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Canucks Talk

The Whiteboard: Sedins Promoted Within the Canucks Front Office

11 May 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What new role have the Sedin twins accepted within the Canucks organization?

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27.47 - 52.741 Jamie Dodd

What's up? Welcome to Canucks talk. It is Sportsnet 650. I'm Jamie Dodd, my co-host back in studio with me. He's Thomas Trance. He 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. This hour of the show is presented by Waffle House Diner.

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52.781 - 62.295 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. What's going on, Drancer?

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62.976 - 84.572 Thomas Drance

Just trying to wrap my head around everything. I mean, every day feels like another... fire you know like every day fire but like another no another episode no another fire like there's like like fire in the sense of like the gangs of New York era you know where there's like multiple fire departments showing up and fighting over who gets to put it out Okay.

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84.592 - 86.315 Jamie Dodd

Yeah. Like, like sort of like that. Yeah.

86.335 - 106.65 Thomas Drance

You know, it's like a to do. Every day is a to do around the Vancouver Canucks. And today is no different with the latest reporting indicating that the Sedin twins are, which I think is another part of this process worth mentioning. Really digesting. Also, I wasn't on the show Thursday, Friday, so I feel like I missed a couple to-dos.

106.991 - 123.792 Jamie Dodd

Well, I don't know. To be totally honest with you. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I don't know if they rose to the level of to-dos, but there was definitely a lot of reporting. Not at the Dorian to-do level. No, no, definitely not. Nothing has come close to that. That was a fire. That was a, what's the, like, five alarm? Conflagration. Conflagration. Conflagration. There you go. Nicely done.

123.812 - 124.192 Jamie Dodd

Thank you.

125.173 - 127.837 Thomas Drance

I don't like how you had to sound it out.

Chapter 2: Why did the Sedins choose to take on a larger role in the front office?

305.028 - 329.62 Thomas Drance

I'd add too that one of, I think, the big pieces of information from the past few weeks that I'm really turning over in my head is the presence of Dax Aquilini in the interviews, which I think Patrick Johnson originally surfaced in, but that's been confirmed to me as well. And that involvement suggests anyway that maybe there's some level of

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331.473 - 352.524 Thomas Drance

ownership suite change or ownership suite discussion about like, hey, have we been the problem? Do we need to think of something else? Has the way that we've led this organization as owners been catastrophic? And maybe they're not having the discussion in those terms. Quite like that. But they probably should be. But they probably should be.

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352.884 - 378.726 Thomas Drance

So it at least suggests that there's some level of grappling with it. There's also been other parts of the search that feel very Canucks. And I mean that in the most derogatory way possible. The Pierre Dorian episode, which was absolutely real, by the way. That would be an example that I'd hold up as being like, that's classic Canucks. And I, by the way, would put Elevating the Twins...

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380.444 - 397.121 Thomas Drance

you know, like, literally, we did this in 2021. Like, when the twins were first hired, and I'll never say a bad word about Henrik and Daniel. They are people of the highest caliber. But when they were hired in 2021, the organization very much was like, hey, look, the Sedin twins, and also we're keeping Jim and Travis.

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397.341 - 414.323 Jamie Dodd

Yeah. And there was almost a sense, and I'm kind of remembering, it's more than, well, it's just about five years ago now that they were hired. There was almost a sense, too, of them kind of coming to the organization almost and saying like, you guys are in dire straits and we want to help. Like that was a part of it.

414.343 - 423.193 Jamie Dodd

I don't know who, who, who reached out to them, but maybe their motivation was certainly a community minded.

423.273 - 433.924 Thomas Drance

Yeah. Pride that they have in the team was part of the conversation. Yes. And I'm sure it's part of the conversation now, because honestly, why else would they do this? That said, you know,

Chapter 3: What does the Sedins' promotion mean for the future of the Canucks?

435.085 - 451.427 Thomas Drance

So we've seen that. We saw that in 2021. I'd argue we saw it in 2015 or 2014 too. Sorry with Trevor Linden being the answer after the club deposed Mike Gillis. Like, hey, remember this icon, this folk hero? He's in charge now. Feel good about it. Right.

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451.467 - 470.319 Thomas Drance

So that's something that we've seen this organization sort of like it's a play in the old Canucks playbook that we've seen them run three times across the last decade now. And so I don't love that. The moving pieces side of this, like, there's still uncertainty about the general manager. Yep.

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471.02 - 487.62 Thomas Drance

Elliott Friedman on Donnie and Dolly reported that the twins wouldn't be in a primary decision-making role. Yes. And this is one of the sort of interesting parts of this, like... if they're not co-president, like if this is just a special advisors thing, that's not substantive.

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487.64 - 507.769 Jamie Dodd

No. And also there's now, I didn't get a chance to quite listen to the entire Friedman hit on Donnie and Dolly, but Rick Dollywall. So straight from the source, a guy who was in the interview tweeted that according to Elliot Friedman, the Sadeen twins will not be the primary decision makers in Vancouver and comma, not full-time guys, but around more.

