The Best of Halford and Brough 4/6/26

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to Halford and Brough.

Utah, Mammoth, come into Vancouver and win their third in a row.

It's been frustrating because there's been some goals we've got on this ring the length.

It's that simple.

The snow, Patrick, and the lead, Robert Thomas.

Into the corner and up down, there's no way.

There's no way.

Joe LaDale is having the night of his life.

Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Monday.

Happy Monday, everybody.

It is Halford.

It is Brough.

It is sports net 650.

We are coming alive from the Kent Tech Studios.

Embedial for Fairview slopes in Vancouver.

Jason running a little behind this morning.

We'll go right to Adog.

Hey, Dog, good morning to you.

Good morning.

And LaDdie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello.

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We have a huge show ahead on a Monday.

Lots to get into today.

We are going three hours, almost exclusively hockey talk here on the Halford and Brough show on sports net 650.

Our duic morning drive, our morning guest list that is brought to you by the duic auto group.

It begins at 630.

Paul Hamilton, Sabers reporter from WGR Sports Radio in Buffalo is going to join the program.

Bring on postseason hockey in Buffalo.

The Sabers playoff drought is finally over after 14 long years.

The Sabers are back in the dance and we thought, you know, what kind of guest?

Who should we get on from Buffalo, right?

Celebrate this moment, really encapsulate everything that's gone on this weekend.

And we thought, you know what, Paul Hamilton's been the guy.

He's been here for the wars.

He's come on the show dutifully over the last 14 years during this entire playoff drought.

So Paul Hamilton's going to join us at 630 this morning.

Talk about what the weekend was like in Buffalo when they clinched and what the expectations are for this team in the postseason.

Seven o'clock Arthur staple is going to join the program key from daily face off in hockey night in New York.

The slumping New York Islanders made a huge move yesterday firing head coach Patrick Wah,

which is four games left in the regular season replacing him with Peter De Boer.

We'll talk to Arthur staple about the big shake up in New York at seven o'clock.

There's like nine coaches that are newer than Adam foot already.

And that's like a third of the league's coaches.

I'll do you want better.

Have you seen the list of coaches that Bo Horvath has had now throughout his illustrious career?

Wow.

I think he averages a new coach.

Someone texted it in once every 125 games.

Good old bow.

The Islanders and Rick, sorry, Arthur staple.

We'll talk Islanders of seven o'clock this morning.

Seven thirty Aaron ports line blue jackets reporter for the athletic is going to join the program.

Tough times in Columbus right now.

Teams hit the skids in a big way.

They're out of a playoff spot Saturday.

They had a closed door meeting after a two one loss of the jets.

They're six loss in a row has the Rick bonus magic run out.

The bones bump is it over.

We'll ask Aaron at seven thirty.

Finally eight o'clock James Murdle from the athletic NHL writer is going to join the program.

Among other things in Toronto, James recently penned a lengthy piece in the athletic.

About Mike Gillis potentially becoming the new GM in Toronto.

Murdle is going to join us for some hockey talk at eight o'clock.

So yeah, we got a huge hockey show.

The playoff races are wild.

Nothing has been sorted yet.

We don't know who's going to win the divisions.

We don't know what the playoff matchups are going to be.

We don't know what the wild cards are.

But we're going to try and sort through it all today over the next three hours.

That's what's happening on the program today.

Greg, let's tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night?

No, what happened?

I missed all the action because we don't know how busy your life could be.

What happened?

You missed that?

What happened?

Well, what happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance,

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We're going to try and get through as many of these NHL stories as we can

in the first thirty minutes of this program today.

We will begin, however, though, as we are want to do with the Vancouver

Canucks, who lost at home again, this time in a matinee affair on Saturday

to the Utah mammoth Clayton Keller, three goals in an assist mammoth beat

the canucks seven, four Rogers arena on Saturday.

Here are the Cole's notes version on this one.

The canucks only have two home games left, somewhat mercifully.

They've only won eight home games all season.

There was a pregame ceremony prior to the game on Saturday.

It is celebrative entertain playing in his one thousandth NHL content.

I've had to receive a silver stick and a Rolex for his hard work.

Linus Carlson scored twice, continuing his impressive rookie campaign.

Jake DeBrasque scored another power play goal.

And I do want to say on DeBrasque in a season where no canuck,

no canuck should be anywhere near the top of any statistical leader board

in the national hockey league.

It is remarkable that Jake DeBrasque has emerged as a top five power play goal

score in the national hockey league.

He is right up there with the Karil Caprives Ovs and the Leon dry settles of the world

in terms of power play markers.

It is quite the feet, even though he has scored almost nil at five on five.

It's fine because you can sell a story on DeBrasque moving forward

that if another team needs a power play helper, he could be the guy to do it.

Other things from the canucks game on the weekend.

Nils Holglander was a healthy scratch yet again.

Nikita Tolopilo was supposed to have the night off.

He did not because Kevin Lankin and wasn't feeling too good prior to the game.

Tolopilo came in, allowed six goals, his struggles continue.

A couple other things on the canucks here.

Canucks are one and eight in their last nine.

They've allowed a grand total of 47 goals.

Anything else?

Nah.

Let's just move on and joining us now.

Welcome to the program.

Jason breakfast here.

Good morning, Jason.

Good morning. I slept in so I wouldn't have to talk about that canucks game.

You know what? This worked really well.

This worked great for everybody.

Good. Yeah.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I apologize.

No, it's okay. Don't worry about it.

It was the canucks stuff.

So we're going to turn our attention now to what happened in New York on Sunday for the

second time in eight days.

