Chapter 1: What is the current status of the Canucks GM search?
Canuck Central on a Friday. It's Satyar Shah and Biknazar broadcasting live from the Kintec studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintec. And this hour of Canuck Central is brought to you by your lower mainland. BC Liquor. Until May 30th, save $4 on Villa Maria, Private Bin, Sauvignon Blanc, and $7 off Steamworks John Oliver Lager. 15 packs. Visit your nearest BC Liquor today.
19 plus. Enjoy responsibly. Big show coming up for you today. We have Yannick Hansen joining us at the bottom of the hour, and it's Mailbag Friday, so get your questions and comments in. We always want to hear from you on the Dunbar Lumber text inbox, 650-650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver, four generations.
Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. What's happening, Vic? Friday, baby. Yep. Excited. Pumped up. Always fun on a Friday. We have producers Lina and Arash in the studio as well. Everybody's feeling good about the weekend?
TGIF. Yeah, there we go. I'm on hold for like 58 minutes just to make sure nothing drops so we're okay for the weekend.
Why 58 minutes? 4 o'clock p.m.
Friday.
The news dump. Nothing happens after 4 o'clock?
I'm just saying. It's usually around the time when we're getting ready for the weekend. They'll be like, hey, guess what? We're relocating. Lest we forget. What was it?
4.46 p.m.? 12.12? Yeah, we still have some time. Yeah. Tons of time. Yeah, I mean. Not to stress you out, but it's more like an hour and 58 minutes here. I'd say anything before six o'clock is premature. Yeah. Or we're going to five. We're going to be halfway home. We're like, I got to come back. Oh, man. Do the show. I don't anticipate. I got Friday night plans, too. Do you?
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Chapter 2: Who are the frontrunners for the Canucks GM position?
If you're bringing somebody else in, they're going to want to bring their own people around too. And one thing that's missing with Patrick Alvin gone, now you can dispute whether you think Patrick Alvin was a good talent evaluator or not, but he was a talent evaluator. That's a spot missing in the organization. So to me, it's you hire Evan Gold if he's the guy, that's a real positive.
I like a lot about what he can do, but I think it's still very much an incomplete picture about the staff he ends up putting around himself.
Just to compare it to, right, to exactly what you're saying, right, of you can't necessarily use, like, previous draft classes, be like, oh, this is what this person has done, and that's why their talent evaluation acumen is why they're jumping into this job. Like, we wouldn't assign the recent Bruins draft classes, successes or failures, to Evan Gold, right?
Because to your point, it's like, are you in the spot where you're making talent evaluation decisions, right? and I'm not saying this as an endorsement, but go back to time when Jim Benning arrived. It was like, oh, someone who was director of their amateur scouting in Buffalo. Someone who spent time through the process in Boston.
You can go back to those draft classes and you think, oh, well, it was responsible for those Jason Palmanville, Derek Roy, like all that cluster of... Sabres hockey, that next cluster of Bruins hockey, you know, we're not necessarily assigning that to Evan Gold in this spot here from what's recently occurred in Boston.
Now, if you were to do that and someone were to bring a talent evaluator from Boston, has their recent success or their recent draft classes given you... hope that there's success coming there. Definitely not. And so I think the luster of the Bruins has kind of, like, shown off a bit here because traditionally, like, I've marveled at, like, the floor of the Bruins. As an organization.
As an organization. Yeah. Because they've always, like, I'm talking, like, Borca days.
Yeah.
It's gone like Bork, McAvoy, Chara. They've been solid. But the shine's starting to come off a little bit here. Yeah, and just to be clear, Evan Gold has not been in charge of the drafting part of things for the Boston Bruins. And I think... The greatest skill set an executive can have, a general manager, isn't necessarily just the strengths that you have.
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Chapter 3: How might Evan Gold and Ryan Johnson's roles differ if both are hired?
And who's the boss? You can say this person has a VP title, but who's actually the boss? Who's the key hockey ops decision maker? And based on what Rutherford said, the GM is going to be that guy. Yeah. So if they hire someone to be the GM, are you going to promote someone above that? You could, but are you then... How solid do you feel as the GM that's coming in?
And also, if you're RJ, it's like, well, you're above him, but you're not going to be the key hockey op decision maker. Is that what you're looking for or not? So that's the biggest thing. So unless you have those two individuals working together in unison and they've been part of the process and they work as a tandem, okay, you can move forward with it. But that's where...
