(upbeat music) - It is Knock Central back in the Kintec Studio. Couple of things happening at the NHL Awards. Nathan McKinnon, the Ted Lindsey Award winner. So as voted by his peers, the best player in the league, I guess. - That's good, I believe. - Tell that to Conor McDavid. - I think Conor showed. - I don't know, to be honest, during the playoffs. - It's like, yeah. - He was okay. - Yeah, he's not bad. - And Conor Medard has won the Calder Trophy first of many probably in his trophy cabinet to come. We're still waiting to see what's gonna happen with the Norse. We are expecting Quinn Hughes to be named the season's best defenseman. Let's bring in our next guest. It is Landon Ferraro joining us every Thursday here on Knock Central. Thanks for this Landon. I gotta say, after I chirped you for hooking things left into the trees, I got a case of the duck hooks myself now. So it's just how it goes. - I mean, it's just the game's too easy if you hit it straight, right? Like you paid your money, you might as well zig-zag a bit and get to see the course. - You wanna take some adventure shots, you know? Like you wanna be able to maybe pull off that one, Tiger Woods, slice it around the tree and onto the green somehow, but. - The only difference there is, we're worried about breaking our shaft. He's not too concerned. I'll punch it back to the middle before I'm doing that. - It's, well, yes. We can talk about our golf games for days, but we'll get into a couple of things here. The Canucks have been really busy over the last 48 hours. They signed Teddy Blueger, they moved on from William McKay have to open up some extra cap space and they bring back Dakota Joshua and Tyler Myers. We'll get into maybe each player specifically, but in totality, what do you make of the work the Canucks have done to bring back some important pieces here? - I mean, it just speaks of a team that was happy with where they were at last year with the step they took, but are nowhere near satisfied, right? And as, you know, sitting in with a fan base that was kind of reignited again this past season and looking forward, like what more could you ask for from your management team is being aggressive, making moves, thinking outside of the box, trying to clear up space to find some extra money to bring in players that are gonna be impactful and try and build off of the team. So, I mean, I think they've done a pretty good job so far. - And in terms of Myers, I was the latest one here and he's 35 years old. He's had an up and down track record in Vancouver over the past five years, but he played really well this past year, he showed he can be good in the postseason. Is that just the cost of doing business for right-hand defense men that even guys at 35 who are capable that you're going to have to give them, or, you know, three million or more and then give it a little bit of a term? - Yeah, I think so. And I mean, especially because you know the person, you know what you're getting, that makes you a little more comfortable doing it. You know, I was hoping, you know, just like everyone else that he was gonna come in and that, you know, kind of two, five to three range, just trying to save any dollar you could. But, you know, he's not a player that relies on, you know, being incredibly physical and running all over the ice. Like, he still skates well and because he's so long, you know, even when he loses a half a step as he's going through this contract, like he's still gonna be able to be effective. Like, you might not be able to jump up, you know, not that he does a ton right now, but you'll think twice about jumping up into a play or jumping, putting himself into a situation where it might get a little dicey, but if he could sit back a little bit more and just be that presence on a pairing, you know, I think it's gonna be good value through it. - Happening now, Quinn Hughes has just been officially awarded the Norris Trophy at the NHL Awards. So news that we knew was coming, I guess, for a while now, Quinn was just that good this season. When you think about Quinn Hughes and the step he took this year, Landon, what did you see grow in his game the most over the last 12 months? - I mean, the confidence, like he had confidence before, but I think the biggest difference now this past season was knowing that he could continue it and keep it moving through an entire season, right? Like, even when he was in his little bit of slumps where he could find them going back to his year, he was still finding a way to be very effective and help the team, right? Like, as a big point guy, you're not gonna have it every single night, but he's now kind of pushing himself into a bigger part of the league, obviously, where he knows he can handle more responsibility not only that, but he's been vocal on wanting more responsibility and he took it this year and his play elevated, but he's a type of guy and being in a family where he has two other brothers playing and being as good as they are as well. Those three are just gonna keep pushing each other to keep growing every summer, right? So like, he's gonna continue to improve. That's