Chapter 1: What are Jannik Hansen's thoughts on the Vancouver Canucks' current season?
Hey, what's up? Welcome to Canucks Talk on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd, Thomas Drance here. Drance, of course, also covers the team for the Athletic. We are broadcasting live from the Kintex studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintex 650. 650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. And this hour of the show is presented by Waffle House Diner. Enjoy chicken and waffles.
The Waffle House Special Classic Full Breakfast and more. Dine in or order on your favorite delivery app. Breakfast done right. What's going on, Drance?
Not much, buddy. I'm excited. This is the last Canucks home game. Correct. It is appropriately raining. Yes. This season is nearly over. It is fan appreciation night. Yes. And you know what? The fans should be deeply appreciated. This year, more than most, fans have really stuck with this team. I think the atmosphere at Rogers Arena has been...
way more consistent than the team's form has deserved. I think the attendance numbers, like the amount of people in the building, like this has not been a grim season from a atmosphere at the building perspective. This has not been empty seats. This has not been the late 90s.
Chapter 2: How does Chris Pronger evaluate Adam Foote during a rebuild?
This has not been the 1980s in Vancouver. This has been, you know, not as boisterous as the market often is when the team is worth watching and paying for. Yeah, of course not. But given the circumstances, man, like... If you ever, now, look, we're going through or the Canucks are going through season ticket renewals now.
We'll see what this looks like in year two, year three of a rebuilding process. But I also think there's an argument that this is probably the darkest moment in the rebuild. Right. I mean, next year, at least you'll probably have Braden Coots on the roster. Like you'll begin to have hopefully have a top three pick on the roster. Hopefully have the number one overall pick. But 25 percent of that.
Yeah. But in any event, you're going to have like the fruits of the suffering are going to begin to work their way into the NHL. in the years to come, which should provide entertainment value, especially given, you know, what we know about the ceiling case for those types of players, right?
In the depths, what I would call the depths of the rebuild, man, the amount that this fan base showed up to watch this team, I think should embolden this organization to do what's necessary. Like, it really seems like the fears about how painful rebuilding could be in this market were...
I don't want to say lies, but that's probably fair, at the very least, haven't been realized to any significant extent this year.
And I think if the high pick this year is Key and Brinkoots, to a lesser degree, because if it was going to be another year of this, then I think concerns about attendance and fan engagement would be totally valid, and I'd be right there. And who knows? Again, we all know the odds, right, that there's a 55% chance that they're going to be picking third. But if they do pick first or even second,
The excitement around that is going to build so quickly. And even third, if it's somebody who can step into the lineup next year and come right in, if it's Keaton Verhoff or whoever, or Reid or even Malhocher or something like that, but somebody who's there and present, the excitement around that player is going to build incredibly quickly as well.
Although it's very critical in my mind, especially because I'm still a Verhoff, should go third overall. Let's ask Chris Pronger. Pronger has some strong... Sorry, I don't know if you've done the bookkeeping.
Yeah, I was going to get into it, but so... So we a little bit of a different show today because we are going to speak to Chris Pronger in the 1230 segment. Ryan Clark from ESPN is going to join us at one.
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Chapter 3: What internal options are being considered for the Canucks' coaching staff?
And that means right now, a little earlier than normal, joining us on the Able Auctions hotline. He's brought to you by the Metro Ford. He is former Canuck Yannick Hanson. Yannick, thanks for doing this. Thanks for accommodating us and coming on a little earlier. How are you?
Just because you got a Hall of Famer coming, I get pushed? How's that fair? You know what? I think it's a fair question. You know what? For Pronger, I guess I can scoot 25 minutes.
That's fair enough. Like many forwards in your era, right? You make space for Pronger.
You know what? When I got called up in that playoff against Anaheim and we played them there, I was digging in the crease at one point and he kind of like, he laughed and he's like, you want to do something here? And I was like, this is not one of the proudest moments, but I probably, I skated away from that one. I was like, no, I'm not interested in this one.
Again, obviously he had a reputation. I don't know if I'd had five years in the league. I don't think my decision would have been any different. He definitely had a presence to go along with him.
It's the laughter, right? Like he was obviously a... apex level sort of predatory defensive defenseman, physical player. But like that, that video, every having worked with him in Florida, knowing him well, that photo of him smashing Justin Bieber against the boards in a celebrity game where he's like laughing so hard as he just smashes this guy.
Everything I've heard about him is that, that it was often done with a laugh like tongue in cheek. And then it was also, you know, vicious physical play.
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Chapter 4: What team awards are being given out and who are the potential MVP candidates?
