(upbeat music) - Can't central Tuesday. It's Dan Reicho Satyarsha here in the Kintech studio, Kintech, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands, thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? You can be a part of the show with a question or a comment, whatever you choose, on the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progressway in Tilbury's industrial park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at Dunbar Lumber.com. It's July 2nd. A heat wave is upon us in the lower mainland. That means hockey news is going to start drying up here over the next little while sat. - Yeah, I mean, the free agent signing is already drying up in a hurry. - What do you mean? There was lots of big news today. Big, big news. Brian Dummelen traded to Anaheim. - Yeah, I mean, the most sizable. You know, we had the Branstrom signing of Day Early yesterday on the show. - Sat revealed that a day early. - By mistake, I showed it enough. - I hear Branstrom still available. No, he isn't. - What? - Can I miss something? - That's funny 'cause I got a text and I didn't realize, I thought it was one of those things where it's like, hey, it just happened. - Yeah. - It was, no, it was like, hey, something's about to happen. Don't tell anybody. - Insider things happening during the show. - Things happen by mistake sometimes. But hey, you know. - So Eric Branstrom did end up signing in Colorado today. - Yes, 900 K, 900 K one year. - Our friend Irfan Gaffar on that. He'll be joining us coming up at 430 today. Canucks insider, his take on the moves they've made so far and what they can still do, Jonathan Davis, host of ice cap on Sirius XM will join us as well as we'll discuss what the Pacific Division is shaping up like with him and some of the moves that have been made so far here in the off season. But let's get to it. It's the open on Canucks Central. (dramatic music) - Welcome to the open. - Oh, that's your home. - Are you too good for your home and for me? - It is the open where we bring you the latest on the Vancouver Canucks in our take on it. Development camp started today. So you're starting to see some of the prospects get into town and get some work in. But the focus still on the current group because the current group was really good this past year. And they got a chance to be really good again next year. And the question, of course, is how do they continue to level up? How do they raise their ceiling from where it was a year ago? Have they done that? See a text coming in already, not convinced that DeBruscan level up, feeling the signings are more of a C plus overall. That's Amro the actor. And I could see some level of skepticism. C plus is a fine grade. I don't think there was anything that really jumped off the page. - Yesterday, as far as like, this is making the Canucks a lot better today. - Like as a fair grade? - Yeah. - I mean, it wouldn't be the grade that I give. - No, no, I get it. But I'm saying like in terms of if you ever got a C plus, you'd be like, "Oh, that's okay, that's fair." Or would you be like, "That kind of sucks." Like a C plus is like a backhand of compliment? - Yes. - That's the way I always be a C plus, a backhand of compliment. - C plus, yeah, no. I would have known that the wooden spoon was coming out if I brought a C plus home. - Yeah, not great, right? - Probably not. - I got it. But I get what you're saying, in terms of like, it's not unfair to grade the Canucks as a C plus. I'm with you. I don't think it's a C plus either. - Yeah. - Just wanted to clarify that. - Amro is just, he's a tough grader. - Right, okay. - He's a tough, if this was another show, we might say that he's not grading on the sharp part of the bell curve. I don't know. - No, maybe not. - Not that there's another show that references that every day. (laughing) - On these airwaves? - I'm not taking a shot at trans at all. - No. (laughing) - All right, so, we can discuss this as we discuss the Pacific Division because you look at what the Canucks did and sure, you may not like Amro the actor, love Jake Dubresque and that, as I mentioned yesterday, there is a world, there is a pathway, an outcome that is possible for Jake Dubresque to level up as he is just 27 years old and probably going to be put into the biggest role of his career next to Elias Patterson Powerplay one time, getting PK time. He's gonna be entrusted with a lot here in Vancouver, we do believe, but when you see the way that the rest of the Pacific started to shake out some of the moves that were made elsewhere, it's like, yeah, you've got Edmonton at the top, they are the runners up for the Stanley Cup, they still got McDavid in dry saddle for at least one more year and they went out, they got Victor Arvinson, they kept, you know, Corey Perry and also added Jeff Skinner on top of that, so really added another layer to their offense with some of the moves they were able to make yesterday, but beyond that, I mean, Vancouver and Vegas is a toss up for who's likely going to be second best in the Pacific Division next year? - I think when we have these discussions, it's just about ranking teams, it's not saying the-- - It's more of a power rank. - Yeah, it's not about, hey, Canucks will finish second, it's funny 'cause I put out a tweet today saying, looking at the forward groups in the Western Conference, I'd only put like, clearly