the scary and fun part of it. - Yeah, I mean, he's still so young and he's driven, right? And we've seen him grow his game each and every year. He's attributed a lot of his growth this year too to playing with Philoproanic and how much extra opportunities it gave him, but I think that's something that kind of gets lost on us sometimes, you know, as people that never played in the National Hockey League and certainly fans where like a common criticism for Elias Pedersen has been, well, he should be able to elevate his teammates around him and because he's that good of a player, but we sort of forget how, you know, pairing good players with other good players helps get the best out of your best players. And I think we saw that happen with Hughes and Ronik this year. - Yeah, and the other point of that is putting good players with good players is important, but putting the right player next to a good player is even more important, right? Like you don't have always needing a superstar at all three spots on one line. Like you need someone that understands, okay, I'm gonna be the worker, right? Like go back to what, you know, we all watch the sedines forever and you know, there's better players than Alex Burrows, but there's a reason he could play with them. He understood his role and he knew at the end of the day, like, man, I'm kind of lucky to be in this position with them. Like our chemistry works and it's elevating my career out of it. The Canucks need to find that for Pedersen as well. Like it doesn't have to be the best player. Obviously you wanna find as good as you possibly can, but it needs to be the right player with him. And that's someone that can go work and go get the puck and allow him, allow Pedersen to have space. - Well, and somebody that shoots the puck a lot too, right? And I think you're so right in terms of the right type of player 'cause it's easy to say, find a line made for Elias Pedersen and we can throw names on the board. But if it's somebody that that holds onto the puck a lot and it's more of a playmaker doesn't shoot the puck a lot, doesn't play in the dirty areas all the time, but it's still an effective player. I'm not sure it fits with Pedersen. So I think it is pretty specific that type of player they have to target too, isn't it? - Yeah, I think so. But in saying like it is specific, but the hard part with talking, we're basically, we're talking about chemistry, right? Like you need to find the right chemistry and you don't always know what needs to be in the other bottle to mix, right? Like you're trying to find the right thing that when it goes into the same one, it's not bubbling over. Like it's gonna sit there and be happy, right? So like you're trying to find that player, whether it's in free agency or moving it around, like it is tough, but at the same time, you have, especially with Jim up at the top, he's gone through so many situations trying to find players like this for high-end players on his past teams. So he's gonna have to, the whole organization's really gonna have to lean on his experience through this to try and have a bit of feel while working with numbers. - Lots to be done as far as adding to the team, but Dakota Joshua, you know, here's a guy that's played less than 200 games in the league. He's 28 now, just coming off an 18 goal in 63 games season. You know, it's a lot of money to commit to a guy who has still, you know, as a relatively short resume at the NHL level, but part of this is, like you just don't find guys like him at 63 over 200 pounds can play on the PK, has the physicality that you love to see a player of his size play with. I mean, we knew there was going to be a ton of interest and, you know, it might be a little bit expensive where you're plugging your nose a little bit while you make this deal or sign this deal, but it's just hard to find players like this, isn't it? - For sure, and the thing with him that I, I mean, like, yeah, it's fun watching the stars of the league and all of that, but I like watching the workers, right? Like, he works for everything that he has to get on the ice. And it's very easy as you're, you know, we have a hot start to the season. It's your first time that it's, you know, everything's kind of going right. It's really hard to keep playing the exact same way. Even though you're trying to tell yourself that, like, it's pretty easy to slip into, oh, I'm scoring goals now. Like, I'm gonna look for the soft spots and try and, you know, kind of snag a couple more here and there. But for him, like, it's like he understood, and that's probably down to the coaching staff who did an amazing job this year of helping him understand, no, like, you need to lean into this physical style even more. And you can tell that he likes playing that way, but, you know, is he gonna score the same shooting percentage he did this year? Probably not, but at the same time, he's not scoring from 50 feet out. Like, he's scoring from seven. So as long as he keeps getting to the middle of the ice, you know, he can probably keep replicating it. Might not get to 18 every year, but with everything else, he brings it to there. And he hasn't even really had a chance to be in that front on a power play yet. Like, I think down, you know, going through this whole contract, I think he's gonna provide some extra value out of it. - Well, and I think that's gonna be the big question. Like, what is the ceiling for him? 