(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) It's Dan Reachow, Satty Arshah, here in the Kintec Studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands, thousands of five-star Google reviews, or feet, what are you waiting for? Konic Central is for Enzine Pacific, Vancouver's premier Chrysler, Dodge Ram and Jeep Superstore, on second avenue between Canby and Main, or at EnzinePacificCrisler.ca. Konic's general manager, Patrick Alveen, going to join us in just a couple of moments. But today's the day that the season, like we stopped looking back on the season, like that's kind of what today is at, the exit interviews and locker clean out day, whatever you wanna call it. Yeah, it's the wrap up the season look ahead, and questions get answered about, okay, what were you going through, injury-wise, and we'll get to the Pedersen thing, of course, and others who decided not to share any ailments, and we know that players did have ailments, and the other is, really, questions about, A, players who are free agents, do you want to come back, and B, from the general manager, do you feel like you can bring these guys back? That's essentially what today comes down to. And a lot of those questions unanswered, to a certain extent, you get context on maybe what the plans are for the Canucks in the off season, but not going too deep into specifics on some of their players. They, of course, do have one, two, three, carry the one, nine unrestricted free agents on the roster, and of course, a couple of RFA's as well, if you include Arthur Shilov's and Phillip Horonik. And, you know, I look at this roster, and I still see lots of improvement that needs to come, and that's where we're get to with Patrick Alvingne right now, of course. - And just FYI, 'cause you'll hear this interview, it's an exclusive chat with Patrick Alvingne and Dan Ricchio. We pre-tape this, or you pre-tape this. - Things ran a little bit late. - Yeah, media availability ran late, so I just couldn't be there in time for the interview. - So it's reached, so if you're wondering why I'm not asking questions, that wasn't there. - It was a lot of me and Patrick, so there was no Swedish, you know, exchanges. - No, no, no Swedish. - No, I think this has to work on my Swedish with Patrick Alvingne again this time. - It's all good, but yes, that's the situation. We did have a pre-tape, and it was just me who spoke with Patrick Alvingne today. We go through a number of different things. Let's hear it. Here is Patrick Alvingne with us here on Conox Central. Patrick, how are you? - Thanks, Dan. You okay, I'm gonna be honest with you. Haven't felt that while after last game, and I was hoping that we would continue to play and unfortunately not, so it's a bad feeling, but I guess Mike goes on and quickly change towards next season and get better. - You know, I think Quinn mentioned it today, how abrupt it can feel when it does come to an end. I'm sure from a player's perspective, they're in the battle, and you are too, but in a much different way, how does it feel for you when it does come to an end in the way that it did? - Yeah, it's just an empty feeling. You have no plans. Your mindset has been in the battle with the players and the coaches and the excitement in the city and the fans, and then it just, it's just not a good feeling. Definitely not, and then that being said, we have our amateur meetings going on right now. So, and then some exit meetings with the players and staff and just try to get back and try to get back and move forward. - Yeah, I was going to say, you know, a player, they might be able to maybe take a breath and relax a little bit now and then get into their off-season program maybe in a couple of weeks, but for you, like the heaviest part of the schedule or one of the busiest parts of the schedule is just starting to ramp up. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of the prep has already gone into it, but the big question is, you know, you've had, you know, this year over year where you have a big increase in the team's points, you win the Pacific Division, you get to the second round, and we've seen in the past, teams that take a big step year over year, maybe they can regress, fall back to the pack. How do you guard against that going into a very big summer with potentially some turnover coming to the roster? - Well, I would hope that the players realized that we were unsatisfied with ending, we had this year, and I would imagine they are hungry for more. Their preparation this summer will be a key for us getting into training camp and having a good start. I think the coaches are in a better place here because they lay the foundation, as Tark mentioned here, we don't need to emphasize as much as we did last year on the structure and system work during camp. Hopefully we can have a little bit different approach, and I'm sure the summer here where the coach is gonna go through and have different projects and how we get better. And we'll see here how many returning players that were able to sign and look at the market and look around the league if there is deals or sign-in that you can do to improve your team. - You mentioned in the earlier availability with the media that you'd like to see the practice habits, take another step forward from the group. What exactly does that entail for you? - I think the understanding of that every practice is a chance for you to get better and prepare for what's coming down