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Chapter 1: What are the details behind Manny Malhotra’s hiring as Canucks head coach?
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What's up? Welcome to Canucks Talk Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd here and my co-host Thomas Drance. Drance, of course, covers the Canucks for the athletic as well. We are broadcasting live from the Kintec studio. Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintec. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line.
And after a few days off of the show, Drance has made his way to beautiful Buffalo, New York for the NHL Draft Combine. What's going on, Drance? Beautiful, huh? You tell me. I've never been.
You've never been to Buffalo?
I don't think so.
I wouldn't go.
I've driven. Hold on. I drove through. I drove through. That doesn't count, but I've driven through.
Yeah, there's an acquired charm.
I actually think I would love Buffalo. I think I'd have a great time there.
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Chapter 2: Why is the search for an assistant GM critical for the Canucks?
I hope they all feel better soon. Obviously no crossover today. If we had done the crossover, it would have been brought to you by Basant Motors. Bright deals and better drives ahead at Basant Motors. Hit the road with huge savings going forward. Learn more at basantmotors.com. No fault of Basant Motors that we're not doing the crossover purely due to illness. Absolutely.
on the part of those guys. So we will have Jason Bukala at one and as a replacement for the crossover, I'm actually very, very excited about this. Chris Cuthbert will join us at 1230. Of course, Cuthbert on the call for the Stanley Cup final. And also he was announced today as the winner this year's winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award for outstanding contributions as a hockey broadcaster.
So really excited to chat with Chris. get his thoughts on the award, offer him our congratulations and chat about the Stanley Cup finals as well. And then, of course, Jason Bukala at one. But before we do all of that, let's go to the whiteboard.
All right, fellas, let's focus up.
It is your daily deep dive into what's up with the Canucks for today, June 3rd. And yeah, I mean, the headline is we've got a lot to cover. So I'll throw it to you here, because as you said, you've missed some fairly newsy days. Of course, yesterday, Ryan Johnson speaking about the decision to hire Manny Malhotra officially as the Canucks head coach.
Where do you want to start unpacking some of what you've missed here?
Okay, so, well, I think we've got to start with Malhotra because obviously that's the biggest news. I mean, this is a, you know, fourth key leader that the organization has now brought in over the course of the past four weeks. And, you know, they are all, of course, I guess they're not ex-teammates, as Ryan Johnson was careful to note.
Yes.
But they all belong to the golden era of, Right. From 2008 through 2012 in Canucks lore. And certainly they were sitting twin teammates, you know, both both Ryan Johnson and Malhotra. More importantly, Malhotra and Ryan Johnson have that trust, that working relationship from the past two seasons in Abbotsford. And it took a bit to get done.
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Chapter 3: Could Jessica Campbell be a suitable fit behind the Canucks' bench?
I think they all understand what hockey means in Vancouver. And I think they're all whip sharp. Like I think they are extremely smart, capable gentlemen across the board. But as the Canucks enter a rebuild, they're entering it with a pair of first time co-presidents, a first time NHL general manager and a first time NHL head coach.
we talked about this a lot when we talked about this a lot when Malhotra was first hired or sorry, when Ryan Johnson was first hired, the idea of experience. We also talked about bringing experience in when Adam Foote was first hired. And I think the composition of this Canucks management group now is just feels a little green. I like the way they communicate.
I like them all as individuals, and I have a lot of trust in their character. And I think that's a really good starting place for this organization. I'd add that they all seem to bleed blue and green, or black, yellow, and red if you're a flying skate dead-ender. And so I think that's a really good starting point.
You know, you'll sort of look at and this isn't a reflection of sort of my assessment of like Cammie Granato or Emily Castonguay's bona fides. But, you know, I think there have been times where it was fair to wonder if. Cami Granato and Emily Castonguay's portfolios as assistant general managers matched what you'd usually see with assistant general managers around the league.