'Cause it's so hard to define. Like, I hear people wonder if he can get to like a 30 goal score. And I wonder if that's asking a bit too much considering how much he has to increase his shooting, but is he still so far from his overall potential that there could be a pretty big leap at some point? - I think so, because again, it's just, it's the way that he plays. It's not that he kind of finds himself at the front of the net, and he doesn't want to stick his nose in, and that's just not who Dakota Joshua is on the ice. Like, he involves himself physically everywhere, and he works, and you can see when that line would gut buzzing, the energy that he would have running around and making sure he was trying to get a puck back or separating it. Like, you can't teach that. The guy either wants to do it, or he doesn't. And if you put that onto a power play with skilled players, and you tell him you just have to be the net front, and anything that goes below the goal line, you need to get there first. That's simple enough instructions that he's gonna be able to do that, and do it, I think, pretty well. - Yeah, he's, you know... It's interesting because he's a player that, you know, he didn't even score much below the NHL level. In this year, he's got 18 and 63. As we talked about with, you know, guys like Patterson and Hughes, sometimes just finding the right players, the right mix matters so much. And, well, the Canucks, like, bringing back Teddy Blooger and bringing back Joshua, they could start next year and bring back that third line with Connor Garland. And now, maybe just have to focus on adding players into their top six. Can they add Jake Genssel to Elias Patterson's line? Or do they find a left winger to play with Miller and Besser, and also find a partner for Patterson? It feels like the moves they've made in the last two days, sort of set them up to really focus on finding a couple of big pieces to add to the roster now. - Yeah, well, let me ask you this. If we put it this way, for the scenarios you guys were talking about three days ago, to the amount of scenarios that there are now, like, there's a lot more possibilities. Just simply from making the first move with McCabe, going and you're getting, you know, basically four million in cap space again. Like, it's just, they've opened more doors and more opportunities where it's not as much, we lose one player, well, we only have really one or two that fit because of our constraints. So, you know, they can go for the big winger now, and, you know, kind of see where that money's gonna be, you know, it's gonna be in the nine, nine, five, somewhere in there, if you're grabbing Genssel, if that's the player, but, you know, you've opened up money to where you might be able to make it work, to where before, it was really kind of jamming square into circle a bit, is what it felt like. - 'Cause, yeah, right now, you can fill out the, you can still get Genssel, fill out your roster, and at least feel pretty good about heading into next season. And I think one thing we all have to keep in mind is, you can't solve everything this offseason, and we saw it last year, too, after training camp, made a couple trades, made trades in season. This is a front office that will be aggressive. I think you wanna give some opportunity to see if anybody emerges internally. So, I don't think it has to be, you have to find a third-line center, you have to find two wingers, you have to find two defense minutes. Literally, can you get one more defense and can you get a guy like Genssel? And if you do that, to me, is a successful offseason. - For sure, and I think the biggest thing is, you know, we're using Genssel, like, if he's the main guy, and that's the only one you see yourself paying long-term big money to, and that doesn't work. Where teams run into trouble, and it's happened here in the past, is panic and give it the same money to the next player, just because we have to do something. Well, you've done so much good work here of turning this franchise back into, there's actually light in it again, that if it's not there, well, now you're looking at finding a guy for one or two years while you're waiting for the right guy to come. Like, you don't have to hamstring yourself right away, just because you had one good season. If you have to have one lateral year to get to your next jump, then that's it, but you can't force it. - Connor Hellbuck, the Vesna Trophy winner, so we'll see where Thatcher Demko ended up in the voting. He was a finalist, but it is Connor Hellbuck winning. He had another Vesna Trophy adding that to his trophy cabinet. Quinn Hughes got 172 first place votes. So, there wasn't much left to go around for Roman Yossi and Kale McCar. - Out of 194, he got 172. - And I don't really think anybody's disputing it, which is crazy like