the stretch. I think that's where I recognized with the inexperience of some of the players we had that haven't played in meaningful games in March, April, May, June, that you might be just, I wouldn't say, floating, but you might not push yourself in practice. And I think if you're harder your practice, you easier the games will be. And you could tell that some of those more veteran teams and the guys, the older guys, prepared themselves in the falls and really were playing better in the second half. And I think that's something that we could get better at individuals, a continue to push it. - Elias Patterson mentioned that there was a bit of an E-issue that E played through down the stretch of the season. I'm curious, like, how far does it go down the road to maybe think about shutting down the player for a couple of weeks, see if it progresses and maybe get him into a better spot for the postseason run? - Yeah, I think that's something that the coaches and the medical staff are talking about day to day. They've had this particular case. I think it was never talked about any time to shutting down. I think that was something that you worked through. And I think the medical staff did a tremendous job this year of getting players ready to perform. And again, I think that's part of learning how to prepare yourself for a long season with a long postseason. - Yeah, I was gonna say, how much of a learning process is it for Elias Patterson? And, you know, you could even extend that to Quinn Hughes. You know, even the year before the bubble playoffs, you know, they didn't go through the stretch run of March and April and fighting tooth and nail to get into the postseason or whatever it may have looked like if the season didn't get shut down then. What is that learning process for these players going forward into next year? - Yeah, I think, unfortunately, I think they learned the hard way, losing here came seven in the second round that I was just halfway through it. The traveling and the hardness of playing games every second day and your mindset of the next shift, the next game and the amazing part of having fans in the building and how they share you. And suddenly you're gonna, you know, meet the expectations and handle the pressure. I think all those things is things that you need to go through in order to understand how really hard it is and how much you need to prepare yourself for that last push. - The last time we spoke, you mentioned that you offered Philopronica a contract. I'm curious as to where you feel those negotiations are right now going into the off-season. - Yeah, we, as I said today, all over the UFAs, it has expressed their interest to stay here. They, every one of them said that even treated really well and how professional their organization is and how fun it was to play in this playoff and how much the fans shared and helped them. So we, over the next couple of weeks here, we will see, you know, if and who we will be able to keep, and I wanna have a competitive, my, for my standpoint, I told the players, I wanna have a competitive team next year. So my job is to make sure that the signing's lined up to have a competitive team next year moving forward here so we can continue to take steps. - Well, in a perfect world, you'd be able to keep everybody and give them what maybe they're asking for or their worth is on the open market. But we know in the NHL with the salary cap, that's not a realistic scenario. And sometimes maybe you have to go about it like, all right, well, now we have to go find the next version of X player. And I imagine that's part of your off-season plans. - Yeah, correct. And I understand trust and faith in our scouting staff and the analytics staff that they're gonna be able to find the next player. And the good part here is the word is spread. And among players in the league and agents, what our coaches are capable of doing with the players here. And I believe that with our system here, it's probably gonna be easier for some of the players to perform with the individual's job from Yogi Srikovsky and the twins and Sammy Gomshar, a lot of our players have taken steps. And we believe that we have several players in the abbots that will come into training camp and push for roster spots. - How much of a priority is it to maybe add a scoring ringer and help out Alias Patterson moving forward? - Yeah, I think it's, I said it, if I could find something in the top six, I would like to do it. But I also think that Elias is capable of helping players around him to the better, to the experience again this year. And I do think that he's gonna come back extremely however, to prove that he's a top player in the league. - You know, Elias Lindholm, we saw maybe the best version of him come playoff time. You know, we really saw the two-way value that he brought to this team. I'm sure there's gonna be a lot of teams looking for his services. What's your level of interest in maintaining the relationship with Elias Lindholm? - Yeah, as I said, my preference, when we traded for Elias was to keep him. I was very, very pleased with this playoff performance and quite honestly, I think he was one of the reasons that we got out of first round because it's two-way game and his ability to take on heavier match-ups. Playing against top players and making players around him better too. So, Elias had shown that that he is a really good two-way player in the league and the O.C. I said that he expressed