Now, maybe they'll do better with expanded portfolios. But the truth is, too, is I wouldn't look at that and say, well, they've got two AGMs who stayed in place. So they're bringing, you know, at least three years of experience each into this front office. I'd be like, I'd consider them to be relatively inexperienced, right?
An experienced assistant coach for Malhotra staff, an experienced front office hand for Ryan Johnson's staff, take some heat off him, take some just some of the workman-like, slow-going administrative burden off of him and get someone in who's... you know, been around, like it doesn't have to be a former NHL GM either. Right.
I think it can be, you know, what a guy like Lauren Henning who'd been in front offices for 15 years was when Mike Gillis took over or Lawrence Gilman for that matter, who had almost two decades of experience, like just someone who's been around the block, who's seen it all work. I think that would be a really good fit for what feels like a pretty inexperienced front office.
And likewise, I think behind the bench, The problem, of course, with experience, it tends to cost money.
You know, and one of the other sort of stories that we saw unfold last week was the Toronto Maple Leafs executing the very rare promote to assistant general manager and poach a director of amateur scouting from another team prior to the draft, which was a scenario that we were going over again and again and again. We talked about a lot.
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Chapter 4: How does Ryan Johnson view the long-term rebuild for the Canucks?
I'll be on the air for noon. All right. Great. I don't know. I haven't been asked to do anything other than what I usually do.
If you want me earlier, I can be there earlier. It's not me. It's not me. I'll let you and Barrett figure that out.
Okay. Well, I'm just saying, no one's asked me. I haven't been invited yet, Jamie. So you're like, I don't know about your schedule.
It's not my invitation to give. Okay. I'm not the scheduler. I do as I'm told.
So you can't invite me to your friend's party.
I can't invite you.
You have to check with your friend first. Wow. Wow. I get it. I see the score now.
So we'll see. I'd be a little surprised if anything happens between now and then, right? Because you want the focus on Manny Malhotra at that press conference. But beyond that, we'll see when we start to get news about other hirings.
Worth noting as well, and we could touch on this in the broadsheet, but I'll just say on 32 Thoughts today, Elliott Friedman noted he's heard the Canucks could be interested in former Seattle assistant coach Jessica Campbell. Also noted that Patrick Alveen could land with the Seattle Kraken in a front office role.
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Chapter 5: What insights were shared about the NHL Draft Combine and prospects?
Likewise, the first power play unit went off when Filip Hronik got elevated to the top unit. Well, I don't think you can criticize... a coaching staff in the wake of the Quinn Hughes trade for giving Booyahm 25 games, even if his performance didn't warrant it, playing PP1. I think the Canucks should go into next season doing the same thing.
So I would say McLean was kind of the standout on that Canucks staff where I would have said, you know, I had a lot of admiration for for what that team did or what the Canucks did tactically five on four, especially as the season went along. Marco Rossi in that downhill spot I thought was sharp. You know, Phil Peronic on the top unit. They really got cooking toward the end of the year.
Like, that was a real strong point for the Canucks last season tactically. You know, I just would worry, like, Would there at least be a possibility that if the Canucks were to go from Brett McLean to Jessica Campbell running power play, which is what she did for the last two years, that you'd actually be downgrading, right? At the very least, there's a statistical argument to be made for that.
And that's not like exactly where I was hoping to see the club land in terms of filling out this coaching staff.
The other thing I want to talk about at least a little bit in this first segment is anything that stood out to you from listening to Ryan Johnson. And we carried that live yesterday. Ran deep and I played quite a few clips from it on our show as well.
And of course, there's a lot of talk about Manny Malhotra, but he touched on some other subjects as well in the course of that Zoom call, whether it's a specific answer or just kind of a general theme. What did you take away from listening to Ryan Johnson yesterday?
I felt like he was talking like a general manager prepared to do more short term damage than we might have expected. I think that was my biggest.
Yeah. The thing that stood out to me most, not just yesterday, but maybe like over the entire course of the media blitz or media appearances since he and the Sedins have been hired. They are making no bones about the fact that they expect to be really bad next year. Like they are not hiding that at all. And the way I think about it is they're talking about a rebuild, but there's no winking.
