here in the KidTech Studio. KidTech Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of 5 star Google reviews. Or feet. What are you waiting for? Canucks Central is for enzyme Pacific Vancouver's premier Chrysler, Dodge Ram and Jeep Superstore on 2nd Avenue between Canby and Maine. Or at enzyme Pacific Chrysler.ca, the conference finals begin today, the final four, and it will be a sawns your Vancouver Canucks, as we know, after the game's seven loss. Yes, unfortunately. I was really hoping that we'd have at least one more round of Canucks playoff hockey. We all were. We all were. There is a lot to talk about, team headed in the right direction and a lot of possibilities when it comes to the off season. So let's get to it. It's the open on Canucks Central. Welcome to the open. That's your home. Are you too good for your home? Answer me. The open, the latest on the Vancouver Canucks in our take on it, and the latest is expect the unexpected for the off season as Elliot Friedman mentioned on the 32 thoughts podcast. We talked about that a lot yesterday. Don't think this front office has shown to be conventional in their time here in Vancouver to this point. I think that's been a big part of their success. But I wanted to focus today on how the team performed this season. Where were their strengths? Where were their weaknesses? And how does that shape what they could look to do in this off season? Because they were a great defensive team. They have a lot of high-end offensive talent. But as we saw after the all-star break, the offense dried up pretty quick and you relied on a very small amount of players to provide that offense. And when it wasn't there, you really struggled to keep up with the Edmonton Oilers. They don't have enough school scores on the wing on this team. The best school score is Brock Besserwood, a tremendous season. And then there was a pretty big drop off to Connor Garland, who had 20 goals. I mean, he had half the goals that Brock Besser did, right? And hey, 20 goals is respectable, but you start looking at teams that are usually going deep in the playoffs. A couple of guys in the wing that can score 30. And the Canucks were short at least one winger, right? And I think when we look at this team, I think a lot of things are tied together because I think their strengths, of course, we all know what they were this season with defense and with goal-tending. As far as their weaknesses go, how much do you think they're all kind of tied together? And they all kind of tied together through a similar threat as well on the wing, speed, moving the puck. There are a lot of things that are tied together here, and it's not just one thing, but a number of things that lead to some of their weaknesses being exposed in the postseason. Well, if you think back to last-off season, the focus was, okay, we're going to try and improve around the edges. This is the cap space that we've opened up with the Oliver Ekman-Larson buyout. And they got Pew Souter and Ian Cole and Teddy Blueger. And hey, all these guys made massive contributions through the course of the season to this team. Good hockey players, but all helped this team get better on the defensive side of the ice. Left a little bit to be desired on the offensive end. You know, Ian Cole, certainly not an offensive defenseman. His pace got exposed, especially in the Edmonton series, and maybe he could stop scoring his own net would have helped too. But in the overall, kidding aside, Ian Cole was a massive part of this team on and off the ice during the course of the season. But yeah, you're right. Like a lot of these things sort of tie together. A lot of the pieces that they added to this team focused on improving the defensive side of the puck. And I think they always knew where their shortcomings were going to be offensively, but it's easier to shore up and cheaper to shore up the defensive side of the ice than it is to shore up the offensive side of the ice. And also considering the level of makeover that wasn't necessary in terms of the players' details and commitment to playing the right way, and because of that, there had to be an extra onus on playing the right way defensively and having players that can play a certain way defensively. And I also think it's somewhat in the vision of what the coach wants in terms of his defense. He clearly prioritizes having big defenseman. Yes. He didn't reach guys with size, physicality, of course, but really having the size and smarts and defensive positioning to be very hard to play against and play through. And you saw how the Canucks went out to address that, SUSI, Trader for Zadorov, rebuilt Tyler Myers in many ways, right? And then even look at like, yeah, I got like Noah Juleson, how he fit in. And I think that's instructive when we look at off-season targets, whether it's trade, whether it's free agency. I think those are things to look at. But do you also think that somebody that can move the puck a bit more efficiently, that's not named Quinn Hughes or Phillip Ronik is necessary for the bottom two pairs? I absolutely do. So you know, I get it, like the team's foundation was built on defense and you can't guarantee and we'll get to this. You can't guarantee that they'll maintain their defensive prowess year over year. You know, teams are going to go over the tape, see where they can take on the Canucks and also with the amount of turnover we're expecting here, you know, there might be some growing pains at some point, but they created so little off the rush, so little off the rush. Part of that is, you know, the wing scoring problem and they don't have enough forwards that carry the puck well, carry the zone, get into the zone with