Cam Robinson: Deep dive into the Canucks centre depth. EP40, Chytil, Räty, Cootes

Cam Robinson: Deep dive into the Canucks centre depth. EP40, Chytil, Räty, Cootes

As we welcome in Cam Robinson who has a new title at Elite Prospects. Blake, we’re talking to the senior director hockey media and relations and senior crossover scout assistant too or Congratulations. Yeah, thanks fellas. Yeah, it’s a mouthful. It’s it’s a lot fit on the card. Thank god we don’t do business cards anymore. No. Yeah, that’s right. But no, happy happy to get another extension there with EP and uh off to Sweden in a couple days to go meet up with some people at headquarters and skate with some SHL kids doing some fun threeon-ree stuff. So it’s bright times ahead. Sweet. So how does that change your uh responsibilities if at all? Uh we’re we’ve shifted some things around a little bit, but my job will mostly remain the same. I’m, you know, the kind of the figurehead for everything front-facing. I do all the scouting and traveling and social media and all that stuff and gladhanding with GMs and and trying to make connections. So, pretty much the same, but just a new title to go along with the many hats I wear. I remember the draft in Dallas when we were introduced to this long-haired kid from the island with his bandana who was just so personable and affable and you felt like you knew him your whole life. Uh, you have forged a tremendous career, my friend. Very well done. Congratulations. Let’s get into brass tax and we’ll start with the Redwoods Golf Course poll question today, Cam. Outside of the core players, who is the Canucks X factor this season? We’ve listed Heedel Kane and Lera Macki as the options, but you feel free to go off the board if you so choose. Is that Demco a core player? Yes, we think he’s a core player. Yeah, Demco’s health is an easy answer there. So, we wanted people to dig a little deeper on it. I’m going HeedLed. I’m going HeedLed then because we see that lineup right now with Heedle at two and Coots at three. That is a tenuous situation. So, Philip Heedle can stay healthy and can play at a legitimate second line center level. I think that that is a huge X-factor for the team that he could I don’t want to say make or break the season for them because that might be a little hyperbolic, but I think that he has how his season goes will will impact the team greatly outside of the core. Okay, play it out with me. He is perfectly healthy this year. Cam, tell us because we saw him briefly last year uh but I’m I think we’re still getting to know the player uh as a market. Tell me what about his game would translate to being a second line center. Well, I mean, he’s he’s got the size, he has speed, he has playmaking ability, he has two-way ability. Um, so it’s like and he he can finish off at a reasonable level as well on his own. So, we’ve been waiting for Philip Heedle ever since, you know, his draft year. He came on very very fast kind of in the back half of his draft year and everyone started getting very excited about the offensive potential that this player had. Um, and then it just really hasn’t come to fruition at the NHL level. And I think that the injuries have played a significant role in that as well. Um, and in New York, it’s difficult to get power play time there at the time as well. I think that at his age now and if he can be healthy and he can get, you know, some chemistry with some decent players on that line, especially when Hoglander comes back and hopefully fills in that role that that that’s, you know, that left side on the second line, that’s also a point of concern at the moment. Um, but if he can find some chemistry and he can play 75, 80 games, I think that a 20 goal, 55 point season, very reasonable second line center production. Um, and you know, be on your special teams, your second power play, kill some penalties for you, that that will go a long way and it’s very achievable for him. It’s something that, you know, I personally been waiting for the last two, three years for him as long as the concussions weren’t hindering him. How do you think he’ll work with Garland? I I think pretty well. I mean, Garland’s a fairly easy player to get on with as long as you don’t slow the game down too much because he wants to get in there. He wants to do things quickly. He wants to get in and muck it up a little bit. So, when the game slows down, then, you know, maybe there’s some issues with chemistry, but I don’t think Keidle plays that way traditionally. So, I think that it should be kind of a north south straight get in there, someone’s doing the the digging and it’s often Garland. Um, and then he can support and he can facilitate and he can playmake and and like I said, so I was going to say you need someone on that on that left flank who can finish consistently. You just got to make sure you don’t run into Garland. That’s the other problem is that he’s everywhere all at once and stay clear of the dervish. Yes, exactly. Um, do you believe Patrick when he says Braden Coots makes this team even if Teddy Bluger is healthy? Um, I