I don't know if there was any laughter when we played them, but he was nasty to play against. He was obviously mean. It was that type of defenseman, that error. And at the same time, he had the size and the physicality to go along. So it wasn't like a pretend mean that you sometimes see along. He could back it up, whether it was...
yeah, dropping the gloves or hitting or like, like the stick work, the cross check, the slash, like, like it was, it was everything. As soon as you got within, it felt like 10 feet of him that the stick could reach you. And then you're probably going to get it.
So, Yannick, it's fan appreciation night for the Canucks tonight. And we were just talking about how great the fan support has been despite the awful home record and all the losing this year. And that also means they're giving out the team awards. And you won a bunch of these. You won Unsung Hero three times as a member of the Canucks. And you also won the Most Exciting Player Award once in 2013.
What does that mean to you as a player? What did it mean in the moment as a player to be singled out for those awards?
Right in the moment, not so much. Again, it's one of those things. It's individual accolades. Later on, it is nice. Oh, well, you recognized I did something above and beyond this year. But right when you're standing there, it's more awkward than it's like, yeah, I'm not excited to skate from the blue line down to take a picture next to this trophy. But yeah,
in the summer when you get a chance to reflect, you know what, hey, I had a pretty good year. I did this, that, and so forth, and that brought me success, and I'm going to try to take that along and add to my game and see if we can build around that. So it's one of those things that comes after the fact.
Yannick, I mean, you've been in this market now for years, Almost 20 years. I mean, 15 plus years since you first got called up and obviously you've made Vancouver your home.
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Chapter 5: What pressure points exist for NHL playoff contenders this season?
it like I think there's an argument to be made that this is the worst Canucks season of all time even worse than some of those expansion teams in the 70s based on regulation wins a variety of other factors but how do you sort of stack it up with some of those lean years that this franchise had in 2017 2018 is this the worst Canucks season you've ever seen since you moved out here
Yeah, it is. Because of the fact that now there's no quick turnaround. Those meager years you're alluding to, you still had Petey, Quinn, JT, Demko, all of these players, Bo Horvat, if you nitpick here which year you're taking. Right now, the cupboard is so bare. The excitement, the young players that are coming in, they're about to get here. Like you alluded to, I got drafted in 2004.
So those seasons where Vancouver was really bad expansion, I have no idea what that was like before. I don't even think I could summarize what happened in those years. You'd have to throw a magazine in front of me. But because of where we started, you had arguably the best defenseman in the league on the team.
So you had something to build around where as to now, obviously your eons removed from where you were even at the beginning of the year.
Yeah. And you only really finished one really, really tough season with the Canucks. Of course, there's the torch here that you missed, but there was so much going on there. And then the one that was tough that you that you finished out was the 2015-2016 season. What's it like being at the end of the of the season on a team that's been out of it for that long?
Relief, to be honest, because it's not fun playing for nothing. Yeah, you're playing for scoring a goal here and there and a helper, but you're not pulling in the same direction as a team. So much turnover is expected as well. Now, that year for me personally was the year I produced the most. It was the year I was filling the net.
I got to play with the Twins, maybe throw that one behind your ear for a second and realize why weren't we doing that well while Hansen was on the top line. Again, the players just weren't there. So it's one of those things you push players in positions that they probably shouldn't be. Yeah, I produced more than I ever did in any other season, but the team didn't really reflect that either.
So it was one of those. I had individual success. scored a ton, played a ton, ton of responsibility. But at the end of the day, like July or April rolled around and the NHL season was done.
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Chapter 6: How do underdog teams like the Canucks impact the playoff landscape?
Yeah, I got to go to world championship and stuff like that. But the thing we live for was over.
You know, the Canucks won a couple of games in a row over the weekend. Yannick, it's the first time they've won back-to-back games since December. And, you know, more than the results, because it's a shootout win and it's an overtime win, I think there were some moments there that fans really appreciated, right?
One is, you know, Teddy Bluger sticking up for his teammate, trying to go after Radko Gudis. Curtis Douglas scoring his first goal in the NHL and the teammates being so excited for him. Did you see anything over the weekend, again, not in terms of the results, but in terms of those sorts of moments that you think have a chance to kind of carry over and mean something for next year?
Or is it, should we just look at them as kind of one-off nice moments at the end of the season?
That's nice moments. That's what it is. You're excited for somebody scoring their first goal, whether they do it in a very important game in the beginning of the season, middle of the season, end of the season. The same excitement because you know what it means and everybody has been there themselves. Stepping onto the ice, wanting to get that first goal out of the way. Feel like you've landed.
You've made a mark, so to speak. Bluger, that's what you want. I'm not going to mention culture. I said it now. It's one of those things. We still want it in the team. We still want it as an identity. We still want the guys competing, sticking up for each other, protecting each other, because that can't fall apart.
