Chapter 1: What are the key changes in the Vancouver Canucks' management?
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What's up? Welcome to a very special edition of Canucks Talk here on Sportsnet 650. Special because Quinn Hughes was eliminated from the playoffs last night.
That's right.
Wall-to-wall coverage of the Colorado Avalanche and their three-goal comeback last night to eliminate the Minnesota Wild. It was pretty sick. It was cool. The Colorado Avalanche, really good. Yeah. Really, really good. We're broadcasting live from the mobile Kintec studio here at Rogers Arena. Step strong with orthotics and footwear. From Kintec 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line.
This hour 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. He's Thomas Drance. He covers the Canucks at The Athletic as well. Sure. I'm Jamie Dodd. I'm not going to make that noise. We are at Rogers Arena today. Because there's news.
Now, it's not official what the news is, but it's unofficial what the news is. And there's going to be a press conference at 1 o'clock in which the Canucks will introduce Ryan Johnson as the next general manager. And this has been reported and confirmed by Sportsnet. Ryan Johnson will be introduced as the next general manager.
And Daniel and Henrik Sedin will be introduced as co-presidents of hockey operations. The Co-Po-Ho's. The Co-Po-Ho era is here in Vancouver. So just to map out the show.
And what was your joke about that? Kokomo?
Kokomo. And I made the Ogopogo joke. Yes. So we're killing it.
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Chapter 2: Why are the Sedin twins stepping into leadership roles now?
an extra half hour onto the show here. So instead of going noon to 2, we're going to go noon to 2.30 to make sure we've got lots of time to react to everything we hear from Francesco Aquilini, Daniel and Hendrick Sedin, and Ryan Johnson today at Rogers Arena. Okay, so that's how the show is going to look. That's the shape of the show. Right now, though, let's go to the whiteboard.
Let's go.
All right, now, fellas, let's focus up. It is your daily deep dive into what's up with the Canucks for today, May 14th. And the headline is, of course, we are here at Rogers Arena because we have news and we're going to get news. And again, as reported and confirmed by Sportsnet, Ryan Johnson will be introduced today at 1 o'clock in less than an hour.
as the new GM of the Canucks, and Henrik and Daniel Sedin will be introduced as the co-presidents of hockey operations. And, of course, we've known the general shape of this since I would say about Monday afternoon, Monday evening anyways, right, when Elliott Friedman reported that the Sedins were going to take on a larger role than perhaps he had first anticipated.
There is still, though, debate or at least questions about what exact role the Sedins would have and what it would look like. Co-presidents of hockey operations. That is a very, very weighty title for the two of them to share or for each of them to have, I suppose, since they're not sharing one title. They each have the title. Anyways.
We know the titles, but there are still a lot of questions about exactly how that will function, how that triumvirate at the top of the Canucks hockey operations department will function and make decisions, and who's going to be handling what. And, I mean, we can run through some of the things we're most curious to hear, especially since ownership is going to be there. But I would think...
The pure practicalities of what's the reporting structure and who has final authority and who's handling what are going to be pretty key parts of this press conference.
Yes. So, yeah. I mean, I think there's... First of all, we haven't heard from ownership, not a peep, since the team bottomed out. The competitive integrity of the group was compromised beyond... a level to which you could even imagine pretending that this team had a shot at making the playoffs in the near future.
And effectively, at least according to Scuttlebutt, the organization has accepted a rebuild, quote unquote, accepted a rebuild. Like, what does that mean to Canucks ownership, given what we saw the last time they tried to rebuild? Given how frequently... I mean, let's be real. Like, the last decade of Canucks hockey, okay?
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Chapter 3: What questions remain about the Canucks' organizational structure?
Maybe not. No. Okay. We'll have to double check on that. Things were so good then that they should have.
That's the thing. And I think they did.
Okay, okay.
I don't remember. I could be wrong, but it's at least then. That's the earliest possible date, most recent date that we've heard from them. So this is pretty rare, right? This is a once every few years kind of thing to hear directly from ownership.
And it is going to be interesting to thread that needle both from the media's perspective where there's a big story, which is that Daniel and Henrik are coming into these roles and Rian Johnson is the GM. You also have this opportunity, though, to ask, potentially, we'll see, to ask ownership questions.
And then from a Canucks perspective, as you said, you want to get a certain message out, but you also want to make sure... you're accountable for everything that's led to this point, or at least I think you would want to make sure that you're accountable for everything that's led to this point.
Only to the extent that you take the opportunity to convince the market that this has a chance to be different, because that's what this market needs. How hopeless does it feel in our inbox, in the 650-650 Dunbar-Lumber inbox? How hopeless are Canucks fans you talk to on the street? Right? That's what you need to begin to combat.
You need to, like, lift the dark clouds that have hovered over Rogers Arena for, honestly, it's more like 15 years. Yep. It's getting close. To be totally honest, it's more like 15 years. And so, you know, that's not that today is going to be, like, full sunshine. Right?
This isn't, like, one of those biblical stories where the rainbow shines through, you know, and the deep booming voice of God is like, and then the Canucks didn't suck finally.
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Chapter 4: How important is experienced leadership for the new management team?
And that's what the challenge is. Like, you're not going to, you know, to use an old talkatism, you're not going to eat the elephant in one bite. No, correct. Is that how it goes? I think.
One sitting. No, it was about bites. Or it was like, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time? It was something like that. And people were like, what?
I think it's a Bishop Desmond Tutu quote, too. It is. Point is, point is, today should at least mark a fresh start. What you're looking for from the team is to at least show that they can credibly and confidently sell that this is a fresh start. and what comes next will be better buy-in. That's all you're trying to accomplish today.
