(upbeat music) We're back on Canucks Central. It's Dan Racho, Satyar Shah. A lot of angry people here in the city. You know what, I just hope that the whatever players are left for Inter Miami to put on the field on Saturday, or this weekend against the Vancouver White Cabs, I just hope the White Cabs like punish them. Like go out there and win five nil for your fans, at least the ones that are still showing up and that paid a pretty, pretty penny to be in that bar. - Are they good enough to do that though? - Yeah sure, they're one of the better teams in the West so far this year. - Yeah it's not that good. Miami's not that good without Messy Busquets and Lewis Swaferts reuniting Barcelona from years past. - Or as I like to say, Barcelona. - Yeah, nobody calls it Barcelona apparently. - All right, back in on Canucks Central. It's Dan Racho, Satyar Shah. We're in the Kintec Studio, Kintec. Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five star Google reviews. Soar Pete, what are you waiting for? Let's bring in our next guest. He has Ian McIntyre, the triple threat on radio, on television, and of course, you read his great work digitally at sportsnet.ca. I'm Mac, how you doing? - I'm doing very well, Dad, how are you? - I'm good, don't tell me you're one of the ones that is missing out on Lionel Messi this weekend at BC Place, he's not coming. He's not coming to Vancouver. - Yeah, well I did not have tickets so. So I guess I'm not missing out, but it's too bad for fans. I don't want to go off in a rent. - Yeah, no, it's too bad for fans. - I mean, someone like David Beckham, he got it. Like he was here to sell the league and to sell the game and to promote football in North America. And then Thierry Henry was the opposite, right? Would never play on artificial turf. And I'm just picking two guys at random. And I don't, surprisingly, I don't personally know Lionel. But I mean, he seems like a good guy and to come here. So it is too bad that he's not fit to play. 'Cause it would have been a memorable game here in Vancouver. I have to say, as a little kid, very little kid in the 1970s, I can still remember seeing Pellet play for the New York cosmos against the Vancouver White caps. And still having a sense even to this day of one event that was, how momentous that was for soccer in Vancouver to have Pellet playing here. And I think it would have been the same thing to have Lionel Messi here. So too bad. - Yeah, definitely too bad. And for our Canucks listeners, we will now get back to our regularly scheduled programming and discuss your Vancouver Canucks. It was an interesting day, Imac. And I think one thing, you know, we spoke to, or I spoke to Patrick Levine a little bit earlier. And one of the things a lot of our listeners are mentioning in the Dumbbar Lumber text message inbox, they're happy to hear Patrick Levine continuing to try and raise the bar. Like it was nice, but we still got a lot of work to do, practice habits got to get better. And at the end of the day, still only a second round. And we came up short there. So, you know, it's clear that as much as there is a wildly different culture here with this organization, that's been built over the last two years. The feeling I got today is they truly do believe that there is still another level that this group has to get to. - Well, I know management and coaching staff believe that. And knows that for a fact. I hope the players understand that as well. I think they understand that in an intellectual sense, like, you know, they sit in a class or in the video room or wherever they have their meetings and people tell them, like, yeah, you have to get to another level. I know that Patrick Levine is telling every player in the exit interview, remember, we lost game seven and it was only the second round. So I think players know the idea of, they understand this, that yes, it's gonna get harder, but just as they understood the playoffs are hard and then had to play them to find out how hard they were. You have to have success, come back and then learn about what to do to have more success because time and again, and I asked Alvin about this today in my question to time. And again, we've seen teams, especially young-ish teams and the Canucks aren't a young team, but their core is still a fairly young core and certainly not an experienced core when it comes to playoffs or sustain any sort of level of team excellence. Time and again, we've seen these teams that break through and you think, okay, they're here. And this team did it themselves just four years ago. I know the bubble was an entirely different atmosphere. I know that it was artificial, but the Canucks won two playoff rounds with the core that by definition was four years younger than it is even now. And it seemed like that team was on its way. What happened the next year? They got crushed in free agency. They lost their, a lot of their leadership and their identity and they went over a cliff and they stayed at the bottom of that cliff for three more seasons before they got back. Now, you can even go back to, let's say, a more credible group or even more impressive group. The Roberto Luongo, Daniel Sedine, Ryan Kessler, Canucks teams, they finally had a breakthrough with Elaine Vigno in 2007 and went to the second round. It was a season in a lot of ways, kind of similar to this one. Exceeded expectations during the