in their own tier, Edmonton and Dallas, forward groups only, and then that people being like, negative media, you know, they counted the team out last year, I'm like, I'm like, say there might be the third or fourth best forward group in the West, that's not a dis, that's actually a compliment, so I think the Canucks forward group is good enough and I think the Canucks-- - Do you think they're better than Colorado? - Well, do they have any chews and landists called? - Okay, fair enough. - That's my issue with them, right? Until that situation clarifies, but you can rank like, you know, them ahead if you want, and put Canucks forth, to meet the Canucks Vegas, sorry, the Canucks, yeah, Vegas as well, and even Colorado kind of fall into that next tier, but I don't think the gap is so big that the Canucks can't win the division again, they could, right? I mean, if you're in the next tier above, beyond, after the top tier, given how a season goes, you can easily win the division still, right? But I would say, yes, Edmonton is the strongest team on paper in the division, right? Like, they are. - It's hard to disagree. - Right, and I think what they did yesterday, and yeah, they lost Volgull, and they lost Dejarnay, for instance, on their back end, but they made some additions, some savvy ones, Skinner and Arbudson, that they helped their forward group, right? So I think it's, I don't think it's a hot take, nor do I think it's incorrect to say Edmonton is number one in the division to start off the off season after July 1st here. - It's, they also kept Adam Henrique, which, I know not everybody really likes Adam Henrique, but I personally think he's a really strong player, and you know, that's a good piece for them. I don't know how Edmonton is going to make it all work under the salary cap. They definitely have a move coming. They still have to sign Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg to new contracts. I thought that's going to be incredibly expensive, but they're already over the cap for where they sit. So I do wonder what happens with Evander Kane over the course of the summer is how they manage their salary cap. But yes, you know, Conor McDavid, Leon Dreyseidel, you add Jeff Skinner, you add, you know, you add on top of that, Victor Arbudson. So they've added another layer of offense. They are, if you were power ranking teams in the Pacific, you probably have power rank Edmonton at number one. Plus, yes, they just didn't finish his runners up in the Pacific. Yeah. Then there's like, okay, we can sort of group these next three together and then discuss who should be at the top of the list. Vancouver, Vegas, and the LA Kings. All three of these teams made the playoffs this past year. How would we rank these teams and why is Vancouver at the top of that list? You wouldn't think, well, I think a year ago, people would say Vancouver, ahead of Vegas. Vegas has done very little so far this offseason. I think they added Victor Arbudson today, but, you know, they don't have a ton of cap space. They're basically bringing back their own guys. I, like I'm just not overly in love with what Vegas has and how they continue to age and how they're going to make that work. They also just lost a 40 goal score and don't really have anything to replace. Jonathan March is so with. So it's not a slam dunk that Vegas just rebounds towards being that cup contender and the cup winner we saw a couple of years ago. They're still formidable. And when you have Jack Eichl at Markstone, if healthy, which is a big if, and even too much hurt, Markstone's not playing the whole season. We know that, right? And, but still, William Carlson is very capable. I'm in Barbish of a very solid player, right? And then they do have decent death with Nick, Nick, Nicholas Roy, even Brett Halden, a Pavel Dorfoyev. He's a talented player right now. He hasn't really popped yet, but he's shown some promise. Can he take a step? They trade for Alexander Holtz, young player with talent, but can he take that step? That's what kind of has to happen there for those guys, for them to take that, you know, be able to move back to being what they were. But you're right about March, just so March. So it was like one of the best, was one of the best goal scorers in a league and one of the most dynamic players in a league last season. So to take him out of that lineup, especially with how they want to play, is a huge loss. And the other guy, not having Chandler Stevenson, is a big loss to how they want to play, especially with the speed that they have. As much as those other guys I just mentioned, none of them are Stevenson in terms of what he can bring. Like this forward group is going to be different. I know you have hurdle for the full season, so to speak, but like this forward group is not going to play quite as heavy and dynamic as they did before. - The thing about like, it's funny how free agency works, right? - Yeah. - If Vegas, sorry, I'll put it this way. I don't love the move for Seattle, spending what they spent to get Chandler Stevenson to their squad, but I also feel like Vegas losing Chandler Stevenson hurts their team, even though I don't think it was worth it for them to give him the contract that he got in free agency. - Hey, both things can be true at the same time, right? - Wow, I've never heard this phrase before. - Never, ever. - What