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Canucks Talk

The End Game

08 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What are the Vancouver Canucks' current rebuilding strategies?

0.031 - 6.733

Thank you.

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26.002 - 51.252 Jamie Dodd

Welcome back to Canucks Talk here on Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd, no drance on the show today. We are live from the Kintex studio. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online. Today, this hour of the show is presented by Waffle House Diner.

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51.772 - 74.048 Jamie Dodd

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. Guests on Sportsnet 650. Call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at ableauctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. Now joining me,

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Chapter 2: How might Ryan Johnson and Evan Gold collaborate in the Canucks' front office?

74.028 - 92.289 Jamie Dodd

On the very same Able Auctions hotline, he is the voice of the Canucks here on Sports at 650. He's our guy, Brendan Batchelor. Batch, what's going on, buddy? Not too much. How are you? I'm doing well. I'm enjoying all the reporting around the Canucks GM search. It seems like we're getting pretty close. I mean, what do you think?

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92.309 - 112.55 Jamie Dodd

Look, as I said many times, right, it's hard for us to really evaluate Evan Gold as a candidate because we just know so very little about... him and how that front office worked, but just on the idea of, can they find a way to include both Evan gold and Ryan Johnson in whatever the front office looks like? What do you think about that possibility?

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113.932 - 126.144 Brendan Batchelor

Yeah. It'll be interesting to see ultimately what happens and, you know, whether they can make something work with both of them or whether they have to choose one or the other. My initial reaction is that it's like trying to have your cake and eat it too.

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Chapter 3: What challenges does the new GM face regarding Elias Pettersson's future?

126.444 - 148.551 Brendan Batchelor

And that, you know, it may be tricky, uh, to massage that with both of them um but that's not to say that it would be impossible and i guess it would depend on um you know clear communication between everyone involved about who's responsible for what um in order to make that make a ton of sense because i think

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148.531 - 171.297 Brendan Batchelor

if we look back at the last few years and how the Jim Rutherford, Patrick Alvin front office operated, I think too often, it wasn't clear, you know, is Jim Rutherford making the hockey decisions is Patrick Alvin making them, you know, Rutherford stepped in and handled the Hughes trade, but was Alvin handling other trades they made, or was it a collaborative process? Like that to me was too vague.

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171.357 - 186.294 Brendan Batchelor

And, you know, for us, outside of the organization, that's not what matters, right? Like I don't need to know the details of the internal workings of the organization, but they need to know, they need to be on the same page.

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186.314 - 198.788 Brendan Batchelor

They need to have clear communication about who's responsible for what, if they're going to try and make something work with multiple candidates and, you know, whether that's a more traditional president of hockey operations and a GM or, you

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198.768 - 222.598 Brendan Batchelor

some different approach you know if they do try to go ahead with that i guess we'll have to wait and see but that to me is the most important thing is that internally everyone's going in eyes wide open about what their role is and their responsibility would be because if you don't have that then i think you worry about potential dysfunction down the road and goodness knows in vancouver we know all about dysfunction within that organization you

222.578 - 238.043 Jamie Dodd

Yeah. And I just and, you know, without trying to get into the minds of either of the guys involved, if you think about kind of the two ways it could play out, like on the one hand, if you hire Evan Gold as the GM and you make Ryan Johnson the VP or something, but he is still below Ryan or Evan Gold.

238.223 - 256.724 Jamie Dodd

Well, he's still, you know, OK, technically you got a promotion from assistant general manager, but you're still. a person reporting to the GM. And similarly with Evan Gold, if he would be reporting to Rian Johnson, it's kind of like, well, why am I leaving Boston to go report to somebody above me still if they're not a long-tenured president of hockey op style?

257.445 - 266.034 Jamie Dodd

And that's not to say that there isn't a way to make it work, but I just, thinking kind of psychologically through it from the perspective of either candidate, there's roadblocks.

Chapter 4: How are the Seattle Kraken planning for the seventh overall pick?