regular season, but not to the degree that this team did. One, a playoff round and it looked like, okay, these are the Canucks. Well, the next year they missed the playoffs. They've known us, got fired, Mike Gillis came in, inherited these players, continued to build what known us in Burke, Ryan Burke had started. And then the next year is when the team started sort of a more methodical, consistent climb towards that 2011 final. So this is my very long-winded way. And I know you'll miss me when I'm not on radio to do your every time. But this is my long-winded way of saying, this management regime and this organization has every reason to be wary of complacency because of the success they've had this year in thinking that, okay, we've built our foundation. We've got to a certain level. We've got all these players coming back. So this is our jumping-off point for next year. It's a 109-point team and a second round playoff team, a final eight playoff team. No, you cannot think that way or you're going to be back down in the Mosh Pit wondering in April how the season got away from you and people are losing their jobs and players are being traded or just publicly eviscerated. It's a very wise and prudent thing that the Canucks are doing and that all Bean is doing in right away. This week, three days after they lost game seven, bringing everyone back to reality saying, yeah, it was great, but it's going to be harder and we need to be better next year. I think it's great. - Yeah, I mean, the bar has been raised and that's the way that it should be on. Until you win a Stanley Cup and, you know, as good as the Canucks were this year, we kind of view them as a fringe contender, not a say favorite heading into the Stanley Cup final. We thought with how the Western Conference and then the NHL set up, they have a chance, a puncher's chance to perhaps get to the Cup final and maybe even win it, but they aren't a favorite. They aren't built to be a favorite yet. And I think that's how this organization sees it. They're not just happy to have a pretty good team. They want to have a great team. And I think that's the way the standard should be. - Yeah, yeah. I mean, the question now is how do they get there? How do they get from here to there? Because it's not like there's unlimited resources for all Bean or any team, you know, for that matter, but especially the Canucks, you know, the nine UFAs that they have. And these are okay, you know, none of the nine UFAs are superstars, although Elias Lindholm showed his value in the playoffs. But for the most part, these are guys you'd all like back. And some of them are key to that leadership group, that experienced group as well. And so this is not an easy off season. And they have to be careful in free agency. So they don't have the same thing happen to this team that happened to that team four years ago, where they lost their identity. And a couple of the players, you know, they let go, they should have kept. And the reason they let them go wasn't that they didn't want them. It was that, you know, then as now, they were up against a salary cap. So, you know, you've got your nine UFAs to deal with. Even once you navigate that, it's clearly need a little more scoring, bring punch. And I'll be talking about that today, top six winger. The winger, he couldn't get at the trade deadline again, because they didn't have the cap flexibility to make a deal happen. So it's challenging. It's, you have to have, you have to continue to have that improvement from within, because the connects are a great example of how difficult it is if you're trying to improve by making external moves, it's really difficult. You always have to have that drive from within your organization, which is another good thing, I think, about the Patrick Albany and Jim Rutherford regime, is that they made their farm team and player development, you know, a priority when they came in. So they do have a push of guys towards the bottom of the lineup, but, you know, the guys who are gonna make the difference next year, the guys that you would need to be a great team, you're not gonna get them from Abbensord. You have to find a way to get to get them externally. And that's a challenge. - I thought it was really interesting around Elias Patterson today. You know, he, you know, alluded to a knee injury that was bothering him from January onwards and also alluded to his own play as, not great over the last three months of the season. And when, you know, Rick Talkett was asked about it, he said, you know, never got to a point where we felt we needed to shut him down. And even when I asked Patrick Olveen, he said the same thing. And also added when I asked about a top six winger, like also Elias Patterson asked to, he's got to elevate players around him as well. So, so as much as, you know, there's a feeling of yes, Patterson played through an injury. The sense I got was management is trying to push Patterson to find that next level as a player so that he can perform, even when maybe the conditions aren't perfect. - Yeah. And I think it's, I think it's also important to remember that Patterson is along the many players on this team who was going through genuine Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time. And for the first time in his life, whatever injury he may or may not have had aside, for the first time in his life, he did not