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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
What we just have to call Thomas Grant's erotica. Thomas Grant's erotica.
Corsi.
Thomas Grant's erotica. Expected goals. Thomas Grant's erotica. Thomas Grant's Erotica Rush Thomas Grant's Erotica PDO Thomas Grant's Erotica 8.04 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. Are you drowning in tax debt?
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We go now to Buffalo, home of numerous Michelin-starred restaurants, which we now know the origin story of, by the way. Download our one of the podcasts for that fun and game.
I'm still feeling the shame. You shouldn't. Well, I should. And you know why? Why? Because I'm the snob of the show. Yeah, out of everyone that should know what a Michelin star is, it should be you. You're just right in there. Yeah. Like, I'm the snob. I'm always like, remember, I think it was just yesterday, I was like, your Burnaby is showing. Yeah. Right?
And every day.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Thomas Drance share about the Canucks at the NHL Draft Combine?
Okay. And I'm asking him, like, where's the best place for me to go eat wings and watch the Stanley Cup final game tomorrow, right? Because that's a natural thing that I'd want to do on a Thursday night in Buffalo. And he's like, well, there's this great place called Adolph's. And... And I'm sitting there and I'm trying so hard not to make a joke, right?
Like, I'm just like, oh, no, this is ahead of HR. Like, I can't do it. And I was like, any other options? And he was like, yeah, there's another great place called 9-11.
Are you serious?
What?
Are there any non-controversial restaurants in Buffalo? Michelin won't go near either of these. By the way, I know Adolph's, by the way. I remember from when we were there. We didn't go. It's called Adolph's Old Ward Tavern.
Yeah, you're just like, I shouldn't have worn this brown shirt.
So you got a choice between Adolph's and 9-11 is what you're saying? Those are your restaurant choices? I was just like, I was sitting there and I was just like, what am I supposed to do with this?
HR is already on line one. They're at the table with you. Okay. I'm assuming that in their tour of Buffalo and taking out a bunch of different prospects. The Canucks did not go to Adolph's or 9-11. But what do you make of all of these dinners that the Canucks are taking their prospects out to? Or their, sorry, their potential prospects. They're not Canucks property yet.
It's now I'm hearing McKenna, Stenberg, a handful of others as well. I don't have the names off the top of my head. I think Chase Reed was in there as well. Oh, and of course, Caleb Malhotra. Your boots on the ground there. What do you know, Drancer?
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Chapter 3: What are the latest updates on the Canucks' prospects?
What I think is unique for Bjork is, Because he got the opportunity to play against NHL players, you had this moment that a lot of these smaller players don't get, right? A lot of these smaller players, especially if they're also non-elite skaters, you're Alex Debrinket tier guys, fall in the draft because lazily.
NHL teams and amateur talent evaluators bring up questions about whether their games will translate. Will it translate though? It's not an elite skater. Zach Benson is another example. He's not an elite skater and he's not big. He's going to get pushed around in the playoffs and he doesn't have the speed to compensate. That's the classic storyline that sort of gets pushed.
And in Bjork's case, he got this really unique opportunity to play against NHL players and win draws against Ryan O'Reilly and, you know, match up and do very well against Nico Heischer and on and on, where all of that usual rigmarole and excuses sort of were shown patently to be silly on tape in exactly the venue that You know, most of these arguments get made it.
So that's sort of the thing where it's like any concerns you had about Bjork kind of got addressed really quickly. Like you've now seen him. And if you go read my piece in The Athletic, like I quote an NHL scout, like an amateur scout who says, you know, you saw it like he's not small and he's not slow.
Like he's not, he's just not, that's just not how it plays for him on a sheet with NHL players. In fact, on a big ice sheet against NHL players, he's still an effective four checker, right? Like you can't tell me he's slow if that's true.
So I think that's where Bjork's story is a little bit unique relative to what we usually see with guys of this size, where they sort of go into the draft class and there's question marks that remain about how they'll fare against NHL players. And in Bjork's case, those questions have already been answered.
Drancer, I am going to put you on the spot here a little bit here, but I imagine you've talked to people about Caleb's hot streak in the second half of the season and including the playoffs. What do you know about that streak? Like, was it a crazy shooting percentage run? Was he getting lucky? I'm very, very hesitant to bring up this comparison.