We had a significant coaching dismissal in the National Hockey League just prior to the start

of the playoffs.

Patrick Waugh fired as the head coach to the New York Islanders on Sunday in another

late season change, not long after.

And when we came in last week on Monday, we were doing the same thing.

For his Cassidy out in Vegas, John Torturella in there, the new head coach for the Islanders,

Peter DeBauer takes over and in very different circumstances than torts because the Islanders

are fighting for their playoff lives actually outside looking in right now.

And DeBauer's contract is a long term one, not like the torts contract, which is just

for the remainder of this year.

DeBauer's contract goes to 2029, 2030, but a major shakeup in New York for the Islanders.

You know, it's really funny.

I DMed Arthur Staples.

You did.

You showed me this.

And I texted him.

Should I say what I said?

I mean, yeah, there's no swear words or anything.

It's fine.

I said, these guys are choking dogs.

You say, well, the Islanders, the choking dogs.

Yeah.

These guys are choking dogs.

And then the next day, they fire the coach.

Matthew Darsch agreed with your assessment.

First year general manager, Matthew Darsch.

So we will talk to, I thought it was going to be like, I DM Pete DeBauer hitting it back

to read.

Yeah.

I was watching a bit of the Islanders game and I'm like, how are these guys just getting

I don't care.

That's a good team.

But how are they getting dominated like that in a desperation game for them?

How is that possible that that's happening?

And I think Matthew Darsch is probably like, well, I don't love Patrick Wall.

I think I had a coach spreading out.

I was definitely a part of it.

And I don't want to get to the point where Pete DeBauer gets hired before we have a chance

to get him.

Yeah.

So they locked him up to a long term deal.

It goes through 29, 20, 30.

The Isles, they had been skidding big time and they were in danger of losing what was,

I mean, let's be honest, a season that probably exceeded everybody's expectations, including

their own.

I don't think anyone anticipated that they would be a playoff team this year, but between

the goal-tending Avelius Soroken, the play of Matthew Schaefer, they were in a playoff

spot.

And I think there was what you don't, you don't think that, you know, last season though,

I didn't, I thought that they would maybe, maybe challenge for the second wild card.

They were comfortably in up until about a week and a half, two weeks ago when they really

started to skid.

They've lost four in a row.

They lost seven of their last 10.

I think Darce was looking for the first opportunity to get rid of that.

I don't know, but I don't think they came into the season going like, we're not making

the playoffs.

I mean, they got Horvath, they got Barzell, they got, they got, they got some players, right?

Yeah.

I know they, they, they probably didn't expect so much from Matthew Schaefer.

I think I was the big one.

But, but yeah, but I mean, I don't, I don't think they came into this season thing

and well, we're definitely missing the playoffs.

That's all.

Yeah.

So DeBauer takes over.

Let's talk to already staple coming up because I was listening to a hit of his on NHL

network yesterday and he said that the changes might not stop with Peter DeBauer that now

that Matthew Darce has made this first big move, he's anticipating some big roster tweaks

for them going into the off season.

You know, he said that the core that they have together there, the guys that have been there

for a long time.

And I think we're talking probably about Matthew Barzell, Casey Zander's Lee, all the guys

that have been there for forever.

Do you think Barzell has been in trade rumors as much as Jordan Cairo?

He's up there.

Like maybe they'll get traded for each other at this point, similar players.

Cairo could get reunited with Brain Shen, who's got a couple years left on Long Island

now.

So yeah, it's an interesting one there.

If you're looking for reasons why Patrick was dismissed, one of the ones from Emily Kaplan

for me has been so the move was primarily made because the aisles felt they were leaving

Ilya Serokin too exposed and needed to shore up the defensive structure and that really

kind of exposed itself over the last 10 games in which they lost seven.

So with the islanders slumping, someone needs to step up and get into a playoff spot.

And I say this somewhat begrudgingly because I thought this was going to be a season where

we were going to get the bass and all the losing that Rick talk it was going to do in Philadelphia.

But no, the Philadelphia Flyers are back in a playoff spot for the first time since January

the 12.

The flyers are back in and it comes from a guy who only recently joined the team.

Here's the audio from what was a very exciting Sunday in Philadelphia.

Porter Martin, the recently signed prospect out of Michigan state scored his first NHL

goal midway through overtime on a five on three.

Yeah.

And because the Bruins are taking a couple penalties, one by a Posternock who had a dreadful

overtime.

And here's what it sounded like they move into third place in the Metro with a two one

overtime win.

Thanks to Porter, Martin.

Heinsent Forster, top left circle, over to Ziggress, Ziggress down low and front.

Martin was top three.

But he scored.

Porter Martin, his first goal in the national hockey league, it's an overtime winner and

the flyers have secured a playoff spot for now.

They're third in the Metro division with a two one overtime win over the bronze.

So Philadelphia now has won 14 of 21 games since the Olympic break.

They're sitting not just, I mean, I thought they made the wild cover, but then I looked

to the standings again.

As he mentioned, the third of the Metro division.

And they haven't shown any signs of slowing down and they got to shot in the arm with

Martin.

I will say this.

He's not going to win it.

He's not going to win it.

But Rick talk it deserves some consideration, some consideration for Jack Adams for coach

there for what he's done in Philadelphia this year.

He's doing similar to what he did in Vancouver.

He's just defensively.

They're a structured team and they're tough to break down.

And they've been getting the odd save, which helps.

And they got a couple players.

You know, I don't know if they have a superstar on that team.

I don't think they do.

And I don't even know what Mitch golf is going to become.