have the answers himself, how to figure it out. I mean, this is an incredibly gifted player, very driven, very smart, been doubted, you know, since he was a kid, mostly because of how thin he was, but has always figured it out, has been able to navigate his own way, his own course to be one of the best players in the world. Well, suddenly he was in a situation where he was in foreign waters and his navigation skills failed him. And so that's why it's so important that he got this experience. So you hope the next time he's in the playoffs, he navigates them better. And everybody, you know, some guys, Dakota Joshua had played one playoff game before this. He had a great, a terrific playoffs. Maybe not as good at the end as a beginning, but overall terrific, you know, Connor Garland. We saw what he was like in his first, in his first playoff games. You know, Quinn Hughes, I think, was flying. We all know they could have been a little bit better, but really looking at his stats, like if the Connects power play had done anything, instead of having 10 points in 13 playoff games, Hughes would have had 13 and 13. And we'd all be talking about how he carried over his regular season into the playoffs production wise, but with Patterson, it didn't work out. And so now the challenge, his personal challenge now is to take all of this in, figure out why it didn't work out and make sure he does what every has to do in the summer to be better. My other thought on Patterson, and then I'm sure I'm not the only one to have this thought. Okay, so he had a, he had tendonitis is what Riptock had called us in his knee in January. And as Patterson said, it was a nagging injury that got worse. Those happen for sure. And it's too bad that with so much at stake in him wanting so badly to make a difference in the playoffs, it's too bad that he had a nagging injury dating back to January that he was feeling in some way. But when Queen Hughes was given a chance to talk about did he have an injury or was he sore? He said, no, he said, no, I was fine. And I can't remember the exact quote, but something about the physicality of the playoffs is just something we're all gonna have to get used to. This is how it is. When Ian Cole who had an injury was asked to divulge it, he said, it's not important. We lost. There's no excuses. Philip Broderick actually had to defend himself in rebuttal. It was like courtroom. They didn't, his initial testimony was questioned. And he has to say, what do you want me to say? I said, no, I'm not injured. Now he may have been injured or he may not have been, but the point is he's not taking that option. And it was, but PD said yes, he was hurt. And I don't doubt that he was, but I think again, this is part of the process. If you wanna win and you want to be known as a guy who can play in the playoffs and be regarded as one of the best players in the world, you have to figure out ways to play through those things and probably more effectively than he did. I mean, the word out of the Edmonton is neither Drycidal nor McDavid. Yeah. Was healthy and look at the impact that they still were able to have. So this is, you know, this is part of it. This is all part of this tumultuous cyclone of emotions and physicality that is Stanley Cup playoff hockey. This is why we love it so much, but this is, it's so different than anything people have experienced it until they experience it. You have to find your way. And I think this is just a case where Pedersen is gonna have to find his way. And I think that's the reality. And just based on how the coaches and management spoke about it, there's an expectation that guys get hurt, you have to find a way to still be productive and be better than he was despite having an injury he's dealing with. And now is one of the big questions people had. What were the ailments these players were going through and the only one we got an answer on was Pedersen. As far as the other big question a lot of people have and ourselves included, how many of these guys are coming back, especially these UFAs? Did you get a sense one way or another of anything to expect in terms of who and how many of these UFAs are gonna come back after today? - Well, I can't say a number, but I can say that quietly behind the scenes or maybe it's not even quietly, but everything just gets overshadowed by the din of the playoffs and how big the playoff series are. There's been, I think, a lot of work put in by all being and various agents already on working their way towards something things. I know that Dakota Joshua is a top priority. Is he number one, that's hard to say, but he's very near the top of the list. They definitely want to back. They definitely want Zadora back. And at times I felt like his acquisition was sort of a rental plus. Like at the bare minimum, it's a rental that helps them. And anything beyond that, it's a bonus, but I think towards the end of the year and certainly into the playoffs, it became something more than that. And he definitely wants to stay as well. Tyler Myers is a guy who I think badly wants to finish his career with this team. I think he appreciated this season as much as anybody on that roster because of what the chaos that he was part of in the previous three years and on a personal level for him, the amount of criticism and vitriol that he took. I think he found there was some reaffirmation or validation