over the last five years. We've seen guys going the other way. Remember Kurt Warner, it looked like he had played his way out of the Hall of Fame and

then had that amazing second life in Arizona. I would say Stafford, too. Stafford's one. Yeah. Russ, look like, put it this way. If you had told me in his second to last year in Seattle, was he going to go to the Hall of Fame? I'd say yes.

Yeah. I'd be hard pressed to think that he wouldn't. I thought that the second chapter would be a good one for him. Everything since Seattle has been pretty close to an abject disaster. Well, it was pretty bad in Seattle at the end, too. Right. But he was cooked. Yeah, but the thing with Denver is it cost them so much.

Yep. It was punitive. and they've managed to come out the other side looking pretty good all things considered. Right. Pittsburgh was bad. Giants was bad. It's rough. And now he's an analyst.

Yeah. I don't know what happened to Russ. I mean, my theory was that he just, his ego got a little out of control. But there was something more than that. There was a. And also his,

well, he got old and his mobility. You know, sometimes you just have to look at the player, right? He's like, yeah, you couldn't, you couldn't move.

move anymore. Do we have to look at the entirety of the Seahawks career relitigate that? No. Okay. I honestly don't. Okay. Is there a reason you never got an MVP vote? It really bothers me that people act like he just managed the Seahawks to the Super Bowl. Was the defense

the best part about that Seahawks Super Bowl winning team? Yeah. Did the voters maybe know something that we did? No. No. But he made some incredible plays when he was the quarterback for the C.O. Seahawks and they wouldn't have won the Super Bowl with just any quarterback.

I'm just trying to fire up the Seahawk haters out there who will not be texting on mass. Yeah. Okay. Mike with what we learned, you guys maybe already discussed this, but isn't 8 p.m. Monday night news drop going to be the new norm with this management team. What a wacky time to release news. I wonder if they moved up the release of the news that Manny Mahalch was going to be the head coach because Frank reported that there was a deal in place.

Classic Sarah. Valley. You can't see me unless you're watching on the stream, but I was nodding along emphatically as you were saying that. I think that's exactly what happened. They wanted to get, and you know what, I did not mind that little nod of appreciation to the season ticket holders.

So in case you missed it, the news actually broke to everyone that had Vancouver Connected season's tickets via email first. And it said very clearly, we wanted to share this with you guys before everyone else. That would be funny if they kept doing that as like a selling point to get seasons tickets. Like, you

get the information before anybody else. And somebody out there would be like, you know what? I might buy the tickets just for this. The Golden Eyes did that too, but they did it with the firing of their coach. Speaking out, I am. This is a little tidbit for the season ticket holders. It's like February 3rd.

Jonathan Lekromacki has been sent down to Abbotsford. Do you want to be an insider? Yes, I do. So Brian Adalski's out. As head coach of the Golden Eyes. There's another one. we learned. Tatiana sent that one in earlier. One. He's going to coach somewhere in Europe. One,

fairly unremarkable year on the job from all Bray, I would say. Well, they didn't finish well. Obviously, they finished strong and they got the first overall pick, but on the ice, there was... There was a lot of consternation about his inability to make adjustments when the team was struggling offensively. You don't want to kick a guy when he's down. Obviously, just, obviously, parted ways with the team. Yeah, we've never done that before on this show. Have you never kicked?

I don't think he was the main problem, but I don't think he mesh. Yeah, fun too. Sorry. I don't think he was the main problem, but he didn't mesh well with the group of players that was there. I don't think. I think everything about the Vancouver Golden Ice season, first season in the league was terrific,

except for their play on the ice. Basically. But it didn't seem to really matter at the Coliseum based on, you know, the atmosphere there and people having fun. But, you know, I still anticipate that they're going to have a fun atmosphere at the games. It's a different vibe.

It's not like they're getting blown out either. They were close games. The games were boring sometimes though. But they were out of games. Yes. And they got, they didn't get scoring chances. They didn't get enough scoring chances. That falls on the coach.

Yeah. When asked about it, I think we played the audio one time. When asked about it, he was kind of came back to the like, we got to try harder. You know, we got to execute it. He didn't really have an answer for it. Yeah. He didn't have a real answer for it. And you could tell that from the bench interviews as well.

It just felt like he didn't want to be there when they were talking. You know, and I don't blame them. Those bench interviews can be kind of annoying. His interview with us wasn't exactly inspiring. To be perfectly honest with it. I remember, you know, look. The gold night. The team coach?