that Quinn was that good landing in, look, there's been a lot of great generations of defenseman, but when you've got Yossi playing as well as he is, Kale McCar as good as he is, Adam Fox, Miro Haskin, there's a different type of defenseman at the top of the league now than there ever has been. - Yeah, I mean, looking back, from the NHL, I grew up watching, there wasn't many defenseman that you could say he controls the puck on the ice. Like, whoever was the best was who could make the first pass the quickest on the tape? Get it out of your hands and get moving, is what it felt like. And now, you know, especially if you're, you get a chance to go into the building and watch Quinn live, you don't really realize how much he has the puck on his tape, especially like those nights where he's feeling and he starts walking the blue line and he does three or four spins to cut back. Like, not only is that hard, but I don't think people realize how hard it is to keep your feet and legs moving for that duration while cutting back and cutting back while finding the next play. Like, what he does is so simple, yet so impressive. But, I mean, it's just, it's fun watching the skill of where especially defenseman are going. Like, they're more, they're four forwards on the ice and half the time they're better than all the forwards they're out with. - How hard is it to defend that? When you're the winger that has to follow Hughes, is he's, you know, playing on his edges at the blue line and walking that blue line? - It's impossible, really. Like, you know, I've, as I'm sitting there watching him doing that, I'm thinking to myself, what would I want to do? And really, all you can do, and I think the best case scenario is you take a step back to the middle, you cut off the middle so he can't get back across and get him back down the wall and hope that one of your D-men reads it, that you can cut him off. Because past that, you're never going to be able to keep up with him. You're going to get frustrated eventually and chop at his ankle because you're not catching him. So it's just about minimizing damage. You just don't let him get to the middle of the ice as much as possible, and that's kind of a win. - Yeah, and we've seen him break a few ankles like that. I'm more than, on a few occasions. Before we let you go, a cup final, you know, we see Florida win it in game seven and, you know, they kind of, they got back to their lockdown defense. They had some chaotic moments. They're closing it out in the third period. But, you know, one of the things from Edmondton's point of view, as, you know, they were rolling out McDavid and dry side all every other shift, as they tried to make that final push down a goal, it just felt like McDavid had nothing left in the tank by the time the final few minutes of game seven came around. - Oh, I mean, you're watching them try and break the puck out. The last like four times coming up the ice at the end of the game. And when does McDavid look slow ever? And like, how can you blame him? He played more than half the third period on top of playing way too much already. But like you said, like from the very first shift, you could see, okay, the Florida Panthers are back to being the Florida Panthers. Like they're playing their game. And it almost felt like Edmondton went back to just, well, not didn't feel like it they did. Like they went back to relying on those big guys to get it done. And it's just, you can't expect that to last for over two months through playoffs. Like it's just too much. But man, what a game. Like it was just the right amount of sloppy trying to get chances to work back and forth. Like it was an incredible playoff run for the entire league. I can't remember the last time I was this excited watching playoff hockey all the way through. - Yeah, the audience ratings, TV audiences across North America showed out for it too. Landon, we always appreciate the time. Thanks so much for your insights today. - Yeah, we're a good one, guys. - No, there he is. Landon Ferraro, analysts here on Canucks Central joining us weekly here on the show. Thatcher-Demko finishing second in Vesna voting. He had 70 points, 20 second place votes, 10 third place votes. Connor Hellebuk getting 31 of the 32 votes. Of course, the general managers voting on goal tenders, which Brian Burke has even always said, we're the worst guys to be asked to vote for this. We don't know anything about goalies. - Yeah, I think the based on the regular season and as a regular season award, it's deserved. Hellebuk had the best regular season. I thought Demko, if Demko doesn't get hurt, I think he makes a real compelling case for it too, right? - Yeah, once he got hurt, because he even shut out when to peg that game, right? The five nothing, well, it was a tandem shot out, but that was the game he got hurt. And from there, there's a month, a little bit more than a month left in the season. If he's able to shut that down or keep going and really fight with Hellebuk, who slowed down as the season came to a close, Demko would have had a real chance to win the Vessna. But Quinn Hughes, a Norris