in how he was able to play within this new structure that Rick Talkett brought in. And nobody's pretending that Tyler Myers suddenly found another level. And Tyler Myers found a system in which he could have confidence and comfort and be a dependable player. He's I think valuable to the Canucks. And because he's from Kelowna and he's just, he's coming off a $30 million five year deal with this organization. I think he's more likely to work with them and find whatever they have to do for him to stay here. But that said, it's a business. And Tyler, I think he's 34 years old. So this is probably his last contract. I mean, it's always a business. And I think these guys and the ones I've mentioned, they do want to stay genuinely. Zatorav absolutely loved Vancouver. His wife, his two daughters, he says they loved Vancouver. Everybody wants to stay, but it's still a business. And even though there's good will and good intentions, you still have to find numbers that make sense. But I would say those guys are near the top of the list. I always remember how Patrick Levine, when I talked to him in January about all the people he had added in the organization, all the work he did last summer, is there anyone that you, anyone whose acquisition you're most satisfied with because of what you're getting versus what you thought, he mentioned Teddy Blooger. And how important Blooger was to sort of that culture and that day-to-day professionalism and being ready for every practice in every game. Now Blooger didn't have a very good second half of the season. Compared to his first half. But I think, you know, if they can, that's a player they would want back. But, you know, when you're talking about Blooger, it has to be a much lower number than these other guys. I think they'd even like Lindholm. But I just don't see how there's a way they can make Lindholm work, especially if they're going to re-sign Philopronic as an RFA. Like if you're paying seven million to Ronik, I don't see how you have another seven to pay to Elias Lindholm. So I think that that's a long shot. That Lindholm would be back. But I definitely think, in fact, I'd be surprised, like, let's say of Joshua, Sidorov, and Myers, I'd be surprised if at least two of the three aren't back. And it wouldn't surprise me if all three are back because there is a will there. And with those players, you're still talking about a lot of money. You know, for Sidorov, is it 4 million a season times five years? Or is it with Dakota Joshua getting to four? Or is it going to be three? And Tyler Myers, even though he's not a $6 million defenseman market value, like NHL market, he's probably still a $4 million defenseman. You know, with the season that he had on a short-term deal. So you still, I mean, these are still big decisions and you have to fit them into a salary cap where there's already a squeeze. But I think all those deals are doable. - And you need room to get better as well. I'm Matt, and we appreciate the time is always going to be a fun off season. Thanks for this. - All right, guys. - There he is. Ian McIntyre joining us here on Canucks Central. We'll take more of your texts and comments and continue to go through what was a big day for the Vancouver Canucks. That's next on Canucks Central. - Hey, it's Mike Alford and Jason Bruff. Join us for Alford and Bruff in the morning, weekdays from 6 to 9 a.m. on Sportsnet 650. - Or on demand anytime through your favorite podcast app. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - We're back on Canucks Central in the Kintech studio. They had to reach out Satyarsha final segment here on a big day at Roger's Arena Canucks cleaning out their lockers. And, you know, the focus on something Patrick Levine said to pretty much open his commentary. Like, I'm not very happy being here today. We lost in game seven and it was only round two. Thanks, Patrick. - Very good, very good. But standards maybe at a different level here in Vancouver than maybe what we'd seen in the past. It's clear like nobody's happy to be here right now. Like, and it wasn't just a happy to be here experience. And the hardest part now is going from, okay, we've become a good hockey team. How do we become a truly great hockey team from here? Like, this is the hardest step to make and some teams never are able to make that next step. - Yeah. And the biggest thing you gotta do more than anything else is make sure that every one of your core players and foundational players that are going to be here long-term understand what else it takes. - Yeah, they made a great step and great leap this year, right? From being where they were and where they are. And it's what they're trying to tell these guys is like, you saw how hard it was to get here. To get beyond this, it's even harder. - Yeah. - And that's something the coach kept saying. It's like, everything is hard in the NHL but it only gets harder. It doesn't get easier. And once you get to the point where the Canucks got, a lost in game seven had two chances to put away Edmonton and couldn't, I think they understand now how much harder it was and they truly thought it would be. And they all said the right things, but it's one of those things that the coach said, like until you're there and doing it, there isn't much you can say. As something Ian Cole said when asked about when he's imparting his experience in the playoffs with fans and travel, not the bubble playoffs, that you can tell people all you want, but until you get there and go through the experience, you don't know. And until you go through the experience, or going through an 82-game season where you're trying to raise the standards, you can't have any let up. And that's what they're really trying to get across here in terms of practice habits as well. Because if you are on top of your details a bit more and if you're practicing a bit harder, if you're more prepared, do you maybe win one of those games against Edmonton? 