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508.492 - 529.678 Jamie Dodd

So the not full-time part, because when this started to break, right, you immediately think, okay, they're going to be, as you said, co-presidents or co-vice presidents or something clearly, like the successors in many ways to Jim Rutherford, even if they're not the final decision makers, but as that extra layer above the GM, the buffer between the GM and ownership, that's a full-time job.

530.179 - 533.703 Jamie Dodd

So if you're not full-time, what are you? Maybe they're alternating?

534.083 - 537.908 Thomas Drance

Yeah, it's one job, but they're both part-time, yeah.

538.428 - 542.373 Jamie Dodd

I mean, no. They're like, we each work two days a week and then alternate Fridays.

Chapter 4: How will the Sedins' experience influence their new positions?

542.573 - 560.537 Thomas Drance

It makes sense if you're in like the Keith Jones role, right? If you're designing a front office and you want, you know, you're going through a rebuild and you're hiring a guy who has been a pretty private presence throughout his hockey operations career in Evan Gold, for example.

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562.728 - 577.665 Thomas Drance

Bringing in, you know, a Keith Jones type figure to do some of the press conferences and some of the glad handing and some of the media obligation stuff, especially during some years that are likely to be lean from an on ice results perspective. That makes sense to me.

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578.945 - 599.981 Thomas Drance

But if you're only bringing them in as special advisors, like if they're not fully vested co-presidents or something like that, something with real weight behind it, then I think the question still remains, and this was going to be one of my questions if Evan Gold was named general manager and that was all they did, which was... is there another guy coming in? Yeah.

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600.001 - 626.076 Thomas Drance

You know, and does a rookie general manager get steamrolled in a organization that trends chaotic at the best of times? Right? Now, we don't know who the general manager is, right? Like everybody, I'm hearing some mixed signals. My gut is that the decision hasn't been formally settled, but probably will be shortly, if not today.

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627.037 - 627.177

Mm-hmm.

627.258 - 636.812 Thomas Drance

We know that scouting meetings are happening at Rogers Arena. I know there was some confusion about Patrick Alvin being in town. I'd heard the same. Patrick Alvin's in town for scouting meetings.

638.094 - 645.085 Jamie Dodd

Yeah, Rick Dollywall reporting that he's heard Alvin was at Rogers Arena this morning. Yeah. And also apparently at Stong's on the weekend.

645.105 - 666.324 Thomas Drance

I heard the same. Even about the Stong's? No, not about Stong's. Sorry. That part I didn't hear, but I heard that he was... present for scouting meetings at Rogers arena today, which is an interesting wrinkle. But I think the bigger part of it is the club's having scouting meetings today and they have four picks in the top 41 of the NHL entry draft, including the third overall pick.

666.906 - 669.531 Thomas Drance

And they need to get some decision makers in place.

Chapter 5: What questions remain about the Sedins' specific roles and responsibilities?

770.179 - 771.34 Thomas Drance

And so I,

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771.59 - 779.998 Jamie Dodd

You know, it's like... Part of the deal with Trevor Linden is also a time heals all wounds thing, right? He's now been out of the organization for eight years.

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780.198 - 793.29 Thomas Drance

But it's like how Canadians feel about Ron McLean. It's like, at the end of the day, he's just one of us, regardless of what other... You know, like, I don't understand why he's talking about the Cambridge Royals, but, like, he's one of us, so we'll allow it. Yeah.

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794.271 - 795.893 Jamie Dodd

But you don't think the Sedins rise to that level?

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797.654 - 811.738 Thomas Drance

The Sedins... I'm just saying, even if... The Sedins rise to that level, but, like... in order to emerge from this unscathed, they're going to have to have a pretty short run that involves them landing two players of like Pettersson and Hughes's caliber. Um,

812.613 - 835.743 Thomas Drance

And then if they depart on acrimonious terms, they have to have departed and been right about what's happening and then maintain a local profile. I mean, all of those things need to line up. Yeah. And the truth is, is that while the twins are high caliber people, they're not high caliber communicators on the scale of Trevor Linden from just like a pure PR perspective. Yeah.

835.763 - 839.228 Thomas Drance

Like Linden's like the greatest pitch man in Vancouver history.

839.208 - 866.177 Jamie Dodd

he is well that's another part of my questions right is like is this is the idea that they're going to be the ones coming in and doing all the pressers because again i love the sardines obviously but that doesn't seem to be necessarily in their wheelhouse well they can spin like the best of a man no i mean henrik did it as captain right yeah they he knows the art of answering questions without saying anything they are so good at that i think you're fair enough yeah now that i'm not worried about at all okay so anyways my other so question one like what is the actual job right what is the actual we don't know that

866.157 - 886.123 Jamie Dodd

Yes. Another one that's related to that is, yeah, who has ultimate authority on hockey decisions, which it sounds like won't be them. But then, yeah, who will be the GM? And I think an important part of that question is, is that decision affected by the Sedin's decision at all? Like, if the Sedin's are coming in as president...

Chapter 6: How does the Canucks' front office structure affect decision-making?