Trophy winner, first in Canucks history. He's gonna speak to media in Las Vegas and hopefully we'll link up with Quinn Hughes in our number two of the program. Hey, maybe he'll even drop in during the mail bag. We'll find out as we have it going here on Canucks Central. Coming up, more draft Brett, because we are on the eve of the first round. In Las Vegas, Cameron Robinson is going to join us, get a few more looks at what's going to happen tomorrow in the NHL entry draft. That's coming up next on Canucks Central. - Hey, it's Big Nizar. Have your say and join me on "The People's Show" with big takes and even bigger bets. Weekdays, three to four on Sportsnet 650, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - For back on Canucks Central, Dan Racho, Satyar Shah. We are on the eve of the NHL entry drafts. So we need to continue some of our draft coverage. NHL draft coverage is brought to you by oxygen, yoga and fitness, not your typical yoga studio. We had some movement in the NHL entry draft today. The San Jose Sharks moving up to 11. Don't see that happen often enough. - No, we don't. But we saw it, the Canucks and a lot of signings. - Quinn Hughes wasn't a Norris trophy. - He says good to goalie as he is a defense. - He is. - We'll ask him about winning the Vesna in the Norris. That's coming up. - Yeah, he's going to join us. - Yeah, we are expecting to link up with Quinn Hughes here in a few moments. So we'll hear from the Norris trophy winner. But before we do that, let's get into the NHL entry draft. Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects now joins us. Thanks for this Cam. How are you? - I'm doing well, fellas, you know. Just sitting full tight here and join my stay in Vegas. - Must be like NHL entry draft in Las Vegas. I can't imagine a better setting for the NHL entry draft. - Well, it's a hundred and fifty degrees. (laughing) (indistinct chattering) I mean, it's hard to complain. It's difficult to complain. We're having a good time. But we're definitely doing the AC at every opportunity. - So you're doing the old Uncle Eddie thing in Vegas vacation and just cooking the eggs in the morning on a rock. - Exactly. The prices on records you might wear, jobs will be boxed on in all of it. (laughing) If you're dunking it on the pavement, it might be the skit. - That's amazing. Well, okay, there's a lot going on. I mean, we saw San Jose already move up in the draft, they're up to 11 today. And they obviously have the first overall pick as well. We'll start there because it's kind of interesting to see that happen a day before we get to the draft floor. What do you make of Mike Greer and the price it took to get up to 11? - I'm not mad about it. I'm not about for either team to be honest with you. I'm always a big fan of teams flipping back if you thought and gaining that three second round pick. So I get for Buffalo who we'd heard like all sorts of buzz that they wanted to just straight up move it out to get the goal in now player. So you never know that much still probably on the table for them now pick an actual team. But then since I don't think they have so much draft capital, they need to infuse so much like high-end talent into that rock. So obviously no, they're going, they're coming up, they're just going, they're probably not going to be coming up this year. But it's, so the pipeline is not, it's not solidified. And so I'm really curious to see if they keep trying to edge up because at 11, they're not quite into that second period. You know, maybe some teams might consider 11 at that, but for my money, it's 10, maybe nine. So maybe they're looking to, you know, keep on squiggling their way out there and see if they can't have a celebrating. And then maybe one of these people will talk five defense moves that are going to be sitting around. - Well, and I think the big question a lot of people also have here is Ivan Demendov. Where does he go? Does he go second overall? And when you look at Chicago, I mean, they at, they traded for Ilya Mikayev. And obviously they got a second round pick out of it. And in a really odd kind of trade, well, that's a different story for a different day. But nonetheless, it might be a signal they want to have a Russian mentor. The question is, is there going to be a Russian forward? Will it be a Russian defenseman? What do you think happens at number two? And do you think Ivan Demendov can go as early as two? - And we knew Ivan Demendov was going to be kind of the talk of the draft and the wonder box. Where's it going to go? Did him showing up for Lauderdale for that then milking goal start kind of camp? Did that nullify some of the concerns about him besides speaking English names over next spring? And I think it did to an extent, but everything we're hearing here this week in Vegas is that Chicago is locked in on our Russian office, too. That they're going to go that route. Now they could just be blowing smoke in all directions and take them it off and get all those dogs. And like, I'm here for that. But you know, all the intel we're hearing is that he's going to have enough going to. And then, you know, I'm