'Cause I think there was a discussion to be had about, are they kind of good enough this year to win a cup or not, right? And it's, yeah, they're not a favorite, but they had like a puncher's kind of chance. That's how we kind of approached it. Was that even good enough for them to get to the Cup final win it? But one thing is very evident, when you're two wins away, when you are one win away from going to the conference final, you have two chances to do so and don't do it, is it because you weren't good enough or because you didn't do enough to win those two games. And what did they have to do, not only in that series and in those games, but through the second half of the season to better prepare themselves for those moments? - That's a lot of what the discussion was about today. And you heard Patrick Levine mention that a lot, you heard Rick Talkett mention that to a certain extent. And that's where guys like Patterson, guys like Hughes can take that next step. A couple of texts coming in, this one, Linholm coming back, Book It. Patrick was coy about Linholm, but did say, you know, he'll have a better idea of where Linholm's camp is in seven to 10 days. It was interesting. Daily Face Off posted, you know, their list of the best free agents for the summer. They also had the projections of an analytics company at what the contract could look like. And they had Linholm as the player that maybe cost himself the most money with how he performed over the course of the season, upwards of $20 million. And they put his contract projection at five years, $6.75 million per. To which I'd be open to potentially exploring something like that. I just, I'm not quite sure. Linholm is actually going to sign for that little. I still think there's, as we've talked about, the cadre contract is probably still out there for Linholm. - Yeah, projections don't mean anything if one person is coming in and is ready to spend a ton of more money. - Yeah. And Linholm still is probably the best true center on the market going into the summer. So that projection may be a little bit light. And I think with Linholm, it's much like everybody else. It's simply, how willing is this player to stay here? And can we make it work? Because I think for it to work, yeah, Linholm's got to be somewhere in the $6 million range for it to work for this organization. I don't know how many years that is, but I don't think you already have Miller signed into his mid 30s. I would be wary of signing another player at the position to play in their mid 30s at a number that's higher than $7 million. - Yeah, I'm not, I don't love it. I don't know, I mean, people were asking us to by Philip Herronik, how much would you be willing to pay him? Like to be honest, when I look at comparables and I know the same analytics company has Herronik at what, 7.4? - Yeah. - And I still think that's, that's rich. - That's rich. - To me, above seven is a stretch. Like that's just how I feel about it. And, but as far as, as Linholm goes to, I don't love the idea of seven times seven even. You know, and the thing is, if he, if he was somebody that could play with Patterson for sure, or play with JT for sure, and in one way or another, address your wing issue, okay. But if you sign Linholm, you still have your wing issue. - Yeah. - So I like bringing him back, but it's, there's a number to it, right? And if you're spending 7 million plus to bring Linholm back, it's gonna be really difficult for you to improve on the wings too. - Yeah. - And I'm not saying center is less important 'cause it's not, it's more important, but also finding or running made for Patterson matters. And yes, the coach is right. They have to elevate the players around him, but he has to elevate players around them with something that they talked about. But he also said, Alveen, that Iliya McKev is not a top six top line player. - Middle six player. - So you have to give him somebody better than a middle six player. If you think he's not good enough to be there, then that kind of tells you the wingers aren't good enough. And that's where I think it gets dicey with Linholm. Can you get Linholm done and also have enough space to fix your defense and also find that winger you want? - And if I'm spending 7 million plus, I'd rather, and hey, it's easier for me to say, I'd rather sign Genssel. He has to get there and want to come here as a top priority for that to happen anyways. But if I thought there was an avenue to get Genssel, I'd rather just overspend even on that than overspend on bringing the same guys back. - I do wonder about, you know, if Ronik becomes a trade chip, is there a hockey deal to be made out there where you trade Ronik for a player who can play on the wing? I know there's been a lot of discussion, a lot of people wanting the Canucks to take a run at maybe Martin