possession of the puck. And so if their forecheck was off then pretty much the Canucks were going to have a tough night offensively, but they needed for as good as the group was on the defensive end. It just, they didn't have anybody that really moved the puck well, that carried the puck well out of the zone. Sure. You'd have Zadorov every now and again, Myers can do it, but it's, it was something that was easy to identify in what was lacking on the decor. Well, that's where if your believer is Zadorov and a, and many Canucks fans are, and many that are clamoring and even saying, don't worry about what it takes to sign him because there is more to this player and what they believe is he can do that more consistently. You saw his stretch passes in the playoffs, you saw him lug the puck up the ice. If he does that more consistent, consistently in the regular season and he's one of those defense men that kind of finds that niche and understands how to really control the game at the age of close to 30 and then it's successful for, you know, a handful of years, you can see the upside, right? And it's tantalizing, but you can also be realistic and say he's, he's played in the league almost for like 10 years. Yeah. Like it's been around a long time. Yeah. And it's not to say that's whole played together in Colorado. Right. And it's not to say you can keep getting better, but this whole idea of reaching this whole other level and doing that, you know, for say 60 at 80 games or even 55 at 80 games, not say 20 or so, but I mean, I mean, if you look at it, playoffs were a different story. So that's the question you have was a door off. Now, if you believe that he can do it, then maybe that's the guy you retain internally. He can provide that and that would provide you with, with more, a rush chance to potentially in moving the puck. But a lot of it is ultimately tied to their forwards and their wingers. Yeah. You need more offense out of your, out of your forwards. And I think you need players with a better offensive mindset a little bit and more offensive awareness. So to speak, offensive talent, obviously all these things tied together, but also speed that puts teams on their heels, like they're two best wingers this year, Besser and Garland, neither guy is super fast. No. Garland's shifty. And he plays hard, but he's not a super fast. Garland's quick, but he's not fast. Right. And neither is Besser. Yeah. So these guys aren't putting pressure through the neutral zone on defenders. No. And, you know, maybe Jay Genssel can help you with that. But yeah, there's a player profile. You obviously still want to have size. You want to be a team that forechecks hard. Like that's clearly what the Canucks want to be as a team, but they need more players that can generate and drive play offensively. They just don't have it. Like they don't have, you know, if you look over some of the, the, the micro stats of this team, it's like really struggled to generate rush chances. They were in the bottom third of the league. Uh, and when you look at their forward group, they were amongst the bottom third in all of their offensive zone entries, defensive zone exits, like their, their forwards weren't great at moving the pot, carrying the pot. They have a couple of them that do it well, but not a ton of them. And it relied a ton on the forecheck to get the job done. And I understand that's part of the coach's mantra, but when you go into a series and you're asked to find different ways to beat a team because they start to take away everything that you're good at, the Canucks didn't have enough to diversify their offense as the series went on against the Edmonton Oilers. Well, and that's why the coach said, uh, we know we're not a pretty group in terms of how we play. And we joked about that too, right? But it's, it's not, right? And it's not to say it's ugly and it's very effective. And for all this talk about what they're not and what they don't do well, there are a lot of things they do well and a lot of things they do exactly right now. But, you know, we were starting off with the weaknesses. We'll get to strengths. But also the idea of winning isn't, you don't have to win playing the most common way. Yeah. Right. You can win doing something different. You've seen that happen before. You see that. So I see it in football a lot. You see it with the, um, New England Patriots, like how often during Belichick's hey day and during, like Tom Brady was the quarterback of a lot of different types of New England Patriots. So low scoring, you know, slag, slug it out, great defensive teams or high scoring highlight real teams. Teams are random ball really well. All sorts of different teams, but the common thread was they found a way to be effective and dominant no matter what, right? Are the Canucks a team that's going to look at it that way or look at it as we have a certain way to play? Because you can also look at it and say, sure, we can try to get faster and all that. But what if we try to retain our defenseman and if it's not bringing his adore off back, we'll bring in a guy like say Brendan Dillon, for instance, right? Big lefty defenseman, strong physical local boy, for instance, he would fill that void on defense. So you're not really diversifying your look on defense. And forward wise, sure, we, you love to go and get a, uh, Jake Enzel, what if that's not realistic? For instance, do you just kind of double down and go after a guy like say to Foley? Now, not the fastest guy, but then he fits into how you're playing. You know what I mean? And there are different ways to approach this off season two about how you want to build this team. So that's what I'm, what I'm fascinated