a life-changing phrase. Josh, you ever heard this one before? - You're a visionary, sad, huh? - Never heard this before, yeah. - So two things can be true at the same time. Very much, I walked myself right into that one, didn't I? - Yeah, but nonetheless, I just had that. It was right there, it was on the platter. - It was right there. - I had no, you know, I put it on a T for you. - It was too easy. - You strike out like you're flatting for our center. - I'm not saying Vegas isn't going to improve, like, I'm not saying Vegas isn't going to improve, nor am I saying Vegas may not actually have players break out and they're better and all of a sudden, you know, really dangerous again, but like right now at the moment, they're not as good as they were last year, especially their forward group. - Yeah. - Now defensively, it all kind of depends on what you think of Patrangelo at the age of 34, and whether you think of the rest of their decor, but it's a really good decor, I would say still. - Their big moves to the off-season were made at the deadline. - Yeah. - Oh, Hanifin and Thomas Hurdle. - Exactly, and you know, and Hurdle will place March or so. - Yeah. - The question is, is Hanifin going to replace somebody? - I, like, I look at this squad and yeah, like, I expect Vegas to be a playoff team next year, and I don't think they're done this off-season either. I think, you know, you can never really tell with Vegas, but does George McPhee and Kelly McCriman have an ace up their sleeve that just hasn't been executed yet? - Right, no, 100%, and I wouldn't be surprised, like, the marner thing we keep hearing. Now, is that something that happens now or later in the season? As much as Vegas may not find that player today, do you think by the deadline, they don't add somebody significant? - They're definitely, I mean, they're always in on-site. - Exactly, right? And it's clear they're missing something, but as we sit here today, I would put Vancouver ahead of Vegas in the division. Like, to me, it's, it's like, and honestly, yesterday when I went into this exercise myself mentally, I was thinking about it. My first thought was, oh, Vegas, Edmonton, they'll compete for the division, and then Vancouver's right below them. And then I'm like, wait, let me just look at Vegas a bit more. The more I thought about it, I'm like, no, like, how can I rank Vegas that high? - The thing when you lost those two types of players. - The thing I can't really look past so with Vegas is their decor, right? Because, like, I don't love the contract for Hanifen, but he's still a quality top for-- - 100%. - 100%. - You know, Brady McNabb and Shay Theodore, like, that's gonna be a fine second pair if you're playing Hanifen and Pietrangelo as your top pair. So, like, their top four is still pretty strong, whereas Vancouver's is like, you're going into the season, probably looking for an upgrade somewhere on defense. - Like, Canucks have the best defense been out of the group with Hughes, out of all the, you know, 16 defensemen or whatever. - Technically, he facts only, he's the best defensemen in the league right now. - Right now, with winning the Norris Trophy, right? - Judging the Norris Trophy, it is what it is. It may not actually make him the best defensemen in the league. You might still want to take Cal McCar, but maybe through this season, Quinn uses the best defensemen in the NHL. He won the Norris Trophy. - Yeah, I mean, maybe it changes as soon as, like, the first week of the season, right? - Yes. - Like, who knows? But as we sit here and speak, we can confidently say this about the Norris winning defensemen. But, you're right, about the rest. Like, they don't quite have the same amount of, well, top four defensemen, really. And even the depth isn't quite as high caliper as Vegas does have, but it goes back to what you mentioned about Mark Stone. He can't stay healthy. And now you have less the high-end depth to insulate around, losing him for half the season. - Well, and we saw, like, through the middle of the season when Eiko was kind of hurt and they had some things going on, like that's really where they struggled. - They almost missed the playoffs. Like, they rectified things the final couple of weeks and finished strong and actually looked somewhat scary heading into the playoffs. And they won the first two games in East Dallas, two in the first round, right? And then, obviously, everything kind of caved in on them, but that's a team that was at a different level when healthy last season, than they would be this season when healthy. And if we're grading them on paper, it's like, hey, what's your best shot? And I still think right now, Vegas's best shot is in the same tier as Vancouver. Like, you can make a reasonable argument. They are ahead of Vancouver. I would put Vancouver ahead of them, but they're in the same tier and I put Vancouver ahead of them right now. - Vegas is, after all the big swings that they've made, you know, they have resorted to taking cheap bargain bets. So far, this offseason, Victor Oliveson from Buffalo signed with them today for just over a million bucks and they also traded with New Jersey to get Alex Holtz into their forward group. - Now, before we go through the rest of this division, on the Canucks, the reason they may actually compete with Edmonton and win the division is if this forward group is