H.S. out of Carolina. I don't know how realistic that is, but you know, this team's looking for a top six forward. They're looking for a top six wing. They're looking for somebody to play with Elias Pedersen and be able to really, you know, have a bonafide top six going into next year. That doesn't mean trios. That could mean that Ilya McKayev is still playing next to Elias Pedersen in certain spots. But much like you had Miller and Besser together for a lot of the year and those guys were a duo and you had Sutter play with them. You had McKayev play with them. You tried pretty much everybody with them. At some point, they're looking for that guy with Elias Pedersen. - Yeah. - And that's, I think, the biggest off season priority and part of the problem with a guy like Dakota Joshua even is does he profile as that guy? Probably not. So there's one of your issues. And I think that's sort of the things that this team is starting to really work through and figure out the best way to manage their off season cap space, also trying to get better at the same time. A lot of thoughts on Phillip Pronik. And one said, just qualify Hronik at four and a half or whatever it's going to cost, boom. And then you have lots of space. - You would qualify Phillip Pronik, but then he would take you to arbitration if no deal is worked out. He's our brights. - And that's where the thing is. It's easy to say, yeah, 4.5, just qualify him and he's back. It's not that simple. - Yeah. - And then there are trade restrictions once you go into arbitration and once the award comes in and it gets really messy. If you get to arbitration, it's messy. - Yeah. And he's probably going to get a pretty good reward out of arbitration because he put up a lot of points this year. - So if the Canucks feel like this isn't going to be agreed upon and it's going to get to arbitration, I'd imagine the best move would be to trade him. - Yeah. - But we'll see where it goes, right? Like maybe they're confident enough and they're like, you know what? We love this player, let's bring him back for a year and then we'll figure it out at the end of the season. After next year, like there's a way to go about it. I'm just not sure that would be the wisest way to go about it. - Another text coming in on Basilipod Colson could be, could he be a 15 to 20 goal guy next season? - Yeah. - Pod Colson's got a long way to go to develop his offense. I think what your expectations are for Basilipod Colson, my expectations for Basilipod Colson going into next year, you're going to be a fourth-line wing. And let's see how you do there. Much like Nils Hoaglander this year. Well, Mike, give you a chance in training camp. If you can't hang on to it, then you're going to be dropped down to the fourth line. See how you do there and you're going to have to work your way up the lineup. Like the reason Nils Hoaglander, I took him a long time. How long were we talking about Nils Hoaglander? Got to move up the lineup. Look how much this guy's scoring. It took him half the season. - And he was healthy scratch at one point in the year. And honestly, like when he went up, he had a couple of good games with Pedersen, but after a while, it kind of ran his course. Some of it is Pedersen, of course, he has to be better himself too. But Nils Hoaglander still has a long way to go before he's a bona fide top six player. And I think he showed that. Like he, there's lots of like about Hoaglander's game, of course, right? But do you feel confident going to next year that he's going to hold down a spot on the left wing in the top six, playing 15, 16 minutes a game? - At least. - And we saw on the playoffs how he can get exposed. - You got to help the scratch twice. - Watch the Bouchard goal in game seven. Now there's a couple of mistakes, but Nils Hoaglander moves away from Bouchard and Bouchard has that extra time to make the play. Pick his spot, get, well, he doesn't score the goal because Zach Hyman tips it. But he's got way too much time on the point to be able to let that play develop before he releases the puck. Whereas when any Canucks point man got the puck, like they were hounded right away and didn't have time to change their angle, wait for the screen to develop. - They're closing out hard. - They were closing out hard. And the Canucks didn't always have that. And you see it on that second goal in game seven where Nils Hoaglander makes a bad read, pulls away from Bouchard, and then Bouchard's got all the time in the world to make that next play. So those are some things that I think a lot of the Canucks have to be looking at. Tristan from North Van wants the Canucks to sign local guy Sam Reinhardt. Reinhardt's gonna cost, like if he makes it to free agency, which I think is unlikely anyways, he's worth double digits. - Yeah, I mean, and for him to bypass the cost of living in Florida, number one, and the other one being the tax situation there, it would have to be north of 10 million. - I wonder if he, the way they're looking at it there is like, 'cause they get chuck signed to what nine? And he took less than what he could have got, right? And that kind of maybe builds a bit of an internal cap, but can you justify paying Reinhardt significantly more than Matthew could chuck there? So let's say 9.5 a bit more, right? Maybe they do 9.5, probably want to keep it under 10 'cause Barcov's the other top. - Barcov's a 10. - 10, so maybe 9.5. So if he gets 9.5 even in Florida, the number's like 10 at least in Vancouver. - Yeah. - 10 and a half. - Well, Annie would get one less year. - Yeah, so maybe even more, right? So I just don't know what's feasible, and then the other part about it is, does Reinhardt even want to come back to play in his hometown? - Yeah. - And that's another question, I don't know. I don't know the answer to it. And it seems like I'm pretty happy where things are at right now in Florida, right? I just don't think, I like Genssel because I think the price is more gettable. 