talking earlier this morning that the draft kind of starts in three. What did Anaheim do? We've heard a lot about them and talk with the Lyap. You know, we were hearing some buzz about Sam Dickinson. It's Seneca has even been brought up for Anaheim territory. They think they're leaning D though. And then we think Columbus is pretty much locked in on Caden Littor, which means they're not going to be sitting there at five to Montreal. And for them to have an opportunity to pass on a Russian once again, it's too good, true, especially in other heads, Delta Russian, and Bob Ross. So I think I think this time they get it right and they do take them if he's sitting there at five. I would be quite surprised if I'm getting it off. It is available past that pick. - So I asked this question to someone yesterday and well, Shane Malloy was on the show yesterday and I asked him this way. How good is Macklin Celebrini? And is he closer to a franchise changing level of Connor Baddard status or your Ice Lefkofsky's status as a franchise changer in number one overall pick? - Yeah, he's closer to Baddard level. Now, whenever you put him next to Kofsky, he's not Baddard. He's not by a leverage offensive talent that can really move the needle and kind of shift the foundation of the lead. Baddard has that level. But you know, Macklin Celebrini is going to be a true number one star power center. So it's the kind of a player that can kind of completely change the complexion of a team. And I think they'll do that for example today. You know, he's very, very young. He's still 17 years old. You know, it's not 100% he's even coming out of college. I think if I'm putting money on it, I think it's coming out next year because the kid just won that will be the acre as the top player and the youngest player in college. The only thing you need to go back for is to play with your best buddy in the lives of him and try to win a national championship. But I think the draw for him to come out and have a new challenge and for San Jose in his own tickets and so dirty that alone will push him there. But you know, and you have to have a leading shade of city posy and none of the state. And it's kind of a hybrid version of those two, you know, he doesn't have probably that 120, 130 point juice that Crosby had, but he has that kind of silky level that he's going to be paid like peak to maybe a little bit more offensively too. So, you know, it's the type of player you live with in the playoffs. I think he's going to be a very, very valid first overall pick. - Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, the more you, you know, ask around about him too and hear about like his character, obviously, but with people that watch him up close and see how talented he is, it is pretty remarkable. And it is also pretty amazing that we're getting a couple of players back-to-back Bédard and with celebrating that are really high-end, like kind of maybe flirting with that generational tag. Is this an indication what the high level looks like? Or do you think it's kind of two one-off years back-to-back? - I just know that I was at a previous kid, Jay. - Yeah, no kidding. - It's in the water, you know, it's all technical, right? Like we did have a couple of weaker first overall picks in between, you know, before B.D. up to Bédard. You know, I might've said this on the show earlier last week too, but, you know, going back all the way to 2015, it's, you know, none of the kids you've taken over celebrating would be McDavid, Matthew, then Bédard. So, you know, that's the level for some real people. You know, in the month that we've had left from there, we've had glass sprouts, we go here sure, all fine players, but not to the same level. And I think we're going to see it again next year. James Haggins is going to be a really fun player, but he's going to be a team behind what's celebrating him. And then we get treated through Gavin and Kennedy for that, which is right back up to superstar level. It really just kind of ride the way for these kids and never even going to be a little bit different. - You know, I know when we had John last week, we talked a lot about Tijagunla and just how much he's moved up draft boards through the course of the year. Is there anybody else here in the first round that's getting a lot of hype going into tomorrow night? - I mean, there's a, there's a Norwegian kid, Simon Solberg, who's had a lot of helium this year, especially late in the season. You know, at the end of the World Junior's, Aaron Gossberg, and he was the best defenseman on the day by, you know, a country mile, which isn't too surprising, but I was, I wasn't, I wasn't super excited about it. I mean, he's highly physical, very physical. He's paid small, he's fixed to 200 pounds. But, you know, his play down the stretch and at the men's World Championship, we should take it on, on the guard, coming down on him and he was handling that speed and that skill well and he was being physical against the men, you know, professional NHL players. And I think that really gives him a lot of teams that, hey, this isn't someone we should be looking