That can't fall apart the next game, and it can't fall apart in the beginning of the season because, again, the young players you're going to bring in, in order for them to develop, they need to play with confidence. They can't do that if they're running scared. So they need to know that, hey, we go out there, yeah, we might get hit hard, but at least somebody will stick up for us.
Somebody will send a message that, hey...
to the line and no more otherwise uh we'll we'll come after you kind of thing so so it's good to see that it's still there and that's one of those things where bluger was one of the players we we talked about should they move him should they not like i i'd like to resign him he needs centers he can play down the lineup he can penalty kill um he got some grit to it as well he he
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Chapter 7: What insights does Ryan Clark provide on NHL playoff matchups?
What do you remember from your first goal, Yannick, in the NHL?
Alex Burrow missing the net. It was in Detroit, Joe Lewis Arena, where the inboard was so bouncy. And he comes down off the left wing, misses the net, and it bounces right out to me for a tap-in on the other side. It's It's one of those where any other rink and you don't score like that. But, yeah, I know everybody remembers their first goal. The goaltender, Osgood, as well.
So it's one of those ones where you don't forget it.
This week is always a tough one for teams at the bottom of the standings, especially in a Canadian market where speculation is going to rage about management, about the coach, about the future of various Canucks players, and obviously hockey operations leadership, both behind the bench and in the executive suite. Yannick, you've...
You obviously were very consistent all season that you thought it would be counterproductive for the team to change coaches in mid-race. But what would your reaction be if Jim Rutherford meets the press Monday of next week and there are no changes after this season?
Then I'd say that it's a money decision most likely and say we're going to be bad anyways, but we don't want to pay two coaches at the same time. So it's one of those things where somebody probably made a decision above that, hey, it's going to be a meager year or so. So I'm not willing to pay for two NHL coaches. So we're going to ride this one a little bit longer and then...
Again, hopefully you're not losing the guy you kind of have your eyeballs on right now for the next guy that you want to take or that you want to take in the team. Because that's another one. And if it is Manny, there's no reason to sidestep. If it is Manny, they want to run in here. Is Manny fine with taking another year in Abbotsford? by all means, run it back kind of thing.
But if he's getting offers elsewhere and say, hey, we're going to lose this young up-and-coming coach that's been in the market, he's proven he can take a team all the way, now we kind of have to take a step forward here and get him in there. So there's a couple of things as well that kind of are hiding as to what is the right decision and when are you going to do it.
on Manny and the potential for him to be the next head coach of the team, Yannick. And of course, I mean, you famously formed an incredible line with him and Rafi Torres in 2011. And look, Canucks fans are generally pretty excited and pretty optimistic about Manny Malhotra as a coach.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications of the Canucks' fan support this season?
And you're going to get a young group in here. So you need somebody who can verbalize the systems, what he wants. You need somebody who can communicate. We called him the professor at the poker table. He's got so many things going for him. He's been there, done that, first round draft pick, been around the league, multiple different teams.
in situations where he's leaned on, relied upon, and also in the other end of the spectrum. So he's a phenomenal person off the ice, on the ice obviously, but his approach to the game is meticulous. His attention to details is very, very high to where he demands excellence not only of himself. We all knew or know how good he was in the face-off circle,
expectation he puts on his winger Rafi and me here in this case to make sure that everybody was dialing every time we lined up for a face-off he told us exactly what was going to happen and what he wanted us to do and most of the time that happened now if we didn't execute and he lost the draw because of us we would get it afterwards because he helped
himself to such a high standard but also his teammates but without being a dick about it like in terms of hey we we got to do this you got to do this um we'll make it better for there and it was face-offs it was four checks it was back checks it was defensive zone coverage it was it was not just that one yeah he was a face-off age ace but but he has so many fingers everywhere in on the line like i know he doesn't play power play but but like
He was still in there because, like, hey, penalty kills, do this and that, and, like, maybe try to move. So, like, always with an eye for just about everything.
So fair to say, based off of your interactions with him as a teammate, you're not particularly surprised that he's taken so well to coaching.
No, like, when we played with him, it was like, who's going to do it? Manny's going to be a coach right away. Right. Like, it was just one of those things. Some of these players, people just have...
something to them and some some you don't see and they go through where they coach elsewhere for for 10 years and then they pop up but like you could see that he was ready to step into legitimate hockey almost right away as soon as he was done same thing with burr um a great eye for for for detail um for those things which made that transition a lot easier yannick from a player's perspective
And this is a tricky one, right? Because I'm not saying that players are hoping a coach will get fired or a GM will get fired or anything like that. But if you can kind of put yourself in a player's shoes at the end of a season like this, I mean, how do you think the players will react to either changes in the front office or the coaching staff or a lack of changes?
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