that he was very thankful and happy how we get treated here in Vancouver on and off the ice. So, I would say in a couple, maybe in the week or 10 days, I would better understand where him and his agent are at. - You know, I know there's always a one. Every team wants to be a little bit bigger, maybe a little bit faster at the same time and I'm sure you feel similarly, but it's not always easy to find that in one player or a couple of players even. And we saw the way size really affected this team, especially on the back end. But at the same time, could you use a little bit more puck moving on defense beyond your top pair with Queenie Hughes? Could that be something you look at in the summer? - I think all over the year, I would say fair to get puckballers. I think if there is something I think we can use or be to activate the more involved in the offensive game and have a quicker transition game, that being said, that I still viewed or decor as one of the better ones in the playoff era. And I think that's why we were so successful of defending like McDavid. - And a lot of that decor is left without a contract. Is there a lot of interest to maintain a lot of what you had or is it going to have to maybe come from somewhere else in the free agent pool? - So we definitely are interested to keep the players if it works for, it could make sense for both the club and for the player. And I think when the good thing is if both parties wanted to happen, then usually you will be able to get a deal done. - You are also a finalist for the Jim Gregory Award as GM of the year. I know you're super humble. So I think you're gonna probably view this as a team award. It's you and your staff that's up for this award right now, isn't it? - Yeah, it's a team game. And this is very thankful for the other GMs around the league. But I think that this is speaking highly of our staff and your players that put me into this award. And obviously I can't say enough to work but the whole affair has been drafted for this guiding me through the day-to-day stuff. And it's always a person that I can lead to. So extremely fortunate to be in this position and to be in this conversation about their award. - Patrick, it's been a pleasure watching your club this year. They took a big step. But as we always know, the next step, the greatness is maybe the toughest one to make. So all the best this summer is as you get to work with your staff on getting that job done. - Great, thanks and appreciate it. I guess I talk to you or see you after the draft draft or free agency. - There is Patrick Alving. We'll see you soon as well as we pre-taped that a little bit earlier today. And of course, he's cagey at the best of times. He's not as loose-lipped as the president of hockey operations with the Vancouver Canucks, Jim Rutherford. But he is and can be. Last time we spoke to him, he did reveal the contract offer to Philip Ronik. This time around, he chose to avoid the question to a certain extent and defer to all the guys have expressed interest in wanting to return. It will come down to what makes sense dollars and cents. And he essentially towed that company line for every free agent that was asked about either in the interview that we just did or earlier today in the rest of the media scrum. - Yeah, and I think that's the thing that has stood out from these guys in general has been, they set a price on players. And hey, if they're not gonna meet, they'll move on and find something else. But it's interesting he mentioned, if there's a will on both sides, they can make it happen. And it comes down to that will. And I find it funny 'cause you heard from a few players saying it's out of their control. Now, I do think it's true, like in Bluegrass case, is he a top priority number one, right? And what type of offers are you getting to some degree that's out of your control? But like if you're Dakota Joshua, you can say it's out of your control, but it's really not. You know, it comes down to like if you really want to stay, you'll find a way to make it work, right? And I think that's gonna be the big thing here for these players on this team where yes, the Canucks wanna keep these guys. But if they wanna, when we mentioned this earlier this week, but if these guys want like 100% of market value, it's gonna have to be elsewhere. - Yeah, you gotta get to the open market. - Exactly. So that's gonna be the thing. So if they end up signing most are free age, and this because the free age has played ball, it's not because the Canucks are giving them every single penny they want, right? Like there has to be an understanding that, you know, we can't give you everything you want, but at the same time, we wanna keep you and give you a decent amount of money. If you're Dakota Joshua, and it's your one chance to make money, it's a bit different, right? Whereas the Doraov today kind of pushed back on the notion that he's looking for this massive payday and he's priced himself out of Vancouver. - Yeah, it's like, well, what are these numbers you guys are talking about? You're just pulling numbers out of the trees. And then he took a shot at Edmonton reporters for no real reason, but it was, it's kind of one of those things. And we always say this when it comes to, when it comes to players taking hometown discounts, it's not like, you know, they're giving up a significant, like they're not giving you $2 million worth per season off the top of what their market