at at 25, 35. This is someone we should be looking at, you know, 12, 15. So he's one to walk, I think. And I think that, I heard the ones that, you know, Chicago's was really interested in him and that might've been the player that they were itching at when they moved up to 18, that that was someone that they were really looking strongly at and they thought that they had to get a little bit closer to that little first round to have a shot at him. So who knows, like maybe that's two San Jose's looking at 11 at this point, like I don't know how much do you think it has, but it certainly is important. - Well, it is pretty amazing to have some guys really do shoot up the draft boards and some years, it proves to be, you know, hey, this made sense and a lot of years is also kind of, you know, you look back and you kind of say, well, this was obviously a mistake, but that's always dependent year to year. But do you see the upside if somebody takes him that high? - I mean, to me, he's a second pair of defense and he's going to physically punish people and he's going to have to adapt and kind of curtail his question somewhat because you can't shoot the head and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, I think it would be a very valid pick, you know, 12 to 15, 16. I think that that would be fine for his upside. But you know, when you talk about these rising letters often, you know, they're rising up and if the team will think that they have like a serious star potential. So another name is Tucker Seneca. We've had these like one. Electric finish to his year down the house doing the L.H.L. or, you know, he's grown almost five inches in the last year. He handles the puck like he, you know, he used to be puck with 10. Now he's been with his friends and growing. But that's the thing, I mentioned that the little player that Anna and I were here about to put up three, where if you had asked me two months ago, I would have been like, yeah, sure, maybe 16 to 20 range. And so now you're looking at a player that like, if they take a swing on him, maybe he doesn't break right. But he doesn't have a star. Where he's trying to celebrate. I don't think you're going to have that kind of. - I was curious to get your thoughts a bit more in depth on Zeev Buoyam, the kid out of University of Denver. And when we talk about Mackinac-Celebrini being an A college player in his draft eligible year and having a great year, and this kid had a great year to 50 points and 42 games. There is some hype that he might even go higher than people will expect. Like what do you think happens with him tonight? - I'm tomorrow. - Yeah. - Big, big fan of Zeev Buoyam for sure. You know, played like central role on the U.S. team of the world, juniors. That was a lot to all of them. We know that through offense, especially on the blue line, won a gold medal. You know, went and like a key contributor on that Denver team won a national champion. The kid's a winner. He plays above his level. He wasn't first celebrating. He'd be the youngest player in college hockey last year. And he had been entitled to be the youngest defenseman. And you know, put up 50 points. Just unheard of production for some of his age. But at the same time, I'm not sure of this. That's completely indicative of the offense that potentially he has at the NHL. Now, I just wish back to some people on that, you know, that he's not in your fan dynamic. You know, you catch a walk down hill with that kind of shimpy shake and you make a bite and miss. And I just wonder if he's gonna be able to make NHL or do the same thing that we can do against junior and college players. But at the same time, it just truly came. The details of the game is soccer dribbles. It's first pass and first couple of steps. All really, really high end. If he could end up being at a tough level good or he might be like your drive on your second par. He's kind of his window. So I think he has an extremely high score. And then obviously, he almost ran a block from a certain high feeling too. That's why I think he's gone probably by, it means you have to imagine him getting past six or seven. But you know, in that group, he got two to nine spot. He could be there for college nine too. So it's really gonna be a bit of a blender after two. Over at Elite Prospects, you guys have three KHL players ranked in your top 20. You know, we're coming out of the news this week that Matt Vay-Mitchcoff might go to the Philadelphia Flyers year early getting out of his contract with SKA. Is there the same hesitancy with Russians going into this draft as there may have been in years past? - Look at all the situational, right? So, Michigan, for what do you need the tuition because of the lengthy contract extension, right? And being in top of that team of notorious wars, using ice time as leverage for young players to then design extension. So there they had him locked up. But, you know, we saw Phoenix jump super early on from Russians last year. And it wasn't a problem because nobody was really, they'd probably reached a little bit on those players. So, I don't think there's a lot of concern right