more effective and this team plays their style of hockey more effectively this season. - Right. - Which, there is a pathway for that to happen. My biggest question is, again, on the defense, how long can they wait until they find that guy? Do they need to find another guy? Right? That's my biggest, I feel good about the forward group. And actually, I see so much potential in the forward group in terms of the pieces working together and being so interchangeable and having versatility. Like, I'm really excited about-- - You were just like pouring over key for Sherwood tape and really convincing yourself that he's-- - Bro, he's ready for a break out here. - Bro, it's funny 'cause like, I've been looking at it and then you talk with people with the Canucks, I know Drance wrote about it as well, but then like, they're pretty excited about it, but then you start digging into you like, "Oh, like, there's some nice signs here." Like, this guy was scoring at a high level like throughout his career. - Yeah. - You know, it's not just like, his shots like legit, and I wouldn't have looked at the NHL edge data. - Yeah. - And like, his shots like powerful, you know? Like, there's something there, man. And I'm not saying he's gonna become this 30 goal score or whatever, but would it shock me if he, you know, does play a few games with Patterson or gets hot playing on the top line for a few games? Like, it wouldn't shock me. Like, there's that type of shooting ability there in his locker. - Well, I think the Canucks forward group, if they max out, you know, the things that could go right for them, yeah, they could challenge Edmonton. - The forward group is a lot deeper this year going into next season, you know, as some, as this tweet comes in at Danaricho, at Satyar Shah, the Canucks team on July 2nd, 2024 is better than what was on paper from August 2023, but maybe not February 2024. The regular season achievements, playoff experience was priceless, but the holes we had after last season, summer remain, a top 4D, top 6 winger, hopes on pipeline now that comes in. And look, I don't know if, you know, if you're alluding to like a Romaki coming in, I don't know if that's going to happen right away, but this, this forward group, you know, you've upgraded the floor of it in a lot of ways. Like you're not going into, I'll do respect it to my guy, Phil Dijazepa, but like, you know, he's now bumped into a 13th forward role that is probably more suitable for him. You've upgraded with Kiefersher, what Danton Hyman is a very credible forward that you're adding to this group. And of course, you're hoping you've hit a home run with Jake Dubrusk and that big seven year deal that you gave him, but you have a lot more options there, right? And I agree, they still need another top 6 forward and a top 4D in a perfect world. That really puts them into cup contender stratosphere. - Yeah, well, they become amongst the cup favorites. - Yeah. - Right now they're kind of like a dark horse outside the picture. But you might not be able to do that right now. It might have to be, you know, let's see where we're at at the deadline and decide how aggressive we want to be. - They're in a position now where there are one or two moves away from being in that discussion. And when you're there, like you're within striking distance. And that's why you can confidently head into the season this way and then let things play out. And there's a world, again, you mentioned Lachira Mackie. What if he does pop? What if somebody else emerges? And if that happens internally, well, that's mana from heaven. And you, hey, you do what Dallas does? - Yes. - They didn't need to do those things that just kind of happen internally. And the next thing you know, they're there, right? - They didn't have to go out and get it forward 'cause they had Logan's tank over. - And that's part of the reason why you don't have to max find all your answers before a season, let the season play out. Let's see what you have and then take it from there. - You have time, use it. Do you feel good about your team being able to be comfortably in a playoff spot? That's what matters right now. But you also know you have time to make upgrades to the team as you get more intel. So, okay, Vancouver, Vegas. We'll put Vancouver number two in Vegas. A close number three right now. Beyond that, I mean, we're talking about the LA Kings. And it's very clear to me that LA is third amongst this group and why we haven't spent a single second of our time talking about them in this group of three that made the playoffs last year from the Pacific Division. I just don't see how they've gotten better. Yeah, okay, they moved out Dubois. That was something that had to happen. But they got a goalie that's 34, making five and a quarter million that is coming off the worst year of his career in Darcy Kemper. So they haven't solved their issue between the pipes and they've gotten, I guess, a little bit more sandpaper on forward and on their defense. I don't know if that's going to make them better. I mean, this is a team that was struggling to score last year. - They look like a team that is going all, not all in, but is putting their chips in the middle of the table on playing the 1-3-1 again. Like if you're trying to play the 1-3-1, these are the types of moves that I'd expect you'd make. - Yeah. - And they said they're