So in some ways, this is the worst thing that could happen to the line.

Yeah.

They need more players, they need, they need, they need, they need high, high ceiling prospects.

But like, I saw a lot of people online yesterday, especially I think it was the ones

that covering the team.

And they're like, it feels like the NHL is better and the league matters more when Philly

is good.

Like that.

It'd be Philly, Pittsburgh in the first round, right?

That would be amazing.

Yeah.

That's how that's expected.

That's how that's expected.

The energy from that building yesterday, when of all people, Porter, Marton scoring.

Like it was a pop in that building.

And they have not been excited in Philadelphia for a long time for the team.

So is this premature?

Probably.

Might long term this end up being more detrimental than good, quite possibly.

But you can't ask, talk it obviously to go out and actively not win hockey games.

He's not wired that way.

This is job as coach to win him.

He's like, I have a structure.

It just works.

We do certain to a certain degree or moving our feet out here.

It's a big part of it.

Got to move your feet.

So the flyers move into a playoff spot and a team that we talked about last week, also

got a big win over the weekend.

And that's the Ottawa Senators and it was the captain Brady Kachak scoring twice, Ottawa

defeats Carolina, six three on Sunday.

So they jump back into the second wild card spot in the east, one point ahead of the

islanders, two point ahead of the blue jackets and red wings.

It is super bundled and super tight for that final wild card spot.

And let's be honest, the final spot in the metro as well.

That one feels like it's up for grabs.

But Ottawa got a big win yesterday, six three, thanks to Brady Kachak.

Can we talk just a little bit about the season that Pittsburgh's having?

Yep.

We can.

Do you remember when it wasn't even like at the start of the year, it was heading into

the off season.

We were like, man, they're probably going to try and strip that roster down.

And we'd have this big debate and I was kind of flummoxed, I was like, I don't know

how Kyle Dubas is going to make this a competitive hockey team before Sydney Crosby retires.

You know, like that, that was the thing, like how do you make this a competitive team before

Sid retires and there were some assumptions and I guess they were bad assumptions that

we made.

One is that they were going to start trading guys like Brian Rust.

And do you remember like, ah, who could use Eric Carlson?

The Pittsburgh Penguins could use Eric Carlson, I mean, Eric Carlson is having an unbelievable

career.

He's a second hitting score on the team.

And Brian Rust gives Sydney Crosby on Crosby's line, like an actual legit guy to play with.

And then we were like, okay, well, is this Malkin's last year or whatever?

You know, like we were just going through all these assumptions.

They all turned out to be wrong.

They found a bunch of players, Kyle Dubas did a good job of finding a bunch of players.

And I think it also speaks to the value of having, even if they're getting a little bit

older, guys like Sydney Crosby and of Jenny Malkin, who can make players around them better.

I mean, he needed to find peripheral guys that were going to elevate Crosby and Malkin

and vice versa, right?

But he needed to bring in role players that were going to produce and I'll give Dubas

a hell of a lot of credit.

Like he's done a very, very good job.

And some of the guys that he's brought in have way exceeded expectations like Anthony

Mantis, a 30 goal score, Justin Brazo, the Chinacoft trade with Columbus worked out really

well for them.

It feels like every sort of like fringe addition, the peripheral pieces, they've all

won.

And honestly, how important has been kind of been for that?

I know.

I mean, he's been really important for them.

And they are, I mean, they're a legit playoff team.

They've got a plus 30 goal differential, Edmonton's plus eight.

Vegas's plus seven, Utah's plus 30, right?

Like the Pittsburgh is a really, really good team while, and if, and if we can get Pittsburgh

Philly in the first round, it would be, I don't know, the most unexpected first round series

we've had in a long, long time and like pleasantly surprising.

Yeah.

It's great.

It's a great rivalry.

The two of, I mean, well, saying they don't like each other just as cities and as markets.

I mean, there's not that inherent beef that we had over a decade ago where you had a

lot of the same players that hate each other.

But I think it'd be amazing, amazing theater.

And right now, if the season, the season was to end today, you would have Philly, Pittsburgh

in the opening round to two, three with Pittsburgh having home ice advantage.

I want to turn our attention to a couple other ones here as well.

Just one question.

Is there one team in the east that you want to miss because I kind of want Detroit to

miss?

I kind of want Detroit to miss.

I think, I want to see them do something wild.

I think of Ottawa misses.

It could be a massive sea change in the off season, but I think even more so for Detroit

because what you're getting at a Detroit right now, Detroit deserves to miss.

Yeah.

And what you're getting right now is a team that didn't do a lot of the deadline, only picked

up Justin Falk, the general managers under a ton of pressure.

And now a lot of the stories that you're seeing at a Detroit is how dismayed the head coach

Todd McClellan is with the team.

It feels like every night McClellan is coming back with either some clip or some audio where

he's just completely dismayed with his team.

He talks about their lack of resilience, how they crumble under pressure, how they're

not able to step up.

If anything happens bad in game, he says it takes them like two or three shifts to get

it right before they can figure it out again.

They had a terrible loss on Sunday to Minnesota.

And he, I don't know if this is emblematic of their struggles, but the guy that took the

costly penalty was the most veteran guy in the team in Patrick Kane who took a ridiculous

penalty on Queen Hughes late that allowed Minnesota to score in regulation.

So Detroit doesn't get a single point out of that game.

And Detroit had just come back from a four one deficit.

It did a great job to rally.

They got boot off the ice after the first period.

They come back and look like they're going to at least get a point out of it.

And then of all the people, Patrick Kane and I'll tell you what, I was reading the comments

from Todd McClellan, the Detroit head coach in the aftermath of this one.