Because with Rutherford and Alvin, there was always the sense of we're rebuilding. Wink. And it's like, are you actually rebuilding? Why are you winking at me? Why are you talking about a retool in a hybrid form? And with Ryan Johnson and the Sedins, it's, well, this is going to be bad. This is going to take a long time. This is going to be really hard. We are rebuilding.
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Chapter 6: How does the Canucks' management plan to handle short-term pain for long-term gain?
Or, you know, how effectively we execute their defensive zone structure or whatever it is. that to me felt like a siren call and it wasn't the only one. There were a few comments like that. Like we know that this is going to be tough and we know that there's going to be some tough days ahead. Right. This is an opportunity to build a franchise, do it the right way and get it sustainable.
It just felt like, I thought the biggest takeaway was that the overall framing was very clearly that the, This is a long-term build and it might take a while. And if you're going to come, you need to be able to put your own short-term interests of succeeding aside and buy into a process that is going to have some dark days attached to it. That's going to take a while.
That's going to probably include some losing or at the very least delayed gratification in terms of winning. I thought too, you sort of got a taste of that in the Pedersen discussion. And I'm trying to find the part of my transcript where he had the comment that was like, we'll see what happens. We'll see which way this goes. We're talking to him. We realize we might have to work with him.
And we wanted to make it crystal clear what our expectations are, but we'll see where this goes. We're not committing to a direction here either way. I thought that was loaded. So I sort of come out of that Brian Johnson availability thinking,
That more than anything, my main takeaway was like, this is a team committing to a multi-year rebuild, which is good because I've been talking to NHL people all morning. And let me tell you. Whether the Canucks might actually be willing to commit to a long-term rebuild is a matter of some skepticism.
You don't say. You don't say. Yeah, and again, the caveat.
A hard-earned organizational reputation, but various agents and rival execs that I was chatting with today are like, but we'll see if they're really willing to do more than a one-year step back. Most people are not. Most people are in the place where they're going to need to see the Canucks sort of, they're going to need to see it to believe it, as it were.
Yeah, as you said, though, they are certainly talking. At least it's not just a one-year step back, but that this is a long-term project, which is going to involve a fair amount of pain. Okay, I want to mention a couple things in the broadsheet here. We already touched on the Jessica Campbell report from Elliott Friedman. Rick Dollywall, not on the show, sick, but still tweeting.
which good for him, still doing his job, has this. He's all over the dinner date beat, as you would expect from the Combine. He has that Malhotra. That's Caleb Malhotra. Reed, Stenberg, and Gavin McKenna will all have dinner dates with the Canucks at the Combine this week. And interesting also, Shang Pang, who covers the San Jose Sharks, who, of course, picking number two, reports...
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Chapter 7: What are the implications of the Canucks' hiring strategy on team performance?
Correct. McKenna's your guy. Correct. I'm Yeah, and I would add, too, I mean, the Leafs just changed up their scouting staff, right, pretty significantly. No, I think it's going to be McKenna one.
I would be.
I don't think that's. I think the draft starts at two. Forget, forget. So, yeah, because Shengpeng also has the Sharks taking out a variety of defensemen. Yep. And Carroll's, I think.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I mean, I think the draft starts at two, but I don't think it's, yeah, I don't think the McKenna fall, if you're holding out hope for that, I'm sorry.
Who's dining Vigo Bjork? Drance, presumably.
Yeah, I'll chat with him tomorrow.
There you go.
I'll chat with him tomorrow. I'm not dining with him, though. I'm not here to date.
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Chapter 8: What are the next steps for the Canucks as they continue their rebuild?
All right. That's the whiteboard for today. As I mentioned, Chris Cuthbert, Hockey Night in Canada, play by play. And this year's winner of the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award joins us next to talk Stanley Cup final year on Canucks Talk Sportsnet 650.