about. Because yes, I love to see them add the puck moving, add the speed, but is that available for you? And is that the way to go or is the best avenue enhancing what you're already good at and leaning into that given what the market may be offering you? I think this depends a little bit too on, on the coach, um, because Rick Tockett has done so many things well. He finally built an identity and a culture in this team that was so desperately needed over the last number of years and they bought into it remarkably well, but you do have to add new wrinkles, diversify a little bit every single year, even though you're sticking to your staples, sticking to your identity, you do need, uh, to mix it up. You don't want to get stale as a team. And I think that's a challenge that, that Rick Tockett is going to have at the end of the day, you have to find out what's available to you and find a way to maximize what is available to you. I mean, Amar on Twitter mentions how Vegas, they have defensement that can pass. They're big, but it can also move the puck and he mentions how Edmonton, they got from, what they got from the blue line, convert to what the Canucks have and they have to prioritize puck moving players. It's the combination of they want to find guys with size. Can you find guys with size and puck moving ability and being good defensively? Yeah. It's hard to do, you know, and you try to find that type of profile, but if you can't, you have to also look at what's, what's more important than finding a guy who's good defensively or a guy who can move the puck. And given the team's profile, it's probably going to be the guy who's better defensively than how they've approached things so far with their coach and also with their player personnel. But there are guys, like for instance, a guy that's super intriguing to me in the free agent market is Matthew Roy. Yeah. The LA Kings. The six foot two, he's physical, good defensively, moves the puck solidly, like a good overall player. Yeah. Like if you're, like if you're moving heroic, for instance, if he doesn't sign, like there's a guy that you can bring in on the free agent market that can play up your lineup potentially and fits that profile, now he won't be as good offensively for you. And even if you do keep her on it, let's say that they're not overspending on the forwards, they get a couple of guys that are cheaper, well, you could do her on it and up Matthew Roy. Like, so there are guys available in the free agent market is just how willing are you to dip into it and are you willing to pay a guy who's maybe more defensive, a big salary? Because that's the thing you have to look at here, right? Like you, if you got to pay Matthew Roy four or five million, are you doing that for him or doing a visitor? Well, they were very good in free agency last year and making sure they didn't overpay. We thought the SUSI contract was a little bit rich at the time, but he proved that and he's kind of fun. He can work under that sort of a deal, but you know, they didn't give term to Ian Cole. They kept things low for all of their guys, really, Blueger and for Pew Souter, I mean, to find him at $1.6 million was an absolute steal, a fabulous find, you might say. I will say this about the free agent market. Like the right side of defense, it's actually funny that there is so many options. Usually there's not very many options, but there are, it's not like, you know, you're, there's not a ton of like superstar options. Obviously, those guys rarely make it to free agency, but there's a lot of guys that you can see playing in a second pair, middle pair type role. Yeah, there's like 10 guys, maybe 11 actually, but you can even say a dozen that play top four minutes. Yeah. So that's, it's unusual for the free agent market. It is. I mean, that list actually goes all the way down to 21 if you include guys like Zaitsev and Chateon Kirk and even in Klingberg and Stetcher, for instance, like, you started looking at it. There are all sorts of players, there is a higher end guy, like a Montour who's been a monster offensively the last couple of years. And we know obviously with Chris Tann of being available, Dylan Demello is another guy, for instance. And I know your boy, your boy with Carolina Hurricanes, he's also a free agent. Hey, man. Let's bring in the fish. Let's go. That passion means fish in Italian. Does it? Okay. Yeah. Um, so I look at the team and we talk about strengths and it's obvious where the team's biggest strength is on defense or team defense, I guess, which is not something we would have said about the Canucks before Rick Talkett showed up, but he got guys to buy in. They made the improvements that they did around the edges, found a lot of players that understand where they need to be on the ice and understand how to execute in a team defense kind of way. But I don't, like, can you guarantee that that maintains year over year, especially when you're going to have as much turnover as we expect the Canucks to have on this roster, given all of their unrestricted free agents? It's a fair question, right? Because yeah, it's not going to be the same players carrying it over as much. But I do think the Canucks do truly believe in the structure that they have and how they want to play as a team, what they want to be like. Yeah. And this year was very much, very much embodied. And if you listen to talk and as much as we're sitting here and saying, well, the Canucks didn't have these players, they had to play a certain style. They leave room for you to move the puck, for you to make a play. It's not like they're saying, don't do these things. How many times do we hear him after a game, after a loss, be like, there