value is. It might be on the high end 500K, you know, but, you know, it adds up over time, right? If that's a four year deal, that's $2 million by the end of the deal. - You know, I know, and we'll get to the Patterson stuff, too, but if your Patterson, for instance, right, he gave the Canucks a bit of a discount, but what was that discount? Like, he could have probably pushed for 12, right? - He could have pushed to about 12 million. - Yeah, and if it wasn't here, I know people are saying, you know, well, maybe if the Canucks would have waited, it would have got him cheaper right now. There's somebody out there willing to give him that. At some point, you heard the Carolina thing, and they would have been willing to give him what he was looking for. So, he probably took at least a couple hundred thousand under, maybe up to 400,000 less per year, which over eight years turns out to be, what, about 3.8, 3.5 million? - Yeah, he was still a point of game player, even when he signed the contract. - Yeah, so he gave a bit of a discount, right? I think J.T. Miller, you can look at it the same way. He probably took a few hundred K per, less per year, just probably would amount to two, three million total money. That's what we're talking about here. Like, they'll take that type of discount if a guy wants to stay, but for instance, if Dakota Joshua thinks you can get four times four, and the Canucks are at like three times four, well, that's a pretty significant golf, right? 'Cause you're talking about a million per year on a contract that's only worth three to four million, right? So, that's where it gets a little bit diceier. - So, that is the line that the Canucks have to dangle with this summer, and a lot of these conversations. Now, I want to get into some of our takeaways. I want to get into some other things that may have been said, maybe dive into this interview with Patrick Levine a little bit more, and parse through what little it was that was said here, but it is a big off season. There is a lot of potential turnover here with the nine unrestricted free agents that they have on the roster. So, there's a lot of work to do. And on top of that, it's pretty clear that they feel there's still some internal improvement that can come from this group. And when I heard Rick Tockett answer the question about Pedersen's injury earlier today, when I asked it to Patrick Levine here and some of what else he said about Elias Pedersen needing to elevate players around him, I just get the sense of, like, yes, we know and understand the caliber of player that we have here, but we're doing everything we can to help that player reach his ultimate level, because we don't think he's quite there yet. - Yeah, and I think it's clear, and I think Pedersen himself was also honest that he's been, you know, what? - That was the last few months. - Yeah, it was, you know, we'll play it later. But, you know, he was honest about how poor he's been, and he's looking forward to, you know, not thinking about that and moving ahead for next year, so he has to be better. And I see this stuff about injuries and everything, and like I mentioned earlier, clearly he's dealing with something. The question is, how debilitating is that something he's dealing with? The word that I always got was, yeah, he's dealing with something, but something like, he can play through, and it's mostly mental in terms of where he's at, in terms of where his game's at. And when you watch him play, yes, you can look at the injuries and say, of course, having a knee injury or tendonitis in the knee, it's something that hinders you. But it's also an injury that, the expectation generally is you play through it. - Yeah, you know, and that's kind of why the team had the posture of, yeah, sure, she's dealing with something, but we weren't dealing with this, you know, sprained MCL, or we weren't dealing with this, you know, like really distressed knee issue that should keep you out for a number of months. It was like, yeah, it's painful at times. Yeah, there's some inflammation. It's not a lot of fun to play through, but you kind of can play through it. And the only way for it to truly get better is probably to give it like extended rest. But if you're in a playoff race, you're trying to win the division, you're trying to get to the playoffs on a high, you're trying to find your game again. - Where's the spot to give you rest? - Yeah, and yeah, you can look at it in hindsight and say, well, it would have been better off if they gave them a month off. - Potentially, but it's usually not an injury players take a month off for in the season. - Nothing, the thing you have to keep in mind is in NHL players play through injuries. - Yes. - And they always say there's stuff you're dealing with at the end of the year. And I'm not saying Patterson was dealing with something that wasn't worse than other players, but he was the only player that brought up the injury issue when asked about it. Like we know her own ex been dealing with something and that's probably why, you know, Jay Pat was plotting a bit more and being like, okay, so can you tell us what's going on? 