not going to. - Yeah. - So if it's not, then I don't know. But they could be a very low event hard to play against team though. Like, you got Geno, you got Fogle. They're not going to score a lot. They may create decent amount of chances with how they play 'cause they'll keep the puck down low and stuff like that potentially. But they're also not a, they're not a super fast either. - No. - So it's like, I don't know, man. Like, I think, I don't know what LA is. I don't know what the LA is. Like, maybe come together. - They look pretty mid right now. - Yeah, they do, right? And even their goaltending, I'm not convinced on Kemper. So like, I don't feel like they're a threat, but they could be a wildcard chasing team. - The only other team in the Pacific Division that I think has a chance to jump up if things break right for them. Like we saw in the second year of their existence is Seattle. You know, we don't need to sit here for days and talk about Calgary, San Jose and Anaheim. All three are still very much in rebuilding stages of their current windows. Seattle, they get Chandler Stevenson. They sign Brandon Montour. So they take a couple of big swings. Ron France is finally making some big swings, but I just don't know if it's enough to take this team from sort of a wanting to be in the bubble playoff conversation to be in any kind of a contender conversation. - Yeah. - That's where I'm at with Seattle. - Yeah, I'm there with you too. And they're like LA, if they find the thing is, they're talented enough that if they get a buy-in year, they could be dangerous. - They're like what Jim Rutherford described the Canucks as going into last season. - Yeah, a lot of things break right for us. - Yes. - Will be a pretty good team. - So I'm not gonna dismiss them. They don't look like threats, but like that's what would have to happen, I think, for those two teams to really threaten the top three and to truly be playoff teams. - It's like we need Matty Beniers to bounce back after a slow, sophomore year. We need Shane Wright to finally start to pop at the NHL level for us. Like there's a lot of ifs in here that are needed for Seattle to upgrade their level. And you know, if you look at just a quick overview of the Western Conference and looking over at the Central Division, I think that the Central is going to be, let's say more competitive because there isn't the three teams that are still very much in rebuild mode. Like there is in the Pacific, you still have Chicago there, but you know Utah is gonna wanna be good. St. Louis is doing everything it can to maintain competitiveness, Minnesota, Winnipeg. Like they're still going to be in that mix. Like there's only one team that's sort of not chasing wins right now. And even Chicago wants to be more respectable next year with all the moves they've made. - Well, exactly. And you're seeing Nashville trying to usurp one of the top three teams in the division with the moves that they've made. You know, and they probably fancied themselves as a team that could win that division with how they're going about their offseason and we'll see ultimately how good they are. But you're right. And because we mentioned the five teams in the Pacific, the rest of the teams are not very good. - No, I mean, like the best out of the bunch is Calgary. - Yeah. - And even them, you know, like it's not pretty. And as much as San Jose and yes Anaheim, like San Jose has really put their foot forward to try to be better, but it's all relative. Like even if they're 20 points better than last year, they're still like a 70-point team. - Yeah, they're still so far away from any level of competitiveness. - Like Anaheim, because they have Allejo Carlson, McTavish, and they have-- - If a lot of their young guys pop, then you can see them maybe like-- - Being spicy, being interesting. - Close to 500. - Yeah, you know what I mean? Kind of be like the Canucks back in 2018-19. - Yep. - You know, like can they do that? You know, 'cause I think the Canucks are probably viewed pretty similarly to Anaheim then. Now Anaheim has way more cap space and flexibility, but that's kind of the ceiling of those teams. Whereas you're right, in the central, like it's gonna be tough. Like all your games against your division opponents are gonna be difficult. And even Chicago to your point, like they're not even the same walk over there, walk over there were last year. And with how they've gone about things, are they trying to be too mediocre right now? You know what I mean? It'd be like an 85, 86 point team if things break right for them. - I mean, they signed Bertusi, they signed Terravine in, they still have Seth Jones. I mean, they've got a lot of pieces there now. And sure, they signed a couple of veteran types that they're probably going to flip at the deadline, but they'll be a lot better than they were a year ago. So there's a quick overview and a look at the Pacific Division Vancouver in a really good spot, even though they as a team know that there's probably a move or two that they still need to make to really, truly set this team up for cup contention. We're gonna continue talking about this. Erfan Gefar is gonna join us. What could the Canucks still get up to through this offseason? What they have done, we'll get his take on it next on Canucks Central. - Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. (chimes)