was plays for us to make. We just did not make them. Yeah. And he's honest about, yeah, listen, if you have a lead, you have to be better with your game management. You have to be smarter about how you play the game, smarter shifts, don't take extra chances. For instance, like be smart about how you do things, but that doesn't mean don't be aggressive when you have a chance. That doesn't mean don't force the issue, doesn't mean don't forecheck, right? And I think the same thing applies for how they move the puck out of their own zone two. So I think how they want to play, even if they're getting better or moving the puck, isn't going to change really. It's more about now within the system, make these plays. And it's available to you to do so, right? Now can you find a player that can excel within that system and do well? So I think that it can carry over fairly well as long as you come in and realize what your responsibilities are. And considering the fact that you're, you are still going to have about a dozen players or 15 players here, like there is going to be turnover, but you start looking at the guys in the forward group, there's only space for like two free agents to be added to forward group. Right. There's only a third line, whether that's going to be Linholm or the fact, whatever you want to call that line, right? And also a top six winger to play with Patterson. Those are the two spots on the fours. The rest of the fours are coming back, right? On the backhand, you already have Susie, you already have Hughes back. So and Julesin, so those are the three. So I think there's already enough, you know, of a base here and also this understanding of what to do and play as a team and other guys doing that on day to day basis that I don't worry too much about them losing their identity or losing their edge. I think that's where our good coach comes in to keep guys engaged and bought in, even with a new group of players. But to me, it's more about how do you add players to enhance what you already have? And I think they should still be the same team, but can you have the layers you talked about them lacking by adding certain players that can make certain plays that gives you those extra chances here and there that put you over the top? Sometimes a defense as a team to have it be as successful as it was for the Canucks this year, it in large part comes down to the Bayern factor on players, because a lot of the players that we saw play bad team defense for the Canucks stayed with the team and under Rick Tockett figured out how to buy in and play quality team defense, when to take chances, how to manage the puck, all of those things started to really develop here in Vancouver. So some of that just simply comes down to the Bayern factor as a team. You know, I think one other area of strength was, and I don't know how much this carries over conversion rate, the way they converted on their chances. And I know they were a quality over quantity team and all these things we talked about at the high end of their lineup, they do have guys that are better than average shooters, JT Miller, Brock Besser, Elias Pet, all these guys better than average shooters, but how is that something you maintain? Is that a strength of this team to continue being quality over quantity? I think in terms of how they play, yes, and I think teams that have success are teams that create better quality scoring looks as opposed to going for the higher volume, just pure volume. Again, there is room in how the Canucks play to shoot the puck a lot more too. And the Canucks issue wasn't necessarily shot attempts, it was how many shots actually got through. Especially in the playoffs. Yes. And the playoffs, they threw a lot of pucks. Remember that game against Nashville where they threw like 80 pucks on net and only like what 19 got on or 21 got on or whatever it was. It was the reoccurring theme of the playoffs, especially in losses. A lot of attempts, not a lot getting on net. And that's not to say, you know, that it excuses shots not getting on net, but in terms of how the Canucks are playing, the shot attempts is more indicative of the shots actually getting through in terms of what you're trying to do. The shot getting through comes down to the individual player and his ability to get the shot through. The fact of getting attempts is a byproduct, generally speaking, of how you're trying to play as a team. So the attempts were there, the shots actually getting through weren't there. And that was, you know, that was a big problem in the playoffs as I pointed out. Even in game seven, I mean, they had way more attempts than the admitted Oilers, but it's just they didn't get a lot of those on net, obviously. Even early in the game, it wasn't just all score effects. They just kept missing the net. And you think of the big chances they even missed the net on. I mean, McCabe and Philadelphia, they both get breakaways. They missed the net. 100%. So to that point, is there going to be regression next year, for instance? Yes. I mean, Besser is probably not going 40 goals next year, right? But I think we saw the regression happen in season where the secondary group, the bottom six, like Blueger, two goals over his final 47 games, McCabe's goals dried up. All these guys goals dried up as the season went on. Yeah. But at the same time, they're individuals who had career years, goals scoring wise. Yes. Like Besser again, like Besser could have a really good year next season, but not get 40 goals. That's fair. Hoaglander may not get 24. Yeah. Right? I mean, J.T. Miller had 37. Is he getting 37 next year? I think, I think because of who Miller is as a player, he's always going to be a very high