266.054 - 266.895 Jamie Dodd

Let's put it that way.

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267.533 - 285.15 Brendan Batchelor

Yeah. And, you know, I heard you talking in the first segment about like trying to figure out what the missing piece is here. And it does make me wonder if there is another search going on for a president of hockey operations that would work above either Johnson or gold. And, you know, we haven't had reporting on that.

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285.951 - 306.522 Brendan Batchelor

And I'm certainly not the most tapped in person in terms of knowing these sorts of things, especially at this time of the year when the season's done. So I'm just speculating, but that's the, the other thing that I would look at and say, okay, if they've decided one of these guys who at the NHL level as a GM is inexperienced and is going to be their next guy.

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306.543 - 316.817 Brendan Batchelor

Are they now pivoting to look at someone to insulate him, a more veteran hand, someone that has experience? And might that be the other piece of the puzzle that still needs to fall into place here?

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317.278 - 336.352 Jamie Dodd

Yeah, and I guess we'll see maybe hopefully early next week exactly what the plan looks like, and then we'll get a chance to really evaluate it. Now, I'm starting to get curious, especially with Jim Rutherford, seemingly taking a pretty major step back, right? To a senior advisor, not going to be located in Vancouver anymore.

Chapter 5: What factors could influence the Stanley Cup playoffs this season?

336.412 - 350.531 Jamie Dodd

He's going to have his hands off the wheel of the hockey operations department. And. That's very interesting because it means presumably whoever's hired as the GM or above that even is going to have a lot of freedom, a lot of flexibility to put their own stamp on things.

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351.092 - 367.936 Jamie Dodd

As we know, there's a lot of different questions and issues facing the Canucks going forward, right, from the coach to players to how long is the rebuild going to be, all of those things. What issue that it does face the Canucks, Patch, are you most curious to hear the new GM eventually weigh in on?

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368.637 - 376.324 Brendan Batchelor

Elias Patterson, I don't think. there's anything else right now that, that, you know, even comes close to it, I guess. Yeah.

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376.344 - 395.479 Brendan Batchelor

You know who they look to take at third overall or what their approach is to the first round of the draft in terms of whether they'd be willing to trade down or, you know, potentially trade up, I guess if, if San Jose is potentially talking about moving off their pick or, you know, I don't think the Leafs would, but you never know. Yeah. That's not what I'm expecting.

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395.499 - 410.178 Brendan Batchelor

I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility. But to me, it's the future of Elias Pettersson. And that's why I wonder... about Evan Gold because, you know, you can look at this from a couple sides, right?

Chapter 6: How does the Canucks' rebuild compare to modern NHL templates?

410.218 - 430.689 Brendan Batchelor

And I heard, you know, Halford and Brough were debating this this morning about, you know, Ryan Johnson comes in and the plus side for him is that he knows the organization. He knows the structure. He's been around. He, you know, has an understanding of the way things work. The downside potentially would be that he's been around for some of the decisions that have been made in the past.

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430.709 - 452.45 Brendan Batchelor

And if you wanted to have a complete regime change and a completely fresh slate, then. he wouldn't represent a fresh slate necessarily. So those are the pros and cons for him. And then it's the opposite for Evan gold, right? The pro is completely fresh slate. Hasn't been here before, but maybe doesn't have as good of an understanding of the internal workings of the Canucks as an organization.

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452.57 - 480.6 Brendan Batchelor

I do wonder if the fresh slate thing, when it applies to Elias Pedersen in particular might be valuable and not that Ryan Johnson would feel any sort of specific loyalty or to Elias Pettersson because it wasn't him that signed him to the extension. But as they navigate the rebuild and navigate how they're going to move forward, I think a certain sense of ruthlessness is going to be important.

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481.002 - 491.679 Brendan Batchelor

And that's not necessarily with Elias Pettersson specifically, but with any decisions they make around veteran players and roster moves that they make going forward.

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Chapter 7: What decisions must the new GM make regarding veteran players?