And he said like he was just beyond beside himself about the Kane penalty, talking about

how it was 150 feet from their net.

It was totally unnecessary, not even in the play.

And that's just what's happened to this team is every time that they have a way to

ruin something or shoot themselves in the foot.

They find a way to do it.

I'll be.

They've lost 12 of 20 games since I think it's like January 25th, January 25th.

They had a 12 point cushion for the playoffs like they were good to go.

Yeah.

We were like, man, I can't believe Detroit and Buffalo are going to make the playoffs.

And they've absolutely fallen apart, which is it's going to be a nightmare in Detroit

because they will now have the NHL's longest active playoff drought.

And that is because shout out to the Buffalo Sabers following in NHL record 14 seasons on

the outside looking in the Buffalo Sabers are sad club brethren finally bumped the slump

over the weekend, clinching with six games left in their season.

The longest playoff drought of any of the major four leagues in North America now belongs

to the New York Jets and the National Football League who haven't been to the postseason since

2010.

The Sabers hadn't done it since 2011, but due to a series of results over the weekend,

they got in and they got a huge game tonight against Tampa Bay because not only has Buffalo

bumped the slump and going back to the playoffs, they could still win that division.

They could draw even on 102 points tonight with Tampa Bay if they get a win tonight against

the bolts.

Yeah.

And, you know, if they, okay, so Carolina's probably going to get the top seat.

Well, maybe Tampa, Tampa could too.

Yep.

I'm wondering about first round matchups and the ones we, ones we want to see.

Yeah.

It's too hard to get into it right now.

The Atlantic is anyone could win that division.

Yeah.

Everyone is within two points.

A job could win it.

Yeah.

Montreal and Buffalo are on 100 points Tampa Bay is in 102.

Anyone could take that one.

I want to apply Montreal right now.

No, although they finally lost over the weekend after ripping off.

I blew his eight street victories.

The other team and we are going to talk to Aaron Portsline of the athletic coming up later

in the show, but the Columbus Blue Jackets.

If you want to talk about another collapsing team, very similar to what Detroit has gone

through in the last two months of the season, although the Blue Jackets struggles have

all come recently.

They had a two one loss to Winnipeg at home over the weekend.

And after the game closed door meeting time for Rick bonus and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

They're now one six and one of their last eight.

None of their forwards are doing anything of note.

They're not scoring goals.

They're not putting shots on net.

So here's a stat that I saw they had a loss and we didn't talk about this on Friday,

but they had a loss on Thursday in Carolina.

They finished that game with a grand total of 10 shots on goal.

The forwards combined for two.

It's set in NHL record in the pro.

I don't know how you go through 60 minutes of NHL hockey and have your forward group put

two shots on goal.

That's a crazy number.

That's kind of stuff.

It is.

And bonus was, again, another coach is absolutely beside himself.

How do you explain that?

How do you even justify that in an NHL game that your forwards put two shots on that?

Yeah, but I thought our defense went got some shots on.

He wasn't going the positive.

He wasn't going glass half full.

All right.

What's going on in the pillow fight?

Oh, the the playoff chase in the West.

There's a huge game tonight.

So Los Angeles for the second time in five nights is going to host Nashville.

And that is your matchup between the team that currently holds the second wild card spot

in the West.

That's the national predators and the team chasing them.

The Los Angeles Kings.

Here's what you need to know.

Both teams have played 76 games.

So they only have six left in their respective seasons.

Both teams are tied on 81 points, but the predators are ahead of the Kings and everyone's

got the tiebreaker on the Kings because the Kings have approximately 9,000 overtime and

shootout games this year.

So they have barely any regulation was they have 19 regulate for ridiculous, which is

a ridiculous, ridiculous record.

It's a bizarre.

These loser points.

Yeah.

Nineteen.

Yeah.

You're like, well, wake me up in the overtime, I guess.

To put it in fact, don't bother because I was having a good sleep.

Every team in the West has more regulation wins, except the Vancouver canucks and the

Vancouver canucks have 15 regulation wins.

So they have four more regulation wins in the worst team in the entire NHL.

So a while total, but they've got a huge game tonight.

They got the late game against Nashville.

Winter obviously jumps into that playoff spot.

The second and final wild card spot in the Western conference.

San Jose goes tonight as well.

They've still got a shot at it.

St. Louis won't die.

St. Louis got a huge win yesterday against the Colorado Avalanche.

Jolfer, baby.

Yeah.

He had a really good game.

So you're looking at it.

By the way, I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but your boy Jimmy Snuggarood's,

Jimmy Snipes.

They got him on a line with Robert Thomas and Dylan Hall away.

Yeah.

And they're caving people in.

They are absolutely destroying people.

It's like they finally figured it out that these three need to play together.

Robert Thomas is a good player, man.

I mean, there's a reason that St. Louis is one six of their last 10.

They're still hanging around the fringes of this thing.

They're only three points out.

Don't hear much about Kyru anymore, though, right?

No.

Do you remember who's Thomas and Kyru with a pair?

Yeah.

They made a bet on those two guys.

Yeah.

Thomas is a better player for sure.

Kyru, it's kind of been a tough go.

I don't I think he got he got forced into a leadership role.

Yeah.

And like a prominent role on a team.

I'm not sure he was ready to play.

Can I just run?

Yeah.

It became important.

Yeah.

He fell backwards into a promotion.

He's like, I'm not ready for this whatsoever.

I'm going to make one quick observation because I know we got to go.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The Kraken are done.

The Kraken.

The Kraken.