Tony the Nose texts in. Great handle. I know we've normalized Daniel and Henrik doing everything in this organization together, but is it not a little unserious to name two people for one job just because they're twins? I don't know if I'm just captured by Sedin nostalgia, because if another team did this, I might have the same reaction as Tony the Nose. But I'm like, well, it's the Sedins.
I don't know. They'll be fine. That's my reaction. Yeah. Okay, and to be a little more serious.
It's not, like, you ever seen the movie 13 Days? No. It's a really good movie. You should watch it. But it's about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yes, yes. And, like, you know, what was RFK again? He was the lawyer, the top lawyer. What do they call that in the U.S.? Oh, Attorney General. Attorney General. He was the Attorney General, but when the rubber hit the road,
He was the guy whose counsel, obviously, JFK knew that he could count on the most. It wasn't his Secretary of Defense. It wasn't his Secretary of State. It was my brother. These are guys that grew up together, played on a line together. It would be unserious if you took two people and made them co-presidents if they didn't have the stunningly unique experience of having...
been brothers, grown up together, gotten along, been competitive, played on a line together as young kids, become elite prospects on a line together, both been prospects of the exact same caliber,
up to the time that you were 18, come to the NHL, continued to be line mates, struggled massively, and been roundly criticized in the early parts of your career, only to work together, push each other to solve how to become great players in the league, and then have a three or four year run where you're the best players in the league, like Crosby, Ovechkin, and the Sedin twins.
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Chapter 5: What challenges does the new GM face in rebuilding the franchise?
I think the far more interesting question is why.
Why are they doing it?
Why are you doing this?
Yeah.
Like, why?
Why are you doing this? I think why are you doing this, but more so than that for me is, and this will depend on what exactly the split of duties is. why do you now think you were ready for this? Because you didn't. And that speaks highly of you, right? That you didn't think you were ready for it when you were coming in as rookies.
But I think it's worth noting that it's not as if they've been doing the, you know, like Rick Nash started in Columbus, right? As like a just kind of floating assistant GM. And that's a pretty common thing for players, right? Where it's just like you're in the front office learning, basically. I think they did that for a year, but then they've been player development coaches, right?
They haven't been in the front office. They've been on the ice, and that's great. It's not exactly training to be the president of hockey operations. And again, part of the answer here could simply be, well, Ryan Johnson's going to do a lot of that stuff, and we're going to kind of learn on the go. And look, whatever. That's fine. But I am curious to get their thoughts on... Why now?
Why are you now prepared in a way that maybe you didn't feel so five years ago?
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Chapter 6: How has the Canucks' performance affected fan trust?
You are a president of an NHL team. The sacrifice that that requires is not something that... healthy people typically take on. Honestly, it's such an unmanageable burden, especially given the state of this franchise. Why are you doing this?
That to me is a huge question. James and Vic text in, question, why are you doing this? Answer, the gross grind became too easy. I actually think there's something to that. Where it's just like, this is a real challenge.
And we love taking on challenges. And we talked about that, right? That this job was more appealing than people realized because of the fact that it's a... You know, it's the worst job in hockey in a way that actually is very interesting to people who are super competitive.
Yeah, it's like we love challenges. We love challenging ourselves. And so this is a really good challenge. And we are so good at the grouse grind. That's boring to us. So we're searching the next one out. And it's fixing the Vancouver Canucks. Like, I suspect that's part of it from their perspective. Because as you said, right, they are maniacally competitive people.
Yes, they are.
And this is another opportunity to... use that competitiveness to tilt it at a real goal, right? Where it's like really, really hard to achieve something, but the rewards if you achieve something are incredibly, incredibly high.
And then lastly, what's your vision for the head coach? Yes. What's the vision for your team, right? Is... there any additional news that drops when the club drops this release right is there any assistant general managers or what have you that are relieved of their duties probably not honestly probably this is going to be on the twins and ryan johnson yep
And probably we're going to get a wave of organizational changes across the next four to five months. Yeah. And it might be the next 18 months as they build out sort of the Sadeen Ryan Johnson axis of what this organization is going to look like. But, you know, hearing them talk about.
The coaching side and the sort of vision for what they think this team needs in terms of the people they surround themselves with. I mean, honestly, the people you surround yourself with is such a huge part. I was thinking this last night watching a Minnesota Wild team that I thought was pretty poorly coached, to be totally honest with you. Like, I thought John Hines did a very fake sharp job.
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Chapter 7: What are the expectations for the press conference?
And I will note, just on the coaching subject, Elliot Friedman on the Fan Hockey Show said he thought there's a chance, or a decent chance, we hear, we learn about which direction they're going with Adam Foote today at the press conference. Really? We'll see if that plays out or not, but that was, he didn't tip his hand.
He said, I hadn't heard which direction that is, but he thought there was at least a chance that it gets settled today. All right. We got one more segment reminder. We're going to hear from Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini and And newly, yet to be announced, but will be announced soon, co-presidents of hockey operations Daniel and Hendrick Sedin and general manager Ryan Johnson.
That's coming up at 1. So we've got one more segment to go. We're live here at Rogers Arena. We'll break a little early in the next segment so Drancer can go down. I forget what we settled on, but at least he'll... Saunter. Someone suggested saunter. I like that one. He'll saunter down to the media room to be present for that press conference. No, that's too much zip. No, saunter is a nice slow.
If you're sauntering, you're not going with zip.
No, but sauntering is still something that you could see like a doe or an attractive lady do.
It's too graceful. Way too graceful, brother. All right, fine. You'll sludge down. You'll slouch down to the Canucks media room.
Like the monster in the Yates poem. Yes. Slouching toward Bethlehem.
Slouch.
Exactly right. That's what we're doing.
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