now, especially if these guys only have one or two years on their deal. And especially once you like sliding down the board a little bit, you know, are coming in off, 'cause guys, if you get a certain term of shock, they're not plugging into a level of players. So, if they want to stay in the KHL for two more years and then come over and then play in the American League, I think that that's a very natural path. And that it shouldn't be a big concern. At this point, you know, Russia haven't, they haven't put enough rule that they keep all their players until they're 23 or 25 or something. That we've heard rumors that they want to put into the next, but I'm not sure how they would accomplish that anyway. - The other question I had for you when it came to this draft is, you know, we talked a lot about Kate Lindstrom, we spoke about Demodov and obviously Celebrini. How big of a drop-off is it from those guys to that next forward? Whether it's Helene Nias, whether it's again La, like, what do you think that tier is between those guys? - Yeah, I think Tejas right there with them. So for my money, I've got again last four, you know, so it runs for me, Lindstrom, Demodov, and Kenla, two, three, four. So those four just be our, in a tier behind Celebrini. Kenla has kind of back electric stuff that could even elevate him into a class with Celebrini if it was, you know, it's actually like, if he went, he ended up beside the guard. Or if he went to Anaheim and ended up being like, the long-term San Gabriel Carl survey, he'd be having like a really impactful number one center to work, but I think that that would be huge for him. But after that, yeah, if you're talking about Ofto Hellenius, Michael American, New Guard, that could send it back, I think that those guys are kind of that next tier and they're different. Ofto Hellenius, they're a safe, detailed player of not gonna wow you with a speed or a scale or a strength, but just like leverage in every situation. And if somewhere to run the need part of, you know, a heavy center that, you know, could be a matchup by in your middle six, maybe not that first line potential, which is why I think both of those guys are gonna be sitting there and pick 12 or 13 kids around. - So we are Canucks Central. The Canucks are not gonna be very busy. We don't think at the draft, so they don't have a ton of picks. They don't pick until the third round. They've traded away another second round pick in moving out of Ilia McKayev. Now that's a 2027 second rounder. So it's a couple of years down the line, but, you know, this is, it's been a theme here for the Canucks, whether it's to get off of salary or to acquire something. They've moved a lot of draft picks and a lot of second round picks. How does that affect the organization as they try to maximize this competitive window over the next few years, Scam? - It's gonna limit how long that will no can stay open without true management and, you know, some really excellent pro scouting, honestly, is that you are trying to win and that's great and you sacrifice assets, whether that's draft picks or that's young players that could contribute long-term to you for a short-term game. And that's a very valid move to do with your window open, but you also have to recognize that if you don't replace over the asset, whether that's true, you know, finding a guy in group six, free agency, or, you know, a marketing inefficiency where someone's buried in another organization and you think that they could pop a different, we'd give it more on can you hear? So if they can manage to do that, then you can, you can extend that window. And if not, then, you know, you've got your two, three years before everyone's in their prime and getting paid before they start to kind of dwindle out of that realm and you've had nothing to kind of push up. So you look at, like, a team like the Dallas Stars, right? They have their aging poor and Sagan and Ben and, you know, Joseph Phelps, you just retired, but then they have Wyatt Donston. They have Logan Sankov and they have Maverick Port coming up, you know, you're a Hastyman, so young, Thomas Harley, so young, so they have that next group pushing up, which is why it's not such a big deal with Ben and Sagan to help you that they're aging out now because you have that next crop and then people won't have that next crop. They're really hoping, obviously, that McCure-Maki is going to be a player for them in the next few years and can contribute as a youngster, but outside of that, you know, perhaps Tom Blander, but everything else is lacking kind of in that impact that. - Can we appreciate the time? We'll let you get back to the pool. Thanks for this. - I appreciate it, Bob. - There is Cam Robinson here on Canucks Central. We'll have the NHL entry draft tomorrow here on the show. It'll actually be our NHL entry draft coverage even without the Canucks having a first round selection. All right, coming up. We're going to have your mailbag questions, but also we're going to link up with Norris Trophy winner, Captain of your Vancouver Canucks, Quinn Hughes. That's coming up next on Sports at 650.