The Kraken.

The Kraken are so disappointing.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's too much fun to say it, but like they tried to be this defensive team this

year.

They bring a new head coach.

They're like, all right, structure.

We saw it work in Vancouver a couple of years ago.

And they're just they just don't have enough good players.

No.

Yeah.

And they're going to need to remedy that soon.

I know.

I'm boring, man.

The boring.

I was nothing interesting about them.

Yeah.

There was an article over the weekend that it was a very scathing look at, you know, what

the job that Ron Francis has done, the roster construction.

I think they were okay on the first year under Lane Lambert's coach, although it's been

very disappointing down the stretch.

But you got to wonder if there's a big shake up almost required from that team.

These they can't keep going the way they're going.

We said it a thousand times on this show with the return of the sonics on the horizon.

They need to make an impact beyond this sort of, we're going to hang around and make

these slow methodical moves.

I feel like they need to make something big and bold and they current, they, they obviously

do as well.

And I think they're interested in or tell me penaren and the fact that they were going

to be really aggressive with penaren.

Basically confirmed that.

So I can even hate.

It was like, I don't know, that's a lot of money, but you guys are so boring.

Yeah.

No Seattle for me.

Welcome to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

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To the Abel Auctions hotline, we go our next guest, see your NHL writer for the athletic.

James Myrtle joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.

What a Myrtle.

Hey, guys.

How are we going?

We're doing well.

Mike Gillis has been a topic of conversation not only in Toronto, but also Vancouver, where

there is some uncertainty around the management of the Vancouver connox, but tell us about

this piece you wrote about Mike Gillis as a possible leader of the hockey ops for the

Toronto Maple Leafs because the Leafs do have a lot of resources and if there's going

to be a team that hires Gillis, they're going to need a lot of resources for all the

things that he wants to do.

Yeah, I mean, I wasn't expecting Mike Gillis's name to come up in the Leafs search to

replace Brad tree living who got fired last week, but you know, it felt like almost immediately

once the firing happened that just the things that Keith Pelley, the face of ownership here,

started saying that he was looking for was someone who has data driven and someone who

could use their resources and, you know, potentially bringing in a president that can hire a data

driven GM who maybe potentially doesn't have NHL experience in that role.

You know, immediately a lot of people, Elliott Friedman and Pierre Lebrun and people who

were connected around the league started saying, this sounds like Mike Gillis.

So, you know, when I happened to talk to Mike a couple of months ago, two or three months

ago, for a story about agents who had become GMs and how that was becoming a trend around

the league with Jeff Jackson and Edmonton and Bill Zito in Florida and he was in Montreal

and how they were having some success, generally speaking.

And then Mike Gillis was one of the first examples of an agent being hired in a high profile

role and having some success in that role.

So I hadn't talked him like in a while when I did that story and then I called him and

he was, he's over in Victoria and he was golfing and fishing and enjoying life and saying

basically, you know, he was semi-retired and, you know, so when I talked to him, I

came here if it was December or January when I talked to him.

He didn't sound like a guy who was desperate to get back in.

He sounded like someone who was, you know, 67 years old and enjoying his life, you know,

but from talking to people who know him around the league, it sounds like he does want this

job and he is really interested and I think he's going to be a candidate.

I don't know how serious a candidate he's going to be because the search has only just begun,

leaves a fire to search for him and there's a lot of people around the league that want

the job, but I do think that my guilt is going to get an interview and we'll see where

it goes from there.

Who are some other candidates?

And that's a great question.

I mean, the arrow is here, I've always been pointing to Doug Armstrong for years because

I think the ownership group here is really fascinated by him, but every indication is that

St. Louis is not going to let him out of the contract that he signed.

He signed a three year deal to move into the president's role in St. Louis and to mentor

Alex Dean as the GM and Tom Stolman, the owner in St. Louis doesn't want to let him out.

So and Dallas quickly moved to give an extension to Jim Nill as well.

I mean, that was another candidate.

Right now in the president's role, I don't have a long list of candidates for you.

We're kind of waiting for that to shape up.

In the GM role, I mean, the one name that's come up and again, Elliot Friedman mentioned

this on Saturday on the broadcast is Sunny Mehta, who is the analytics driven GM, assistant

GM with Florida and, you know, I know Sunny really well.

I mean, he's one of the most established analytics minds in the NHL.

He's been a, I would say a big secret weapon in the Panther's success the last five or

six years since he's been there.

And I think it would be really fascinating if the Leafs go that route where they have

someone like Mike Gillis who hasn't had an NHL front office role in 12 years since he

left Vancouver.

If he's the president and the GM is someone who's never been a GM like Sunny Mehta who's

a really, really heavy analytics person, it's going to be fascinating here.

And I think it's going to be even more radical than when they had Brandon Shanahan and Kyle

Dubas as the president and GM here.

But yeah, unfortunately at this early stage, I don't have a long list of presidential

candidates for you because it's going to depend who, who's able to get out of their

contract and who can leave their team and there's going to be some teams that are active

in the playoffs.

And this might be one where we need to wait for the dust to settle here for another few

weeks before we know exactly who's in the running.

Are they definitely going to have a president and then a general manager underneath?

And is that necessary in Toronto to provide a bit of a buffer between the GM and ownership?

I think it's important also that that's one reason why it's important.

But the other reason is that Toronto's front office is so big.

There's so many people that like they had six assistant GMs this season and I think

it was a little bit overwhelming for Bradshaw living to manage all of that staff and

all of our opponents.

Pardon me.

Who are you again?

Well, it's just a lot.

