The Canucks are the last winless team in the NHL and the calls for change are growing. How much more of this can the Vancouver property take before undergoing a major overhaul? TSN Hockey insiders talk about it, Minnesota’s slow start, the World Cup of Hockey and more in Insider Trading.
Gino Reda: These are the insiders: Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger. The only remaining team without a win in the entire league, fans throwing shirts on the ice, players and coach openly frustrated. Darren, how much more of this can Canucks ownership and management handle before embarking on a full major shakeup?
Darren Dreger: Well, we know the temperature is rising. We know Vancouver Canucks fans keep screaming for answers, but the reality is, it’s not that simple. The Vancouver Canucks still believe it’s too early to do anything big or anything too drastic. But the Canucks also know, guys, that they’re dangerously close to having to put everything on the table. So what does it mean and what does it look like? Well, let’s start with a heavy renovation. It means moving players around, maybe key players, collecting draft picks, knowing that there’s a really good draft looming in 2023. You have the option of trying to make, maybe, a shorter term solution and add an exchange. But there is certainly no guarantee that this player, the right player, will be available soon enough. And then perhaps most appealing to Canucks fans because of their bitterness is the coach’s firing. Again, not quite there, but it’s heading in one of three directions. Difficult point for Bruce Boudreau and the management of the Canucks.
Pierre LeBrun: Dregs, the Minnesota Wild got their first win of the season last week against the Canucks. But overall, it’s been a slow start for the Wild, especially given expectations for a team that had 113 points last year. Now, [general manager] Bill Guerin made some interesting comments in an interview with our friend Michael Russo in The Athletic. And I followed today and spoke with Bill Guerin, and he certainly didn’t back down from those comments, saying it’s time for his team to wake up and, in saying that quote, “we We’re not going to trade our way out.” And what he means is that it’s not about one or two players; it’s really a team-wide disappointment, and that the team needs to play on their identity and reestablish their identity. So some urgency from the general manager of the Minnesota Wild, because as he told me, “It’s easy to dig a hole that you can’t get out of. It’s important for us to start play our best hockey now.”
RG: We often talk about Thanksgiving in the United States being a key performance milestone for teams as they plan things forward. But, CJ, there’s another key milestone coming even sooner than that.
Chris Johnson: Yeah, if you’re a teenager in the NHL and it’s your first season, it’s usually around Halloween that you always want to be on the roster because that will probably mean you’ve reached your 10th game, at which point your entry contract begins. And as you look around the league right now, there are six players in this situation, wondering what their future will be. [will be]. Interestingly, only one of them, Juraj Slafkovský, [of] Montreal Canadiens, he is eligible to go to the American Hockey League. Everyone else you see on this list has to go to the Canadian Hockey League, and a lot of them have been pretty accomplished there, and I think that makes the decisions a little more complicated. I’ll point out Wyatt Johnston of the Dallas Stars, he was the OHL’s most valuable player last year. It’s a huge week for him because Dallas has a busy schedule. He’s ready to play his ninth game by the weekend and, you know, certainly Dallas is ready to keep him past that point, but I’m sure they’re going to judge every performance before taking this final decision. And another there’s Shane Wright, of course from the Seattle Kraken. They’ve taken a little different approach with him, he’s been in and out of the lineup, he’s yet to play more than eight minutes in a game, but there’s a lot of focus on what Seattle is doing. with him as he closes in on that 10-game mark.
RG: We are about a month away [FIFA World Cup] kick off in Qatar and, Pierre, any upcoming meetings to discuss the future of the World Cup of Hockey also next month?
PL: Yeah, more talks between key players (from the) NHL, NHLPA, IIHF and some federations on the weekend of Nov. 4-5 in Tampere, Finland, when Colorado and Columbus play NHL games. Time is running out here. Let’s be honest, there are people involved who thought that if things had been finalized there would be an announcement for the World Cup last summer. You know, the idea was to have this tournament on February 24. You know, Gary Bettman and Bill Daly last week after the Board of Governors meeting when I was there, you know, they implied that , you know, maybe the idea of delaying this tournament is on the table now. And I spoke with other people today, and I think it’s something that other stakeholders have talked about as well. Ultimately there are still outstanding issues with the IIHF that have not been resolved and of course the elephant in the room and Bill Daly and Gary Bettman talked about this last week – what to do with Russia ? There are other countries that don’t want Russia to participate in this tournament because of the war in Ukraine. This is a very difficult problem for the NHL (and) NHLPA to solve, so we’ll see where it leads. But the idea of delaying the World Cup of Hockey for me carries a little more weight now than maybe a month ago.
RG: Which would be a shame. Brad Merchant [scored the] shorthanded goal with 44 seconds left for the winner of the match to clinch Canada’s victory over Europe. The last game of the World Cup of Hockey in September 2016 [in Toronto]. It’s been a long time. These are the insiders: Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger.
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