8, 9 million range? I can live with something like that. It's a lot of money. I just don't know if you can add a 10 million plus contract, and that's the issue with Reinhardt. He'll just be priced out of Vancouver. - I'm sure there are players they are potentially looking at to fill top six rules that aren't as obvious as the guys that are just in free agency. Maybe there is some trade options that might develop over the course of the season. No, I don't think Mitch Marner is one of those, but there are probably some names that we aren't looking at that could be available when it comes to the summer, and that's something we'll continue to go through as the summer goes along. So the thought of where this team is at and where they could go. Clearly with what Patrick Alving had to say about how we get better. To me, that goes back to what you mentioned earlier this week, Sat, and what we've talked about. There's a ruthlessness about this organization. - Yeah, and Alving himself mentioned he said, "Hey, as much as we want to bring Dakota Joshua back, "there is a reality of we have to find "the next Dakota Joshua." - Yes. - And that's all, like I said before, easier said than done to. Otherwise every team would go and find the next Dakota Joshua, right? Find the next guy. It's something that gets said a lot, and I love the thought of it, but it's not that simple. But there is an understanding that, and he said this too earlier today, that if you have to pay extra to bring everybody back, then you're not getting the value anymore. And he said there has to be a cost to doing all this. We're still trying to make the team better. And it goes back to what we talked about yesterday, is that if you have to spend all your space, and then some, to bring the same team back, is it worth it? No, it's not, 'cause you're not leaving room to be better, so you have to make some tough decisions. If you get guys back at a really nice salary point, and you can still do other things, okay, fine, great. But unless you can threat that needle, it's gonna be hard to bring all these guys back. Now, Alving said the good news is, a lot of these guys want to come back, and as long as there's a will, there's a way. And he's hopeful they can work things out. And I, Mac, mentioned a lot of work's been done behind the scenes, legwork's gotten done on these contract negotiations. So maybe, you know, we see a few deals come back, Fast and Furious, and it come in at numbers that surprise us, in terms of they're not being as high as we thought. There shouldn't be too much surprises to where the numbers are lining up at this point. Now, for Vancouver, I think it's pretty obvious where they're going to be. And a guy like Dakota Joshua mentioned today too, that, hey, I'd love to come back. I want to be here, but kind of said it's out of my hand, which he's kind of right, but he's also not. Because like, if you really want to be here, you can make it work. It's, I want to be here as long as you guys pay me what the market rate's going to be. - It's easy to say that you want to play in a certain spot. But if you know that their money might be better elsewhere, then I'm not sure you're going to, you're going to be able to stay in Vancouver. - Right. And that's kind of something that I've always told myself to be cognizant of when it comes to players that are about to become free agents. It's like, yeah, I'd love to stay in this market. And of course, I love playing here. I love the fans. It's great. But does that mean you love it so much that you're willing to give up money? Or you're just going to take the biggest contract available to you, and I don't hold that against any player for going out and finding that contract. Like if Dakota Joshua and his agent think that four by four is out there for them in the summer, then by all means, go out and get it. But you've got to realize like, then ultimately, staying in the place that you were in, how much you enjoyed the city, wasn't the biggest factor in your decision. The biggest factor in your decision was the dollars and cents of it all. And that's not a problem. - No, 100%. - The reality of the situation. - I want all that stuff. What about the Zadora thing? - Number one. - It was an interesting answer. - It was. Now, the thing I loved about the Zadora stuff was how out of context is common about Calgary. And I don't care 'cause I mean, make fun of Calgary all you want, right? But I think in terms of being fair about what he said, he said, you know, Calgary's not even, he mentioned, he talked about how great it is being in a Canadian market. Banker was another level. But can does another level to begin with, but Banker was above that. And he said, well, I was in Calgary, but Calgary's not even the top team in Alberta. But he didn't say, like as a