I do wonder about the feasibility when you go through the logistics of both those guys ultimately being here. Yeah, feels clunky. Feels very, very clunky if you're doing it that way. 650, 650. This one, Mike in Calgary, you need to hire at least two people. Alvin's gone or other first gone. And for one reason or another, you need to replace RJ as a GM.
If he were to depart, divide hockey ops, make gold VP of analytics, cap management, and RJ GM or VP of player personnel or something. Why would gold come and do that? if all he is is a VP analytics cap management guy and he's not the key hockey ops decision maker, why leave your post in Boston for that? Is that truly a promotion?
I guess if you pay them enough and throw a VP title and whatnot, but is that what you're... Is that the carrot that he's going to grab? to come to Vancouver. Again, I'm not reporting. I'm just wondering about this because there's been a lot of talk about bringing both him and Evan Gold and Rian Johnson together. I understand what people are saying. I think it's logical how they're presenting it.
But think of it from that individual standpoint. Is that actually a promotion from where you're at? Yeah. That feels like a lateral move. Yeah. If you're not in a position to actually make the changes or be the one in charge... Yeah, it feels like you're always going to be on thin ice. And right now, this organization desperately needs stability more than anything.
If you have people on thin ice in decision-making, how is that going to transpire for what happens here moving forward? Yeah, and I think that's the part of it. And what's fascinating, too, is because we mentioned this, that the new general manager, like Rutherford himself said, is going to make the decision on the head coach. If Ryan Johnson does become the general manager...
Would it not stand to reason, because he knows everything that's happened in this organization, that he would play the card to bring Manny in? Right. Again, I'm just... Listen, we're talking through... I don't want people to radio me and say that Ryan Johnson is going to fire Adam Foote and bring Manny Malhotra in.
But just in terms of... I've been thinking about this a lot in terms of how things have come together. And I will say this. The Canucks are very careful with what they're trying to let out. So you're trying to find out stuff from the outside to some degree. But... To me, the likelihood of a coaching change is dependent on who the GM is, ultimately.
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Chapter 4: What challenges could arise from hiring both Evan Gold and Ryan Johnson?
But then when we bring the next person in, it'll be one year later in the process. And it's more likely that that person sticks through the next kind of curve. And perhaps he's here when the team is ready to be more competitive. All right. So let me throw my corporate hat on. Okay. What is the most... Likely scenario of the most cost-effective way to do this. Bring a new GM in?
No, I'm saying like playing this out between the two candidates here, right? You can hire Evan Gold, which is luring someone away from another organization. So there's a cost to that. Right. And then retaining the coach or promoting Rian Johnson, which is a cost to that, of course, because it's a new job title. But then potentially relieving the coach and promoting someone else.
Would that play a role in this of like, okay, this avenue costs this much, this avenue costs this much, and that goes into the decision-making process? I don't know if it's the cost of that I don't think is going to be overly different because I don't think that Adam Foote's under a massive contract.
And as much as Manny has cachet, is he going to be coming in demanding three, four, five million per season? Doubtful. And given that Gold nor Ryan Johnson have been GMs in the first place, they're also not going to be demanding massive salaries, right? So I think it's pretty equal overall.
But the cheapest way would be to just bring one person in as a GM, keep the head coach on, and then figure it out later. But I think that's the thing where the decision on the coach could really differ depending on whether it's RJ or Evan Golden. I think that's an interesting thing to kind of keep an eye on. Days away now, it feels like. Yeah, I think we'll find out pretty quickly here next week.
Once again, I don't think we're finding out this week, but I think by next week, we'll find out. Mike, the retired Vancouver writer in Toronto says, I said, I hope Martin Madden is not out of the running as he was the sole candidate with a track record of success as a talent evaluator. That's Mike in Toronto. I would love to see Martin Madden. I think he would be perfect.
And I would say, again, I have not heard that he's still in the mix. I have not, right? I'm not saying he's out of the mix, but right now, what I have heard is that it's down to RJ and Evan Gould. Could things change? I suppose, right? And also, per Jim's words, like, once this all gets revealed, it would make sense. Yes.
It feels like we're trying to make sense of this right now, but if it's down to two people, it is kind of hard to see where's the next person kind of fit in above or below this process if it's down to these two guys. I would love, like for me, the perfect scenario here would be that you bring in Martin Madden in addition to whoever your GM is. I would love to see that happen.
And one thing that I think would make that at least plausible is that Madden may not want to be a GM in the first place, but could you give him a big raise, add a title to his post, and bring him to Vancouver to be that guy?
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