1130.571 - 1137.778 Thomas Drance

If it's not going to be RJ, I think that's a big question that sort of speaks to like, what do you want to be about as an organization?

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1137.878 - 1148.919 Thomas Drance

You don't want to hold talented people back like that. And I think if this ultimately does go gold, I think that's part of this process that we should be looking askance at and just saying that's probably not good enough.

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1149.099 - 1159.819 Jamie Dodd

Especially because it seemed now I know Friedman said he wasn't reporting it. He was just kind of trying to connect the dots here or wondering. But it does feel like if Ryan Johnson doesn't get this job.

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1159.799 - 1181.098 Jamie Dodd

there's a good chance he's a strong, strong candidate in Nashville, which still has not named a GM and feels like they're taking their very, very sweet time on opening or on filling that position. So it's an interesting wrinkle here on all of it. The, the Ryan Johnson and especially him being denied permission to speak to the Nashville Predators. So just on the latest on the GM front, right?

1181.118 - 1194.938 Jamie Dodd

So that's the Sadeen front. And we can return to the point you were making about the difference in what this says about ownership as well. Because again, like I think that's the biggest one. The fact that, The fact that they did a search at all is a huge deal. That right away tells you something has changed because they've never done it before.

1195.479 - 1221.06 Thomas Drance

And especially once the decision is made, like once we see, you know, carved in stone what the Canucks have decided to do. we're going to have a lot of information about exactly what this organization is steering toward. And it just feels like we may be approaching a rupture. I mean, in terms of on ice results and overall direction, we have already hit that. That rupture has already happened.

1221.901 - 1229.952 Thomas Drance

But in terms of how this organization thinks of itself and what they think they need to get back on track, I think this is going to be a very telling hire.

1230.273 - 1230.373

Yeah.

Chapter 7: What impact will the Sedins' involvement have on the team's direction?

1254.716 - 1269.356 Jamie Dodd

Those guys aren't going to get the job. So I think it's telling, one, that they did this extensive search, and two, the final two candidates who are left standing, as far as we've been made aware of, don't really fit what we would consider classic Canucks ownership candidates from the past.

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1269.516 - 1288.877 Jamie Dodd

So I think there's more than enough smoke there to suggest maybe things have changed in what direction we'll ultimately see. you know, even above the hockey operations department going to ownership in the Canucks organization. I'll note this as well. Rick Dollywall reporting on his show Donnie and Dolly today saying as of this morning, the Canucks haven't chosen between Evan Gold or Ryan Johnson.

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1288.897 - 1305.653 Jamie Dodd

I believe it was on Friday really that word kind of emerged. Those are the final two other candidates being told that they're out of the running. Dollywall says it's 50-50. He goes back and forth depending on who he talks to. Talks to somebody who says it's going to be RJ and he thinks that then he hears from somebody else who thinks it's going to be Evan Gold and that convinced

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1305.633 - 1327.942 Jamie Dodd

is Dollywall as well so it seems like it is still very much up in the air I'm a little surprised and this is another thing that suggests to me is there even more happening behind the scenes is it related to the Sedins is it related to whatever changes might be happening in how ownership thinks. Because if you're down to the final two on Friday, really, how long? You've done this process.

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1327.962 - 1343.474 Jamie Dodd

You've interviewed them both. You know Ryan Johnson very well. You've had a chance to get to know Evan Gold a little bit. How long does it take to choose between the final two candidates? If everyone's on the same page, probably not that long. If there's other dominoes that need to fall or power struggles happening, maybe it takes a little longer.

1343.935 - 1355.535 Jamie Dodd

But either way, I know Elliott Friedman said on 32 Thoughts today that it sounds like there could be a bunch of decisions coming today, even if they're not made public. So it wouldn't surprise me if in the next few days we're talking about a press conference announcing the next Canucks GM.

1355.515 - 1377.152 Thomas Drance

Clearly, big meetings going on at Rogers Arena, significant ones. If you've got everyone under one roof, right, begins to be something you can work on hammering out. But yeah, it doesn't seem like anything's done. My contacts are quiet. You know, it's clearly we're down to brass tacks now.

1377.233 - 1391.126 Thomas Drance

And it's just a matter of selecting the GM and finding out exactly what structure the organization has decided on. And then we'll get to, you know, picking the bones of that decision and figuring out why. Figuring out the why of it.

1391.186 - 1402.643 Jamie Dodd

And there potentially could be a huge number of dominoes to fall from that, right? The coach is the obvious one. Yeah. The rest of the front office structure, we've heard reports that people could be joining Evan Gold from Boston, Jamie Langenbrenner, among others, right?

Chapter 8: What are the potential challenges the Sedins may face in their new roles?

1424.243 - 1429.089 Thomas Drance

Yep. Not ideal. Don't love that.

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1429.109 - 1437.142 Jamie Dodd

All right. That's the whiteboard for today. We will take a break. Landon Ferraro joins us next here on Canucks Talk Sportsnet 650.

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1437.462 - 1450.002 Thomas Drance

Fire in the sense of like the gangs of New York era, you know, where there's like multiple fire departments showing up and fighting over who gets to put it out.

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