Sportsnet: Mike Halford and Jason Brough on if the Vancouver Canucks should go all-in this year heading into the trade deadline.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Brough: “Jim Rutherford is sitting up there with years of experience of buying before the deadline and having it work out in the playoffs. There hasn’t been…”
Off-camera guy 1: “So is Rutherford and Allvin now going to go nuts? Be like we’re trading Hoglander or and we’re trying to a bunch of other guys you thought we were gonna keep and we’re gonna go all in this year.”
Halford: “It is possible that this year we’re in right now is going to be the Canucks best chance to go deep in the playoffs for the next three or four years?”
Brough: “It’s possible in Rutherford looks at it. It’s possible that Rutherford looks at it and he’s like, we got something going on here.”
Off-camera guy 1: “Yeah, the team’s a lot better than we thought. Let’s go all in.”
Off-camera guy 2: “And look at the competition, right? You’re not going to have a year where it’s kind of open to the taking like this every year.”
Halford: “(Elias) Petterson. Petterson’s gonna get paid. (Filip) Hronek’s gonna get paid. And if they don’t get paid by the Canucks, they’re off the team, which is problematic for next season. Everyone will say ‘Oh, but the salary caps going up.’ Yeah, but that’s going to be chewed up immediately by the raises on two guys that are already on the team.
So it is very possible that this season the last of Petey’s bridge contract. Last Filip Hronek at a cap had a $4.4 million. This could be the season that, that organization looks at and goes, guys like I’m not saying we’re dead after this. I’m not saying we’re going to fold up shop after this.”
Off-camera guy 2: “But we might not have a better chance.”
Halford: “We might not have a better chance to do it than right now with everyone rolling the way they’re rolling.”
Brough: “If you want an instructive history lesson…”
Off-camera guy 1: “That’s nuts to say …”
Halford: “It’s crazy. It’s crazy.”
Off-camera guy 1: “… considering where we were before the season began, talking like this now. It’s nuts.”