could believe that he deserves to make this team. I could believe that statement. Do you believe, but do you believe that he actually logistically makes this team if Teddy Bluger is 100% healthy? I do. Yeah. I I think that they, you know, and makes this team is a lot different than sticks with this team. But I do I do that, you know, you you ask something from your players when they come to camp and you and you expect something and you ask for something and when they deliver the way he did, you have to you have to find a role for him and you have to find a spot for him at least in that opening night roster. And obviously Bluger getting injured facilitated that a little bit further that he can get into games right away. Um but now it’s a matter of you’ve got here, can you stay here? Um and so now the work begins for Braden Coots, right? that that you think that it’s an uphill battle at camp, but now the real work begins to see if you can stick in the NHL past that nine game mark. Well, and and the next three to four, like if if that’s how long Bluger’s gone for here, um that presents some opportunity for Coots to really show his wears because, you know, if Bluger’s in, he’s the fourth C. Yeah. You know, like he’s probably playing few minutes, but now he’s just competing for minutes with Atu Ratatu who also has stuff to prove. like one of these two guys is going to get more minutes than they probably bargain for um if all five centers are available. Absolutely right. And that’s why we look at the the connections down the middle being like this could be dicey but there are worlds where you know like we mentioned Heedle can play up to his potential and stay healthy and then if Coots can can survive and thrive a little bit too you know and they’re setting him up him and Lier Mackey they started to find a little rhythm there in the preseason late in the preseason and then you put Aander Kane the veteran the hard-nosed guy the guy who can maybe stick up for the kids a little bit out there on the ice if they can find a little lightning in a bottle there then that could be something coots is a very smart player and he plays with NHL speed already. And those two things, even though he’s not a big player, should help him mitigate some of the risk that you you have when you throw an 18-year-old into this level of hockey. And so, yeah, it’s it’s, you know, the minutes are there for him. The opportunity is there for him to prove that he can play at this level and and keep playing at that level. Um, but I do I do wonder how just long-term maximizing his offensive upside, how that’ll work. If if it’s if it’s if he’s getting real minutes, if he’s getting 15 minutes in the NHL and he’s seeing some offensive zone start times, keep him around. But if he’s not, I still think Junior is a good option. Let’s just flesh out the centers. We’ve done three of them basically to this point. It wasn’t a bad preseason in training camp for Turatu, but he didn’t grab headlines. Has your faith diminished that he can seize his brass ring? Again, it’s a different size brass ring than that of Heedles and Persons, but where is your confidence level in in Ratu right now? It’s not super high. It’s not super high because we talked about this last week or the week before where it was like you wanted him to come into camp hungry that he had to earn a spot or risk ending up on waiverss and getting picked up or and getting bounced around. And that’s kind of like, you know, that’s not a good start to a career for a guy that that sets you off on the wrong foot. So, he ended up making this team kind of by default. And so, now it’s like now the opportunity is with Blue Out is like, do you want minutes? Are you going to be a 13th guy? Are you going to end up in waiverss here in two weeks? Um, and that’s basically going to be his career trajectory is is this next couple of weeks. So, we’re going to see what he’s made of if he can step up. And, you know, he doesn’t have to do a lot of flashy things, but he has to win his faceoffs. He has to be strong defensively, and he has to make some plays when the opportunity arises. And it’s not a ton to ask, but he still has to pull it off. One of the uh tools I quite enjoy on elite prospects and we’ve referenced them a couple of times this week already is the uh page where you have NHL teams by average age, height, weight, and experience. We uh referenced it the other day that the Vancouver Conucks are the fifth youngest team in the NHL, the sixth most uh least experienced team in the NHL. But the other thing and the thing that probably stands out the most outside of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Vancouver Conucks are the lightest team in the NHL, averaging 194 pounds per player. Cam, does that matter in today’s NHL or does it only matter in the postseason when quote unquote heavy hockey comes into play? Yeah, it matters in the spring for sure and and they’ll want to add some beef and I think that this team has showed, you know, going after Zidor off before, going bringing in Sussy, you know, they they have in the past