'Cause there's been an understanding that he's been dealing with some sort of an injury, belief being a noble injury, but he didn't say anything about it. Quinn Hughes, we believe he was dealing with some injury. He said, no, I was fine to play through it. Ian Cole, same thing said it was fine. And I'm not saying Patterson shouldn't have said anything, but the point being, there are certain injuries that guys are expected to play through. And that's the nature of the National Hockey League. And the best player is fine ways still to be productive through those injuries. And that's the level that Patterson's gonna have to find, 'cause if you're gonna have injuries like this, and you have to take a month off for it to get 100%, and that's the only way you're gonna be at your best, well, when is that, when are you ever gonna be able to be at your best? - Yeah. - It's probably us. Most guys are somewhat banged up. - There's likely never going to be an April or May if you're still lucky enough to be playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs that you feel 100%. - Now again, we don't know the entire nature of how bad this tendonitis was or whatever. And perhaps in hindsight, it would have been better to give him some time off. But I think the reason you're hearing the answers be the way they are from the coaching staff, the management is that, yeah, they all have an understanding and have sympathy with your injury, but also that you probably can perform better than you did despite having the injury. - Yeah. - And that's something that, that's just a reality of being a professional athlete, man. Whether you're a great player or not, you have to overcome these things. And I have all the faith in the world, again, in peterson long-term. And I think, you know, you can't just say, oh, he was hurt, it's all excused. To some extent, but there's also a level he can find, and the team wants him to find, and I'm sure he himself deep down wants to find as well, that you can still be productive and give more when you are somewhat banged up. - You have to be able to still perform even when the conditions aren't perfect for you to perform. That's something we've talked about a lot on this show, and certainly on post-game shows in the past. And I think that's part of the learning experience for Elia's peterson here. You know, he wasn't shying away from how poor he played down the stretch of the season, admitted there was an injury. But yeah, like the quote from Hughes was a little bit different. At this time of year, everyone is feeling tired or has something going on or soreness. I felt good and good enough to play my best, and that's what I tried to do. You know, I'm sure peterson doesn't feel too differently, but we still saw Hughes make an impact, a bigger impact than Elia's peterson. Still not where Hughes can get to and what he can be, but he did make more of an impact than Elia's peterson. And I think that's ultimately how I feel about this is, you know, there's clearly a feeling from coach and management today where they need to push peterson to get to that next level. And they're trying to help him get there so that he can be the best version of himself when the Canucks are going through the playoffs, because ultimately they understand, like if this guy doesn't get there, like, you know, we're trying to build a Stanley Cup contender around this guy as our number one center at $11.6 million. - Yeah, of course, and like I've been saying, I mean, they still have faith. Listen, you don't sign a player to that type of contract if a month, two months, or three months of poor play is gonna change your mind. - Yep. - You know what I mean? You just don't do that, right? Like when you commit to something like that, like for instance, like, do you marry somebody if you think if you get into a big fight, it's over? - Probably not, right now. - You marry somebody, you're gonna work through it. - Not with one fight, yeah. - Yeah, you're gonna work through it, right? Like the first sign of distress, you're probably not gonna throw in the towel. - And if you do, it probably says more about the relationship than anything else. - 100%. And I'd say given what we've seen from this management team, they don't just jump at the decisions without a lot of consideration and thought. - Yeah. - You can be disappointed in somebody, just like in a relationship, but doesn't mean you're splitting up, right? And I think that's where maybe things are at somewhat, where you're probably somewhat disappointed about how things went, but also still have belief in faith that you're going to get better and work this out over time. - It's clear that, and even just like, there wasn't maybe one specific quote, but everybody alluded to the grind of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And I think that's a big part of the learning experience. One thing that Patrick mentioned on a couple of occasions when asked about practice habits and the learning experience that they're going through, he mentioned the travel. And I think that's something, guys that were maybe on the playoff bubble team, where you're just playing an Edmonton, didn't experience, and then it's like, oh, you get to the Nashville series, it's like, we fly home after this long, arduous flight, we play a game, oh crap, we didn't close out the series, now we gotta fly all the way back to Nashville, this sucks. And I still gotta find a way to be at my, like, those are the learning experiences of the grind of the Stanley Cup playoffs that are still going on with much of this core. We'll continue to break this down. Your texts, questions, comments, 650, 650 on the Dunbar Lumber text message, inbox. We'll continue here on Canucks Central. It's Dan Richel, Satyar, Sean, SportsNet 650.