snide remark, he continued to say, I don't mean that in a negative, I just mean Edmonton's a team that has a longer richer history. They're the more popular Alberta team, which is a fact. - Yeah. - Right, so he wasn't crapping on Calgary, but it kind of comes off as a backhand economy. - I think Zadora is just very blunt. He made a factual statement that the Oilers have a bigger fan base than the Calgary Flames and people took it the wrong way. - And hey, listen, you guys can, people can tweet whatever they want, but there's a lot of tweets going out that only kept the, you know, Calgary's not even the top team in Alberta, and that's all they had. So he came off like really like, oh, look at him dissing Alberta, I mean, dissing Calgary. But who cares, whatever, I'm not trying to defend Calgary's honor or anything. It's more about being accurate. I'm having an exchange with somebody on the text inbox who's pointing out things about Elias Patterson saying, well, Patterson even showed last year he wasn't good enough because he had extra zone starts in the offensive zone. They didn't play in the defensive zone. And I'm like, no, Patterson last year had 102 points. He had a career high in defensive zone starts and had his lowest percentage of offensive zone starts last year. So I'm like, we can criticize a player, let's be accurate about the things we say. So this is the same feeling I have about the Zadorov thing. It's like, hey, I'm all fine for making fun of Calgary. So but let's be honest about what was actually said instead of making it into something it wasn't, right? And that's always my point about them. Let's be accurate. We can criticize, we can make fun, but let's not make something up that's not there. But on the comment about Edmonton reporters making things up in terms of his contract demands. I'm not sure who he's referring to really, but that was interesting. Him saying, I want to be here, like, of course, and I wouldn't believe everything you're hearing about my so-called demands. - There's, the silly season got to Nikita Zadorov's potential contract and I got caught up in it as well. But five by five still seems like a pretty rich contract for a guy that until the playoffs was playing as a third pair of defenseman here in Vancouver. And then in the playoffs, he became what? They're second most played defenseman on the Russ played more than Philip Oronik. So it became a bigger part of the team, but that's where, you know, I find it similar to Myers in a way where I think this player is somebody you love to have come post-season time, but there's going to be parts of the season where you get frustrated with that player and their impact. - Well, you still have to get to the playoffs. - Yes. - And that's where you see sometimes teams get caught up in the whole sign of a bunch of these big heavy defenseman that don't do much other than defend. And they have a hard time getting to the playoffs afterwards, right? So there's this balance of, 'cause you can't play that physical well, you just can't play that physical over the course of 82 games, you'll break yourself. But also the rule book is a little bit different in the regular season than it is in the playoffs. - Yeah, 100%. And I think when we look at how this, you know, how this team is gone about these sort of things and how they can improve, I just look at Zadorov too. And if he's willing to take something, say under five million, like this is the entire thing we've been operating under. Reach has been him wanting, hey, if he wants five million or more, it's five or six, five, six years, it won't happen here. Does your outlook change if he's signing for four and a half, say, over five? Like it's not cheap, but the thing you also have to keep in mind is the cap's going up. And if we're talking about him being maybe a four million dollar defenseman, I can live with maybe paying him four and a half, right? I can live with that. I can get the cap going up and how he's better in the playoffs or whatever. But if I'm paying him five or six, then to the point you're making here, it's like you still gotta get to the playoffs. - Yeah. - And a look at a Tyler Myers type, he really wants to stay. And I think there's something to be worked out there, like say a three year, like a two year deal maybe, maybe three million or so, like something along those lines was Zadorov. To me, it has to be under five and that's how it works. Otherwise, you sign him, you sign other guys, it's gonna make it harder for you to be a real competitive team if your blue line's gonna have some big, bigger, heavier guys making a lot of money. - Just do quick math in your head, like, you know, four and a half for Zadorov, three million for Myers, seven million for Hironic. I mean, there's 14 and a half million dollars right there. Already added to SUSI and Hughes on the back end. So it'd be expensive to keep all three of those guys. And that's why, you know, it's gonna be a bit of a task for Patrick Levine to flip around the defense. We'll keep the conversation going tomorrow on Canucks Central, four o'clock start. As usual, we'll have a mail bag to get to. So make sure you get your questions in when Sat prompts you with the question on Twitter, tomorrow @SATTRShaw. Four producers, Ben and Eddie. Of course, Josh, as well. My co-host, Sat, I'm Dan. You've been listening to Canucks Central. [BLANK_AUDIO]