prioritized getting some meat on the blue line or or trying to, you know, Joshua leaving like there’s and like Kiraaki and Coots making the team that’s going to bring all that down. So, this this roster might look maybe not significantly, but it it could look quite a bit different by the time springtime rolls around. And you would think that there will be a a a priority placed on adding some more meat, some more muscle, and some more experience um into that lineup if they are going to be a playoff team. In the regular season though, Cam, would that daunt you? You’ve got to get through 82 games. Does their lack of relative heft pose a problem for them? I don’t I don’t think I’m not too concerned about it at this point. And and I I think they have pretty decent depth as well down in the farm that they can bring guys up when injuries arrive because they aren’t a big team and they might get worn down a little bit or they have these young guys who might wear down a little bit quicker. So I I don’t think it’s a major concern. Like obviously you want everybody to be 6’4 225. That would be perfect, but that’s just not the way that they’ve been drafting and developing at this point. And you know they’ve moved out some bigger bodies. So I do think that they will be looking to add some more of that as the season moves along though. EPD has practiced on the right side. Cam as a lefty. We know that Rick Hawin and Adam Foot were very hesitant to do that for much of their tenure together here until late last year when we saw some more experimentation. Uh what do you think if uh Elias Peterson winds up playing his offside the right side on that third pair more often than not? I’m okay with it. I’m okay with it as long as he’s handling it well. It is a challenge for sure and Adam Foot would know that you know intimately is that you know keeping pucks in on your backhand in the offensive zone retrieving on your backhand or or picking up off the wall in the defensive zone and moving the puck on your offside not easy especially in the NHL when you’re getting pressured. It’s nice to have your forehand to the inside of the ice when you’re coming down when you’re looking offensively. That’s always a big big plus. And I know a lot of players prefer to play on their off side because of that. Um he’s handled it pretty well in preseason. He has done it before in the past. He’s played on the right side as well. He seems fairly comfortable. So, if he’s comfortable with it and the coaching staff is willing to let him go and he can handle it, then I’m okay with it. I think this player has a lot of a lot of IQ that maybe wasn’t noticed early on in his junior career that he he’s actually a pretty smart and kind of crafty player still um with a lot of upside. So, I do I I’d be okay with it for him if he ended up playing there full-time. Uh we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about Kefir Sherwood this month, have we? No. Well, I think you I think you just sort of assume he is what he is. I mean, I think the danger is actually my question though. Well, the danger is I think that you just expect him to score 18 goals. So, here in lies my question. Cam Robinson, a career year of 19 goals, played 14 minutes and 53 seconds per night last year. That was a full minute 20 jump from his previous careerhigh. shot 13 and a half% last year is a career 10 and a half point shooter. You know, you look at the raw numbers and you can either make the case, oh well, he was given more ice time and he did something with it and this is a player who’s in ascension or you look at it and say this could be an outlier year because of the high shooting percentage. But where are you on Sherwood in terms of him uh uh pulling the trick for a second season here with the Canucks? I think he can bank on him getting about a thousand hits, right? We can feel good about that. Um maybe half that much. Uh but yes, I I would be wary to pencil him in for 20 or close to 20 again, just because it hasn’t been proven over the long haul. Like you said, you know, a jump from 10 to 13 or 13 and a half% isn’t massive, especially when you have that little elevation in in deployment. But until he, you know, replicates it or at least gets off to a good start, I would be looking at him in the low two digits, right? If he’s putting up 10, 12, 13 goals, I think that that’s probably fine. Um, you want more, but that’s more the level I would expect from him. Like, he had a couple of multi-goal games last year. Things were really going well for him. And and it’s it’s difficult to to project that from a player who just hasn’t done it year-over-year. But if he does it again, if he even goes out and puts up 15 this year, then you can be like, “All right, this is a 15 to 20 goal player, and that’s what we need from him.” But if he goes out and puts up 10, then you’re probably like, “This is probably But here’s the thing. I don’t think his assignment is going to be any worse this year.” Like, he spent some time on the fourth line last year, and I don’t know that he’s going to be asked to do that much this year. I