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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Cerebelli.
Chapter 2: What updates are there on the Vancouver Canucks GM search?
Cerebelli. Cerebelli. Frank. Cerebelli. Frank. Cerebelli. Frank. Frank. 703 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford, Braff, Sportsnet, 650. Alfred in Broad for the Morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands & Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands-trustee.com.
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Let's go now to the Able Auctions hotline. Our next guest is our NHL insider from Victory Plus. Frank Cervelli joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Frank. How are you? Pretty good. How are you guys doing? We're well. Let's start with the Vancouver Canucks GM search. Let's start with the names before we get to the lists, which is a thing.
What are you hearing about the names of the guys that the Vancouver Canucks are interviewing for their vacant GM position?
Well, the process is still really just kicking off in the list. There's names being added to it, I'm sure, on a daily basis. I think Well, not I think. I can tell you what I know is that the thought emanating around the league is that the Canucks are searching for someone with prior GM experience. So you can kind of chop up the list from that perspective moving forward.
Kevin Adams, which was of course reported yesterday, and his tenure in Buffalo certainly has a different look based on the Sabres' consequentially winning the division. You've got some of the other recent candidates who have been in the mix in other markets, including Peter Chiarelli, Mark Bergevin.
If you go really through the list of anyone who's been a general manager recently, you could probably even add in, I'm sure there's calls being made for Ron Hextall. Go through the whole list. smorgasbord of candidates that have experience. So that's an easy exercise. Um, and then I think to contrast that the real question is where does Ryan Johnson fit in with all of this?
And if Ryan Johnson was the top candidate, why has there been a hesitation to make that switch?
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Chapter 3: What are the names being considered for the Canucks GM position?
I mean, I'm not trying to advocate for the way that things are going. I also think that it gets very muddled when Rutherford's sticking around for what feels like an indeterminate length of time. Like, if you're going to make the change, why not just make the change? But just to play devil's advocate here, how much of this might have to do
with trying to talk to as many candidates as possible, interview as many individuals as possible, and maybe not even necessarily for job candidacy, but just to, you know, when you pick the brains of people to get the idea of what people think of your organization, what the outside view is of your team, what people are willing to tell you, and maybe what people aren't willing to tell you in the interview process.
I'm always a big advocate for a fact-finding mission and to learn as much about how the perspective on the outside views your organization. I think there's a ton of value in that. I just don't, I don't necessarily see that being a logical explanation for the potential difference in path based on what we're talking about. Sure. You know, the Canucks have really never been big on
outside influence and league view because just look at their searches over the last number of 10 years they generally tend to be pretty short-lived and with a small pool of candidates that some of it seems predetermined from the start like when when Jim Rutherford was brought in like we didn't there wasn't like a big wide-ranging net that was cast around the league. They made the choice.
Francesco Aquilini met and went with Jim Rutherford and convinced him to come out west and take the job. It was kind of as simple as that. So now to think that there's going to be this, hey, we're going to do this totally differently than we've ever done it before, I don't know if I buy that.
You're right about that, Frank, because, you know, I think that goes back to even before Jim Rutherford. Yes. You know, John Tortorella, when he was hired, I don't know how many other candidates the Canucks were looking at then. And then I remember Trevor Linden named president of Hockey Ops, and we almost immediately heard Benning and Willie Desjardins. And that's how it played out.
Linden went out to interview Benning, and he was the general manager.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and Bob's your uncle. I mean, that's basically how it's worked. And so that's why when we initially heard Rian Johnson, you thought, okay, maybe this is a fait accompli. Maybe this is just something that's preordained to happen.
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Chapter 4: How does experience factor into the Canucks GM selection process?
All those things sort of loom large. Does this give them added ammunition to say, hey, we can still be a good team? I don't know how all that meshes together, but I think it feels like the Penguins are just kind of playing out the string until those players are moving on. I don't know that they're going to hasten it after this.