491.74 - 500.614 Brendan Batchelor

And so that's where I sort of go is someone that has no connection to these guys, right? Like someone that didn't sign Elias Pettersson, someone that didn't sign Jake DeBrusque.

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500.813 - 527.53 Brendan Batchelor

you know bringing that person in with a fresh perspective does that allow them to make some of the hard decisions that may need to be made here rather than than feeling that it'll reflect badly on them or badly on people they worked with if they were to move off of either one of those players just as an example and there are plenty of you know Philip Heronic is another example organizationally where the the previous regime made it clear that they were not willing to move him

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527.51 - 548.1 Brendan Batchelor

even if some of the commentary around Hronik has been that it might actually be a really good decision for them to move on from a player like him. So ultimately, these are the things we'll be able to debate and discuss once they make this decision. But that's something I wonder about is can Evan Gold come in and if he is going to be the next general manager,

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548.08 - 559.535 Brendan Batchelor

you know, not have to massage relationships with guys that he hasn't committed to himself and can just make the hard decisions that need to be made for this team to lean into this rebuild properly.

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559.635 - 577.457 Jamie Dodd

Yeah, and on Elias Pettersson specifically, Batch, I think that might be the one where the value of coming in fresh is the highest. Because, I mean, just think about, I know from my perspective, like covering... Elias Pettersson over the last five years and the highs and the lows, it's hard to be completely unemotional and detached about it, right?

577.477 - 594.436 Jamie Dodd

Because the swings have been so extreme and there's been frustrating body language and there's been the rift and there's been all of these things. It's become a very kind of emotionally charged discussion here in the market. And I got to think that extends to a degree behind the scenes as well. I mean, just think about how Jim Rutherford continues to talk about it, right?

594.456 - 596.278 Jamie Dodd

And Rick Talkett when he was here.

Chapter 8: What implications do the draft positions have for the Canucks and Sharks?

596.258 - 615.741 Jamie Dodd

I can't like, I don't know how you could be a major part of the Canucks front office and not to some degree have an emotional reaction, like positively or negatively to Elias Pettersson. And I think there is a ton of value in that situation, specifically being able to come in and say, look, like, I don't know what was going on here. I just know the facts and the bare facts of the performance.

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616.081 - 617.543 Jamie Dodd

And that's what I'm making my decision on.

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618.744 - 632.852 Brendan Batchelor

Yeah, I agree. My counterpoint to that to play devil's advocate is that if it's, Someone that's coming in, they may feel like they don't need to make a decision in the immediate term on that, right?

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632.892 - 650.936 Brendan Batchelor

Like if you're a new GM coming in, you might go, well, I need to assess where Pedersen's at myself before I decide whether I'm going to make a massive decision and move off of him and trade him away or something like that. And in fact, they might need something more decisive at the moment. And ultimately, I don't know what the best path forward is.

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651.757 - 667.455 Brendan Batchelor

To your point, I think it is an emotional decision. And I would be lying to say that if there wasn't emotion tied up, in my opinion, on Elias Pettersson as well as someone that's had to watch him play every single game for the last couple of years at the level that he's played at.

667.555 - 677.886 Brendan Batchelor

So maybe some patience and that fresh perspective and a bit more time to work with him to try and get him back to being a productive player for this team or a more productive player for this team.

677.866 - 701.578 Brendan Batchelor

um would make sense but my reaction as someone that's watched it is that you know i think as we talk about the culture shifting and we talk about the benefits of moving out some of the veterans uh that happened prior to the trade deadline this year that i don't think that job is done yet and so um my feeling anyway is that whoever comes in needs to be decisive one way or another about

701.558 - 710.485 Brendan Batchelor

which way they are going to take this team and the players that potentially need to be moved on to continue that positive culture shift that we saw for the deadline onwards.

710.766 - 722.135 Jamie Dodd

Yeah. And on that topic of kind of which issues are you most excited or curious to hear? The eventual new GM weigh in on like Elias Pettersson is a good one. Obviously, that's one of the major questions.

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