think there’s enough uh, you know, open slots that I think he’s top nine this year, isn’t he? Depends on who’s on the wings, right? like right now they’ve got Baines up on the second line and they’ve got Kane and Liraaki on the third line. So then it is kind of like he’s playing on that fourth line, but I I like you think his his role in his deployment will be very similar to what it was last year because you know talking about X-factors like he is an X-factor with the way he can play physically and that just creates space on the ice for everybody including himself. And so if he can continue to do that chances should follow or chances for his linemates should follow. And so, you know, yeah, if he can if he can put up 14 15 goals this season and push for 40 points, I think that’s a big win with the thousand hits he’s going to rack. Patterson with De Brusk and Besser Cam, they have loaded up their two best goalcoring wingers with their best playmaking center icemen. uh it should give them all the best opportunity at individual and line success. But of course, it does allow for the opposition to uh match up and counteract the Vancouver Conucks a little bit differently than teams that have a little bit more balance scoring through the top nine. What do you make of that? How difficult do you think the matchups are going to be for that top Canucks line? And are they uh making things a little easier for the opposition in terms of matching up on the three other combos? It’s kind of it’s kind of the hand they’re they’ve they’ve been dealt though, right? And and this is what I thought even going back into the summer. I thought this is what they would start with is that they would just load up the top. They will be force-fed top defensive matchups. You know, the top shutdown centers when they’re on the road and the top pairing against them and they’re going to have to fight through that. And the the the real question is who exactly is going to fight through that, right? Who is doing the dirty work on that line to get it to your best goal scorers, which you know, all three of them are the team’s top goal scorers in in all likelihood. Um and so we’re going to need to see some more jam out of Brusk. Uh that would be useful. Um and I and I think really you have to hope that maybe not career years, but that all three are going to be at, you know, their the top of their game in order for this to be a playoff team. Um otherwise if you start to split them up now you’ve got you know maybe two or three more watered down lines which is harder to match up against but also harder to really start running and ship to. Okay buddy we have uh arrived at the moment of truth and and Cam said he did altogether far too much homework and too deep a dive when I mentioned we wanted this from him the other day. Uh well, first of all, take us into your process of getting to the prediction of Canucks season total and division or conference finish. Cam Robinson. Yeah. So, yesterday when you told me this, I went and I built myself a model. Didn’t sleep for the last 24 hours. Had that chewing out numbers, spitting out. No, I but I I I fiddled around and I’m looking at all the rosters and I’m watching the games last night and I’m like, where’s LA’s offense, boys? where’s how’s this team going to win a spot at the top of the division? Um, you know, so I I but then I look at the Conucks roster and I’m like, there’s a lot of whatifs here, too. So, there’s there’s basically two outcomes for me. I think my kid and I talk about this, I think, every time we go to the rank, too. Do you think they’re going to be a playoff team? And I think that there there’s certainly a way. I have them right now. 96 points, the final wildcard team, and a date with the Dallas Stars in the first round. And that is with a lot of the ifs working right. So that’s Thatcher Demco being healthy. And I think he’s got a chip on his shoulder. I actually think he’s a he’s going to be a big factor for the team. That’s Elias Person playing as a firstline center. Doesn’t have to be a superstar. It’s a firstline center. That’s Heedle staying healthy. That’s Quinn staying healthy and being the superstar that he is. And everyone else just kind of playing up to snuff. I think that that’s a that’s a wildcard team right there. If one of those things doesn’t happen though, it’s a non-playoff team. If everything breaks right and Person’s a superstar for you, I think that they could over they could leap over LA and be kind of that third team in the Pacific. So 96 in the final wild card. We will put you down for that. Cam, thank you for this my friend. Uh typically Tuesdays with Cam. We had a scheduling uh matter this week, so we’ll talk to you next Tuesday. Sounds good. Thanks, boys.

Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects with a deep dive on the Canucks centres, especially those behind EP40. Cam gets into his expectations of Cootes, Räty and Chytil over the first few weeks, and what he expects the Canucks do with that group as the season progresses.

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