You know, like, Bradshaw living's number one focus was fixing the lease roster, right?

And then all of a sudden, you've got, you know, you've got a huge scouting department.

You've got an analytics department that's really big that's, you know, eight or nine people.

You've got a player development department department that's huge.

There's just a lot of people.

It's, you go to a team like Carolina and their front office is tiny and, you know, I do

the story on them last year and I walked around their offices and I talked to everybody

and I was, you know, once you've talked to eight or nine people, you're done.

But in Toronto, it's like there's like the front office is like 50 people, you know, and

so there's a lot of people managing that has to happen.

There's some managing up that has to happen.

Like you said, so I think it makes sense to have a president in a GM.

Now I could see a world where someone comes in and takes both of those titles.

You know, if you're hiring a way, unestablished GM from another team and the way that you

can get them in is by giving them a promotion, I could see someone come in and say, you know

that I could do the president and the GM role at least for a year or two until I hire someone

to be the GM, but I don't think that they should leave that president role vacant because

that's part of what's gone wrong here.

I thought it was really interesting when Keith Pelley said, you know, I think it's more

of a retool than a rebuild and then he pointed to some foundational pieces in Toronto and

I think most people took those as Austin Matthews and William Neilander and I found it interesting

not because of that opinion, but because I wonder how that affects the hiring process.

Is that a signal to any potential GM or president that if you want the job, you better echo

those sentiments?

Yeah.

No, 100% and I believe that that is coming right from the top from higher than Keith Pelley.

I think that that's coming from ownership that they don't want to tear it down and rebuild

and there's a fear around the league about the tear down rebuilds, you know, and then there's

a lot of people around the league are a lot of executives are talking up, you know, like,

look at what Boston did and look at what Pittsburgh's done and look at what Washington's done

where you can do the, you know, this retool on the fly is getting a lot of shine lately

from around the league and I don't know that it's deserved because until someone does a

retool on the fly and wins a Stanley Xopper or becomes a contender perennially, then I'll

believe in it, but I think that the retool on the fly is a good recipe to end up stuck

in mediocrity and stuck like Washington is where, okay, so you made the playoffs last

year, but you had no chance of beating the best teams this year, you missed the playoffs,

you know, like, what's your direction and why is that the way you want to go?

But I think it's the classic tale here with the financial motivations being they want

to keep the building full, they want to keep the TV ratings up, they don't want to end

up, they don't want to end up frankly like what's happened with Detroit and Buffalo and

those are huge red flags, I think, to an owner that if you go into the tear down, it might

take a long time and you might not come out of it, but I think that they're missing the

fact that there have been teams that have done the tear down have turned around relatively

quickly and that's a path to getting to where the least need to go that I think makes

more sense than trying to retool where they're at.

Where is Austin Matthews game right now?

Where is he compared to the guy that we saw a couple years ago score almost 70 goals?

Yeah, I mean, he hasn't been that guy in two years, you know, and he's had a lot of injuries

and there's a lot of miles on his body and unfortunately, I think it's possible that he

could just be one of those players that declines at a little bit of a younger age than the

average around the league and, you know, it's possible that he's just never able to get

back to being that player again.

I mean, two, three years ago, he was a guy that you talked about in the undisputable top

three top four players in the world, you know, like he was, there was, you know, people weren't

saying Nathan McKinnon's better than Austin Matthews three or four years ago, you know, when he

scored, he had the 69 goals and he won a heart trophy one year and now, I mean, he's not even

in that conversation at all and it's not quite the same as I don't think Elias Patterson

in Vancouver, you know, Matthews has still been, he's been really elite defensively, you know,

I think what you saw at the Olympics is what Austin Matthews is, he can still make some good

plays. He can still be your number one center, but instead of being a, you know, a 60, 65 goal,

100 point guy, he's kind of like, you know, he'll get to 40, 42 goals and maybe he'll get to 85

points and be excellent defensively, but your pain of 13.25 and you're not really getting a 13.25

million dollar player. So I, the Leafs foundational pieces, if that's what they're going to call them,

you know, William Younger is going to be 30 years old. Austin Matthews, as I said, is a diminished

player. They tried to trade Matthew and I at the trade deadline. So is he a foundational piece?

The blue line doesn't have any foundational pieces. The goal tenders are, I think they have

decent goal tending, even though it's been a bit of a slog this year, but they don't have any

top prospects coming. They don't have any high picks. I think the foundational pieces they have

are pretty minimal and it's going to take some kind of a wizard to come in here and fix this.

Is there any possibility or are you hearing any suggestions that Austin Matthews could throw

a wrench into Keith Pelley's plans just by saying like, hey, you know what, I'm done here. I don't

really want to be here anymore. It wouldn't shock me. You know, it wouldn't shock me if he goes the

Queen Hughes route and either tells them that in in July or early next season, if things are

going well early in the year. I think that that could happen for sure, but if ownership and

the president and GM and whoever you bring in here is committed to a retool and not a rebuild,

my concern would be if they trade Austin Matthews, it's not going to be for future pieces. It's

going to be for something that they think they can try and turn things around with and that feels

even harder to do. So it's going to be really interesting to watch. I mean, the process of

Vancouver has gone through this year where they really tear it down and finish in the basement and

potentially get Gavin McKenna and in the process that Toronto is going through. I think there's

parallels there and it'll be interesting to see which one has more success over the next five

or six years. Well, the situation in Vancouver was not a choice. The situation in Vancouver was

forced upon them through a number of things that happened to the team and essentially players

not wanting to be there anymore. You know, I think Vancouver, even though the fans are excited

about the potential to bring in some high-end talent like at Gavin McKenna and maybe even landed

DuPont next year, like it's going to be a long process in Vancouver and I don't agree with

ownership saying we're not going to do that in certain markets as you alluded to, but I totally

understand it because the interest in the canox, especially down the stretch here, is really,

really waning and we just see it on our post game shows. We see it in our text inbox on our show.