Oh, right, those guys. Yeah. I mean, look, I don't want to, I don't judge. Now you're kicking him when he's down. Well, I don't, well, it was honestly, it was the same when Adam Foote came on our show the first time. People texted in. They were like, that's great. And I think some people are almost like kind of like trained to be.

The first interview was like, I liked what he had to say, right? Yeah, that's fair. But I remember the out of foot interview being like, this guy's not a great communicator. Like, he's kind of all over the map. A little bit. Feels like this might be an issue. Yeah.

The team said in the same. Foreshadowing. Team said that he faced unique challenges and opportunities in the first year of the team. Unique challenges and opportunity. You don't know what happens behind the scenes. You don't know what went on. So I don't want to, like you say, you don't want to do too much prying. But it didn't go well.

Whatever happened, it didn't go well. and he's no longer the coach. Okay. I wanted to read this one from tableclog James. Sorry, I just do a quick PSA just because we keep. Well, we have like 30 texts about this. The live stream, the audio stream is currently down. People keep texting in.

The people complaining aren't going to hear this. Yes, I know. I understand the irony of this. The yes, the live stream and the texting of the streaming platform is currently down Canada-wide. So if you're trying to stream us online, you're not going to hear this. You're not even hearing what I've saying right now. So why are you saying this? I'm just saying it because people keep texting into the show. That's really annoying me. Those people cannot hear you.

No, one guy did point out, though, that it's the what we learn theme is on repeat. Just like forever. Am I in hell? Forever loop. Did I die a good hell? Okay. Thank you for that PSA.

It's not all bad. Jason, go with what you were going to read. Okay, this one's actually from yesterday. Table saw James from yesterday. And I wanted to get to it because it was a good what we learned. Okay. What we learned. with all this talk of the draft being the only way to get back to the promise land for the Canucks

and a former head scout making headlines for joining the Maple Leafs, I did a quick search on how Carolina and Vegas built their teams. Vegas has two players on their roster that were drafted by them versus 15 acquired by trade, four free agents and two leftovers from the expansion draft. Carolina has six of their own draft picks, seven players acquired via trade, and eight free agent signings. Okay, let's just take Vegas out of the equation just because of the expansion of the history.

Take about, take about. Let's focus on Carolina. And I think Table Saw James, your point is very well received and it's a good one. Okay. Nobody should suggest or think that the only thing the Canucks have to do is draft good players.

That's it. nobody should they have to do so much more you do need to make very smart trades you do need to make very smart signings and to get signings oftentimes you need to make your place a good place to play and people want to go and sign with that team and that starts with having a good team having a good culture having a good room, having a good practice facility, that sort of stuff. Okay? And the Kinecks need to go back to that. I don't think you or I believe that the Kinecks can 100% purely draft their way out of that.

But we need to be patient here. And this almost gets back to like the people texting in and saying like, what about the analytics department or like, why haven't they made you like people? We got time. It's going to start with. the draft. And they are going to make mistakes in the draft. In the first round, they are going to look at Carolina. Look at their draft history.

Yeah, they drafted a couple of guys really good picks and high picks. Like a guy like Zvetchnikov was a high pick. He's an important player on their team. They'd like him to be a little more important. Ajo was a really good pick. I think he was a second round pick. And Jackson Blake was a fourth round pick. They've drafted well.

They also drafted like Elias Lindholm. You know, and is he with the team anymore? No, he's not. They drafted Hayden Flurry. I think was the seventh overall pick. But see, that's kind of the point is that they always draft. When you draft these players, you can then utilize them in fun trades. They are always, if you go back and you look at their history,

they're always accumulating draft picks consistently across the board. And Carolina, and the reason I sat about this yesterday is Carolina is one of the rare teams that will routinely trade back in the draft and move down to pick up an extra second or an extra third or an extra fourth along the way. So that draft in where they got Jackson Blake in the fourth round. They had three second round picks, two third round picks, two fifth, two fifth, two six, three sevenths. There's a website called NHL Trade Tracker.com, and you can look at the history of an organization over the last 10 years every single move they've made in detail. Go back and look at the amount of trades

that Carolina has made really under the radar trades where they're just stockpiling picks. Like every year, they're going in with close to 10 picks, and this is while trading some of them to make the moves that they want to make. But they are using it like chips at the table. And the bigger stack you have, the more things you're able to do.

do. So I would actually argue that even though the draft picks don't necessarily come all the way through, the only way you get better is to accumulate draft capital. Move the picks. Move the prospects that you've drafted. If they develop into NHL players, then you can move them then. But the idea is get the guys in the door, make them your own, and then move along. But I do believe that for the most part, you have to draft your core. You have to draft your

not in all cases. People will always constantly throw the exceptions. But like you know, Aho is their one C. They drafted him. You know, Svetchnikov is a top six guy. So is Seth Jarvis. They drafted those guys.