In fact, I hope you're able to shoot it down, but... In 2013-14, Jake Furtanen went on a run with the Calgary Hitmen, and he ended up scoring 45 goals in 71 games. And some of the people at the time were saying, yeah, that's not, if you want to say translate to the NHL, that's not going to translate to the NHL. A lot of his shots were from distance. They were beating goals.
They were shots that weren't going to beat NHL goalies, et cetera, et cetera. what do you know about this second half hot streak that Caleb Malhotra had from an offensive perspective?
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Chapter 4: How do the Canucks approach dinners with potential draft picks?
Like, Zdeno Chara... was a deeply unimpressive 17-year-old U-20 player in the Czech Extra Liga, right? Like, not even the men's Czech Extra Liga. And then he went to the WHL, and his 18-year-old, like in his draft plus one, had 22 points. Yeah. Nothing in that profile says this guy's going to be a 7-foot, you know, 6'8".
And you watched him play, and you're like, this guy looks awkward.
Yeah.
Right. But what the scoring profiles can't capture is, like, this guy speaks eight languages, right? This guy is a genius, like a genius. He's got his realtor's degree. He has multiple businesses. He started some of them while he was still playing.
After his playing days, he's a marathoner, and he's, like, an internationally ranked marathoner for his age who does the Boston Marathon every year, right? Like, he's an athletic freak. He's super competitive. He's mean, but he's also the best teammate. You know, like... That is never going to be captured in a scoring profile. It's just not. That is a special person.
He's an outlier person in terms of his quality in every aspect of his life. And you can't know that from what he produced at the U-20 level in Czechoslovakia at 17. That's the stuff. That's the number one thing I'd say. You can't know who that guy is. From their hockey DVD page.
And does the same go, like in character, does the same go for a guy with a very impressive scoring profile? 100%. Yeah. Or are there any other reasons where it just like, it doesn't translate?
Yeah, but think about it from the perspective of like, think about it from the perspective of like, if a guy has a substance abuse issue, right? Or if, you know, a guy like something like that, like that's not going to necessarily show up in a scoring profile, but it might be a factor.
If they're not a good teammate, if they're, you know, if their defensive play sucks so badly that they'll never be able to play top line minutes, right? Like, and if they don't care, you know, that stuff might not show up in a scoring profile, but matters a ton. So, yeah, I mean, I do try to check my work.
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of the Canucks' draft strategy this year?
And from what they've elaborated on with the right vision, the vision that we've been waiting for in this market for a long, long time in terms of slow cooking, a sustainably good hockey team, right? Like this might be the best chance that this market's had for the Canucks to actually patiently rebuild in a long, long time.
Now, whether they can stick to that jury's still out, but at the very least from the outset, I'm excited about where this seems to be going. but these guys need help.
Yeah.
Like to pull, pull this off. These guys need help. It's the first time co-presidents, first time general manager, first time head coach. These guys need help and they need experience. And for the most part, good help and good experience in this league is not cheap. And so I'm really excited to see where this franchise is beginning to steer and
we'll see like the proof's going to be in the pudding in terms of whether the moves are sage and in terms of whether or not they can pull this off. And it's not going to be easy and it's going to require a lot of patience. And I think everyone's prepared to give that to them. But I would, I'm very curious to sort of see like, is it just Manny? Are there other hires ready to go?
And how quickly can this organization get some experienced help in the door to support these guys and make sure that they're best positioned to actually succeed at pulling off what's going to be one of the most difficult to pull off beats? In the NHL, like an NHL team building across the last 25 years, to be totally honest with you.
So that's where I'm like beginning to get a little bit concerned. And I'm really, I'm really wondering if we see or hear something that begins to address that or allay any of those concerns from Ryan Johnson or from Manny Malhotra today.
Drancer, this was great. Thanks for this, bud. Enjoy Adolph's. I will. See you, boys. I might go to 9-11. I'm not going to lie. Okay. Enjoy that, too. Weird way of saying that. Thomas Trance from the Athletic Vancouver here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the Hometown Heroes Lottery.
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