It's kind of like, all right, get to the end of the season and then maybe we'll pick up the

attention when it comes to decisions like are you going to keep the coach or you can keep the

general manager what kind of moves are you going to make and get us to the draft lottery and

you know, I understand I don't agree with it, but I understand the concerns for ownership.

Yeah, I just, for Vancouver, what was the other path? You know, when I go home to BC and I talk to

my relatives and my dad there about where they're like, oh boy, that you know the cuckstank and

where they at and it's like, well, at least like they have a path here that sort of makes sense,

at least they're going to get some high end talent. Because what they were doing before,

like there was no, if the goal, if your sole goal is to win a Stanley Cup, then what they were

doing before wasn't going to work. Like, I don't think that there was a way for them to do that.

And I think that where Toronto's at is they're probably just, you know, I don't know, a year or two

or three away from being where Vancouver is where they're going to look at it and be like, we've

got no choice, but now we have to rebuild. And all you did is you wasted those two or three years

kind of in the wilderness trying to do something that wasn't possible.

What do you think about the job that Kyle Dubas has done in Pittsburgh? Because, you know,

the penguins are, are a very impressive team this season. They're probably going to make the

playoffs. They held on to guys like Brian Rustin and Eric Carlson and Sid, of course, is,

you know, still Sid almost close to what he, what he used to be is a point of game guy.

Every year, Geno has looked better. I thought when he's been healthy, but at some point,

those guys aren't going to be there. And I just wonder what that's going to leave in Pittsburgh.

I think that they've probably had the most impressive season in turn round of anyone. I know

everyone's talking about Buffalo and Columbus and, you know, Utah's going to make the playoffs.

And but almost everybody thought Pittsburgh was going to bottom out this year. I mean,

they were brutal last year. And I, the, the, the playoffs for them, I think they were projected,

finished fourth last in the league. So for them to do what they did. And all of the reclamation

projects they brought in there in Anthony, Manta and Parker were their spoon. I mean, the half

their team is reclamation projects. They've hit on a whole bunch of those. So I think it's really

fascinating. I mean, we all know that Kyle Dubas is analytically driven and he's got some really

good scouts in there. You know, Wes Clark that's come from, from the Maple Leafs. They drafted

well. It had been Kindles. I had a really good season for season there as a kid.

And they're going to be a team to watch that maybe they can do that. Maybe they can have their

cake and eat it too, where they make the playoffs with, with Malcolm and, and Crosby still playing,

but they can set the foundation. You know, they've got tons of draftbacks. I mean,

that's kind of like the opposite situation of Toronto. Yes, they have the older core that's

going to have to go at some point, but maybe they can stay competitive and make the playoffs

in the next few years and continue to draft well and use those picks. And I don't know.

With what they've done, I think that, like I said, I think it's the most impressive thing that

any team has done around the league this year hasn't been talked about enough because no one gave

them a chance of doing anything. And now it looks like, I mean, I think they're going to be a team

that I've seen them beat some really good teams over the last few weeks. And it's very real.

And there's a lot of players in that roster that nobody's talking about. I mean, they pick up

Chinokov for a second round pick from Columbus. And he's not, he's scoring on like a 40 goal pace

in Pittsburgh. So if you hit like that enough times, then you can probably retool on the fly.

It's just, it's really difficult to do any NHL these days.

Is Chinokov, he's playing with Sid, right? Oh, boy. I mean, you're, sorry, I'm putting you

on the spot there. I think I'm going to do it again. And anyway, I think he is.

I'm going to put you on the spot again. And it's a, it's a bit of a different topic. But

I remember we were chatting when you were out our way on a Leafs Road trip. And you went to

Seattle and you were thinking of doing a story on the Seattle hockey market. Did that, did that

go anywhere? Are you going to write about the Kraken? Did you write? Did I miss it?

It's in the can. I don't, it's running soon. So people are, if people are excited to read about

the Seattle Kraken. And you know, I wrote the piece. I don't want to give away too much of it.

But I kind of wrote about the ownership group there in the market. And then they're in,

they're at five to five year mark for them. So, you know, they're going to miss the playoffs

again this year. They're, they're potentially, you'd look like they are going to be in the draft

lottery as well with the way they end of their season's gone. So, you know, it's, it's very

interesting with Seattle to contrast them with how things have gone in Vegas, right? Then that's

what everyone does around league is Vegas comes in four years earlier, wins a Stanley Cup within

the first six years and it's been in a playoffs almost every single season. And Seattle is still

kind of scuffling along. So, you know, and with the NBA coming in there, it's interesting too. So,

yeah, I do. I have a really thorough deep dive story that's coming out. I would say within

the next week about that. Yeah. And I think the, the point is, is that not enough people care about

the Kraken. And being in Vancouver, we have a kind of a weird relationship with Seattle because,

you know, Mike and I are both huge Seahawks fans. If the Mariners are doing well, we're,

we're happy for them, although, you know, sometimes we have to make a choice between the Mariners

and the Blue Jays. You know, we, we don't like their soccer team. And we are, I think at this

stage, almost like indifferent to the Kraken, which kind of stinks because we were looking forward

to Seattle having a team and the rivalry between the two teams and both teams are so bad right now

that it hasn't really developed. It almost reminds me of when like the Grizzly Sonics rivalry never

came to fruition just because the Grizzlies were so bad and then the Grizzlies left.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I, I'm a big fan of Seattle. I spent a lot of time there when I used to live in

BC and I love the city. And I hope that that's not the case. I hope they figure it out. But you're

right. I mean, the thing is when you, when I used to go there 20, 25 years ago, it's not a hockey

city. No, it's, and people there will know that. Like there's not a hockey culture there at all.