I think about Florida. Has Florida made a ton of good moves either in trades or free agency? Absolutely they have. Yep. But you know where it all starts? Barkoff. That's where it all starts.

You can't, you need, you need the, you know, back in, I mean, the Cedines are co-presidents now. It all started with drafting them second and third. And then you build out around them, right? You trade for a goalie in Roberto Luongo. But you've also drafted Ryan Kessler. So that takes care of your top line winger and your top two centers, you know. And then you have to build things. out. You made some good draft picks

to get Kevin B.X and Alex Sedler. You made a smart trade with San Jose to get Christian Airhoff. Your place is now an attractive place to play. You're able to sign Dan Hamus. You know, that's, that's, and then hopefully you're developing guys

and you bring up guys like Alex Burroughs. That's how a team comes together. Nobody that's smart thinks that the Canucks are simply going to draft their way out of this. But it does start with the draft. Yeah.

That's where it has to start. Well, and also the next two years, I wouldn't expect many trades of significance for guys that are going to be here for the long haul. I'd be shocked, actually, if that happens. Yeah. I mean, hopefully they can find someone as long as it doesn't cost them too much in terms of draft capital. Anyone that, I think there's always, when you're, when you give guys opportunities, there's always going to be guys that surprise you, a turn into players.

But sometimes you have to monetize those players. Like, I think they should explore trading. Drew O'Connor, and as much as I love his story, they should explore trading Lena Scarleson. Yeah, but I was talking about bringing a guy in. Yeah. Like, I don't think that should be on the table this offseason. Any guy that you bring in should be of the short-term variety.

For example, and I wanted to get to this early in the show, but I have it, but I can do it now. I've always been a fan of Matthew Barzell. I always thought it would be great to bring him home. Not anymore. It doesn't work anymore, right? Barzell, according to Bruce Garriac and the Ottawa Citizen, is going to be on the move. New York Islanders are exploring the market for Barzell right now.

And he also had a nugget that reports indicated that the Utah mammoth were close to pulling a deal on Barzell last summer. I think then they pivoted and went to Peturca. You know who I'm most curious about on the trade market now that we're hearing a little bit more? Who? Nico Heeshire. Yeah, that's an interesting one too. Because he's got a year left and then he's UFA.

in New Jersey seems to be in this place where they're like, we thought we were good, but apparently we're not good. They've got a new GM there. The market's desperate for centers. He could fetch you a lot and return. Oh, massive. Elliot and Landner, Texan, it's not of what we learned, but I wanted to address this as well. Okay. Elliot writes in, then, why on earth would the Canucks

consider moving a late pick for Gallagher? That is the worst suggestion I've ever heard. Montreal should be working out or trading out a second to take that contract. Where is this coming from? Does anyone... Is that Dran's? I have no idea.

I have no idea. But the Canucks should not give up anything for Brendan Gallagher. I think this might be a Durant's thing. The Canucks should try and get something from Montreal from Brandon Gallagher. I'm trying to look.

I think I... Like this is Montreal's problem. I think his, I don't want to. And he also controls the situation. Galley does. I don't want to put thoughts or words in Drance's head or mouth if he didn't say them. But I think the understanding was that the, that era of taking problem contracts off people's books and getting a sweetener,

they are either on their way out or completely gone because the cap's going up to the point where like Montreal is not hamstrung by that contract. look at their cap situation. It's not dire. They're not in desperate need to get under the ceiling and get rid of Galley's money, you know? Yeah, but they need to, they need to move them on. You just got to ignore it. They need to move him on.

They need to move him on because he's no longer part of the team. He's not going to play and he's 6.5 million. It's wasted. But it's not like it's holding them up from doing everything that they want to do. You know what I mean? Well, it depends what they want to do. Right, if they want to do something massive. Yeah, but he's also got to make some big,

they got to go one year left. Yeah. Like they could just let it go away on its own. I think the ship has sailed now on Galley. The HABs have 10 million, sorry, almost 11 million of projected cap space. Well, they got to replace Philip Dono, Josh Anderson. Like, they got to add some players too.

Yeah. Right? Okay. We got a lot to get into tomorrow. Today we got to say goodbye. That's what the music means. Thank you all for listening and thank you all for contributing. We will be back for tomorrow, but now we got to say farewell.

Signing off. I have been Mike Alford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog and he's been Lattie. This has been the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, at 650.