shooting percentage player. He is, but I'm not sure he gets 37, maybe like 32, 35. But I think Petras is going to score more. Hughes may not get 17 next year, right? No. Right? So I think there are guys that had peak years, even Dakota Joshua, who had 18 and 63, like next year, wherever he is, whether it's Vancouver or elsewhere, would his shock QVS 15 goals? Yeah. So those things I can see happening, but there's also the flip side, Petras is probably going to have a better year. Mm-hmm. If McKay was back, he's probably finishing better. Well, he would certainly hope. So there are a couple of guys that could swing it the other way, but a new player coming in isn't beholden to the year past of what happened in Vancouver or not, right? And as much as I say, you're probably not getting those things, nobody knows what's going to happen next season, right? Like anything can honestly happen either way, but it's likely you don't get as many goals from Besser, some guys who have career years don't score as many goals, but there are probably other guys that can pick up the slack as well, especially if you add a couple of guys that are more pure goalscore. Another weakness that developed over the course of the season was the power play. Now I think that's, as we've talked about, and I know you had a hit on Halford and Bruff in the morning, even talking about a Jake Genssel would certainly help some of those issues, but how much, and I know this point has been brought up too, like was there just too much on Rick Talkett to also coach the power play, and does this team need to bring in somebody as an assistant or whatever to be a specific power play coach? Yeah. So you have the sedines involved, who obviously know the power play, you have Sergei Gonshire involved already. Yeah. Rick Talkett. I don't think it was all on Rick Talkett. No, but I'm just saying like in terms of do you need to bring somebody else in, I don't think having somebody else's issue here, like you have enough cooks in the kitchen, right? It's like there are enough people around here that don't think you need to add somebody else in. The answers are here for you guys to figure it out, and I agree that sometimes you have to look outside, but also sometimes you got to find answers yourself, and I think they have people here that are capable of finding answers. But I think in general too though, a big issue for the connects power play ended up being that for how they're constructed in terms of having JT Miller be such a fulcrum on the half wall and generating, if he doesn't have a left hand shot in the bumper that can get quick shots off, you're not maximizing the total ability of that power play, and I think that's an issue that crept up throughout the playoffs. They found wrinkles here and there, they found times, and then they went for the cross ice pass. The reason they kept trying to do the cross ice is because they didn't have the play in the bumper ever. Yeah. And not having that I think is a big flaw of your power play. One of the reasons Edmonton is so prolific, no, they're prolific everywhere, but they're prolific from the bumper sometimes, they're everywhere on the ice, they're dangerous. The connects had no threat in the middle this year, no, right? So if you have a left handed shot that can shoot the puck and also retrieve pucks behind the net really well, I think that would really change this power play against the obvious guy. But there's even like, honestly, like it's a really fascinating off season two to me because as much as we're talking about the high end guys, there are a couple of players that are on the lower end that could be interesting fits. Like Jason Zuker, for instance, left handed shot, incredible forechecker, decent shot too, right? Good on retrievals. That might be a low cost guy to fit into your bumper spot and maybe he scores 30. You know what I mean? Like there are things they like, they've liked him in the past, right? To me, that's an intriguing guy. Look, yeah, it's not like, hey, I love this player 5 on 5, although he's decent and you saw in a national series, he's one of their better players, better forwards at least, right? Yeah. But there are guys you have to look at to fit needs. So when you look at a player in the free agent market, especially if you look at a goal scorer, don't just look at it as, oh, this is a good top six, six guy in the NHL, look at his handedness and how he might fit in on the power play because I think that's going to be a big key to who they end up signing. And even though I've been an agist in the past, you know, just because a guy is 32, 33 years old doesn't mean he can't do a job for you as we saw with certainly Ian Cole this year and some others that the Canucks brought in. Dan Reachow, Satyar Shah, it is Canucks. Central Kevin Woodley is going to join us, get his take on the Canucks getting removed from the playoffs. That was a weird way to say it eliminated, eliminated from the playoffs, his take on Arthur Shilov's and also how Edmonton diversified their offense to adjust to the strengths and weaknesses of Arthur Shilov's as a goalie. Canucks have to round up the Canucks will hold court with media on Thursday beginning at 11 a.m., so that is tomorrow morning, of course, here on Sports at 650. We'll have all of it. Canucks talk, Jamie Dodd will be on site at Rogers Arena. They expect to have some one on one interviews to go along with the media scrums with players, coach and general manager, and we expect here on Canucks Central to have an exclusive interview with management on tomorrow's program to go over the season and look ahead to the off season. Stay tuned for that. Kevin Woodley is next on Canucks Central.