And the ownership group when they went in there, they went in with eyes wide open. And, you know,

part of what my story's going to get into is that they, they really have to build from the ground

up. It's the same as going into Nashville or Tampa or like they, they need to build a hockey culture

there. So that takes time, you know, and people were skeptical. It was going to work in Nashville and

Tampa. And now you go there or San Jose or wherever and you go there on a game day and there's

people that have been die hard to that. I was in Carolina last year for a story. I spent four or

five days there and I'm taking an Uber to the ring. And the Uber driver's going on and on about

these, you know, depth prospects that are in the system for the hurricanes. And, you know, the

Uber driver's 29 years old and he's just been a die hard hurricane fan. I could have been in

Winnipeg or something, right? Talking to a Uber driver. So that culture can be built in it,

and it can, and it's weird, you know, having someone, you know, with a heavy southern accent

that's like talking about, you know, like someone playing in the AHL that was drafted three years ago.

And, you know, but so it can happen. But I think the thing that, and I, you guys in your market

would recognize this because you're so close to Seattle and people know it. But I think people

outside of, you know, like, let's say in Toronto, people haven't spent time in Seattle. Don't

realize that there's just really no, not a lot of hockey culture there at all. And you, you go to

a game there and I'm sure you guys have been to games there in like the, a lot of the fans there

are going to some of their first NHL games ever and they don't really know the sport. So that's

going to take time. And they recognize that and they're doing things to work on that. And again,

that's that's part of what, what the story's going to get into.

Marshall, this was great bud. Thanks for taking the time to do it. By the way,

can't confirm Chinacoff is an online with Crosby and Brian Rust. It's a CC R line in Pittsburgh.

Oh, okay. That's a nice place to drop in from Columbus or whatever. Not too bad. Thanks for doing

this, Mertle. Yeah. Thanks guys.

Too bad if we get on James Mertle from the athletic here on the Halford and Breath Show on sports

that's 650. The CC R line, they call them the fortunate sons. Yeah. Well done. Thank you.

Uh, I'm going to do what we learned before we go to break to kind of get the ball rolling. Okay.

Maybe some people out there and listen to their land will return serve.

Dumbart learned text line is 650, 650, get your what we learned in.

Hashtag MWWL and tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. I got not one,

but two sports documentaries on the horizon that I recently learned about and I'm very excited

to watch. Okay. What's number one? The first one is the, I'll go in chronological order here. The

first one is the jail blazers. You see no untold. Yeah. They've done a series

over the last five years on Netflix. Some of them have been good. Some of them have not been

so good. Uh, jail blazers is obviously the story of the Portland Trailblazers back in the early

2000s team that included Rashid Wallace, Damon Stodemire, Zach Randolph, Ruben Patterson,

constantly getting in trouble with the La Bonzi Wells. I believe makes a prominent appearance in it.

Very talented teams, sort of most famously lost to the Kobe Shack Lakers in the Western

conference final in their one great run, but more known for smoking weed and getting in trouble

with the law over their time. And it's an interesting look at, I think there was a real cultural

element too. Yeah. The city and the market of Portland really sort of, I have not thought about

the Portland Trailblazers in a long time. And I'm a guy that used to go down there and watch some

of those games, some of those big games like I great basketball. Remember when they had fallen on

hard times, some great series against the Utah jazz. Tom Dundin just bought them. Yeah. Yeah.

I'll be very curious. Uh, well, that documentary sounds interesting, but like,

are they going to be, they need to be relevant soon? Do they need to need a new, new, new arena,

too? I think they've been petitioning to get one. Okay. Because the motor center is quite aged.

They've been in the playoffs for a while. They've been irrelevant for a while. Yeah. Okay. What's

the second doc? Oh, Cogan one. And this one, uh, oh, that shouldn't create any controversy.

This was the one that he was filming at the time of his death when he had his heart attack.

So it's actually got, it's, uh, I've got it right here. I can't remember the name. Oh,

Hulk Hogan real American. This one's in conjunction with WWE. It's not an untold one.

Hmm. I don't know how editorial it's going to get because it's a WWE production.

The answer is very, very what editorial. How, did you see it? No, I'm just saying if it's going

to be in conjunction with the WWE, it's not like going to drop a bunch of dirt on the guy.

You know, it's going to be very important. That's what I mean by it. Like I don't know if I,

I think we're talking about two different things here. Like I mean like a critical editorial look

at the individual. Not heavily edited. Sorry. It will, it will be heavily edited as well. Yeah.

I don't want to be. I'm wondering how like they don't mind throwing the dirt around a little bit.

So it's impossible. Okay. Put it back. It's impossible. It's impossible to do a Hulk Hogan

documentary without getting into the numerous controversies surrounding him, especially in the

back half of his career. Also, the hook for this one is that it has the last ever interview

conducted with Hulk Hogan before he suffered the heart attack and passed away. So that's a big

hook and these are both coming out in separate weeks. I believe the jail blazers one is next week

and the Hulk Hogan one is April 22nds of the week following. Okay. There you go. Your sports

documentary, What We Learns courtesy me, Mook Owett. You're listening to the best of Halford and