I just think of some of the players that could monetize now, right? They could trade, and we talked about this last year, they could trade Brian Russ. They could trade Ricard Raquel. Maybe you look at an Eric Carlson deal again this offseason because he's only got one year left on that contract. But I understand what you're saying.
Kyle Dubas has already been vocal saying, I'm not trading Eric Carlson this summer. He actually answered that a couple weeks ago.
Chapter 5: What is the significance of Ryan Johnson in the Canucks GM search?
Look, I think you enjoy the ride and you see if maybe you can piece together enough for one more run next season. But again, it's almost like an unexpected bonus that they've received as this core has aged significantly.
The Nashville GM search, just to see if there's any overlap with what's going on in Vancouver. Is there a leading candidate there right now?
I think there's three that had separated themselves before Tom Fitzgerald went to Nashville this week. There's some overlap with the Leafs. Scott White is one of those guys overlapping. The other two guys that had put themselves in a strong position and had multiple in-person interviews were Bill Scott of the Edmonton Oilers and Brett Peterson of the Florida Panthers.
I think the big question this week is where does Tom Fitzgerald fall into all this? Does he become the frontrunner? Is it his job? There's only a tiny overlap between that and Toronto and then thinking how Vancouver plays into all this. I mean, I think you would probably include Tom Fitzgerald in that experienced pool. But other than that, those guys have not held the GM title somewhere else.
Hey, before we let you go, I know you don't cover the National Basketball Association, but there's an interesting overlap here with the NHL as it pertains to Tom Dundon and what he's currently going through. So for those that are unaware, I'll just try and recap this real quick. He's purchased the Portland Trailblazers. He's using a lot of his...
uh conservative financial approaches that he used with the carolina hurricanes now with the portland trailblazers the only big difference is is that you know nba coverage and specifically nba twitter is a lot more robust and quite frankly there's a lot more eyeballs on him as the owner of the trailblazers than there is as the carolina hurricanes and he's getting um he's getting some less than stellar reviews for the ways that he's going about things are you first off are you following this story at all
I am. What do you think of the way that Dundon is approaching this in light of how he did things in Carolina? And I got to say, it's been moderately successful. They haven't won a Stanley Cup, but they've still been a perennial playoff team.
I think moderately is underselling what's happened in Carolina. Sure. I think in a lot of ways, they are one of the model franchises right now for how a team should operate in 2026. Yeah. And I think they've nailed the notion of sustainable long-term competitive window. And I think they get in a way that they've built their team. They get this more than anyone else.
I think the biggest thing going on right now that's, that is costing NHL team success is the constant change that occurs in front offices and behind the bench. The fact that Carolina can shape their team, knowing that they're committed to Rod Brindamore for the foreseeable future, and for that I mean as long as Rod Brindamore wants to coach, they can build their roster around him.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of ownership's dual-list strategy for the Canucks?
But generally the people that do something different for the first time are ostracized. And I talked to some people in Carolina yesterday amid all this coverage, and they said it felt like deja vu, that they are watching the same thing play out in the NBA that they did in, in Raleigh.
And I I'd have to say that it's hard to argue with a guy that's been that successful and has found this much success in pro sports.
Great answer, Frank. Thanks for this, man. We appreciate it. Have a good one, guys. You too. Thanks. That's Frank Cervalli from Victory Plus here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We can get into that conversation and a whole lot more coming up because we've got an open segment on the other side. 8 o'clock, Randeep Jand is going to join the program.
8.30, we're going to do what we learned. We're at the midway point of the show, so don't go anywhere. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.
Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app.
7.33 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates. Do you have credit card debt? If you do, Sands & Associates could cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at sands-trustee.com. Still in Hour 2 of the program, midway point of the show.
Hour 2 is brought to you by Jason Hominok at jason.mortgage. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit him online at jason.mortgage. So that conversation we were having with Frank Cervelli just prior to going to break was about Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon, who of course now...
is Portland Trailblazers owner Tom Dundon. Having recently purchased the team, Dundon is now undertaking some of the same financial ideologies. I'm trying to come up with very clever ways to say this without calling him cheap because that's not accurate.
Mm-hmm.
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