Cam Robinson: Report cards for D-Petey and Willander and the resurgence of Quinn and EP40

So, Garrison Price from the historic wall center and the Pacific Toyota Dealer Studio. And look who’s in the Pacific Toyota Dealers Studio. It’s been a long time since seen you face to face in the Flash Cam Robinson. How are you? Yeah, I’m doing well. It has been a while. Hey, I mean, we hung out in that little room in what, 2019 there for 15 hours that one day, I think. So, we had um good intentions on a draft uh live stream in 2021, I believe, Cam. It was okay. Uh this was the Denila Cleovic year and um was a remote draft as I recall and we thought, “Oh, we’ve done this show before. It’s three or four hours, no big deal.” And I want to say it was 7 to eight. So, uh you can’t spend seven or eight hours here today. Not welcome to. Um we wouldn’t want you to. Uh you’re over here to see Vancouver Giants top prospect Ryan Lynn. We’ll get into that in a second. But first, uh 85 in Florida last night. It was hell of a hockey game, right? That was hockey. Yeah, that was a version of hockey, right? That was that was that was inline. It looked like an inline game like men’s league or shinny, you know, like no one’s playing defense and you know, a lot of goals are going in. Yeah. I mean, one team was playing a little bit of defense. I mean, what the Conucks get 14 shots. 15 shots. 15 shots. Sorry, my mistake. Yeah, 15 shots. Uh yeah, that is I mean kind of what we started to expect from this team, right? Is that they are not good defensively. Um at least they were a little electric offensively scoring five on 15, which was pretty fun. When Quinn Hughes is on the ice, this team is a borderline playoff team. When he’s not, they are a lottery team. We had Hughes on Crave the Stats earlier. It’s sensational. It’s extraordinary the difference between when he’s on the ice and when he’s not. You say you’ve come to expect this team not being very good defensively. Cam, call me naive. I thought this would be be a good defensive team when I sized up the six defenseman and the two goalenders. Buddy, why are they such a poor It’s our poll question. Is it Is it coaching? Is it the players? Is it Is it bad goalending? What is it? Yes. Um, that’s the smartass comment that a lot of people are saying. Okay, good. It can all be improved, but what’s the biggest piece of the pie? Well, I think like one of the big things is obviously, you know, the the injuries are playing a role here. They’re down some of their best penalty killers. They lost, you know, Pousuda was one of their better penalty killers. Um, obviously trading JT last year impacted their overall game, but also like Adam Foot, you know, he has the team running kind of like an offensive read like or defensive read setup, right? So, they’re they’re playing manto man off the rush and it’s like d up how you want and then how you feel and it’s, you know, taking some time for these guys to really get a hold of that. And I think that that’s that’s set up for players that have like really high intelligence and great skating and Quinn Hughes can thrive in that. You know, maybe Marcus Person at his best can play at that level. Maybe Philip Cronin can, but I think overall, especially when you have two young guys like Vlander and and Elias Person, the defenseman on that blue line. And you can see like when you look at their analytics, like both those kids are are kind of getting cratered a little bit underwater defensively too. It’s a tough system to be in to play in like that if you’re not an experienced super intelligent player. And I think we’re seeing that too, right? And that’s just at five on five and and the penalty kill itself is is another big issue. Well, that leads me to a they’ve all played a more zonal defensive oriented system under talk. At what point, Cam, do you just have to go back to that and and say we we are going to try something different uh because we need to stop fishing the puck out of our net. Yeah. I mean, and and for most of these guys, it wouldn’t be that different, right? like it would be like let’s go back to what was working because if I recall correctly they weren’t great defensively to start the year last year. Their PK certainly wasn’t very good last year and it improved significantly throughout the season. So you know obviously Adam Foot’s trying to put his stamp on this team and and his coaching philosophy onto it and his structure and you know there is going to be some some hiccups along the way. This is going to be interesting to see if they say like trust the process and we’ll get there um or if they do start to shift things up and and have to really reflect that you know maybe we don’t have the personnel to pull this off. Tom Valander has uh played a lot more than I thought he would because of all the injury issues. U you mentioned that him and and Elias Patterson have not been awesome. Um I to me that’s a little bit more of Person than it’s been Valander. Is is he surprising you given the lack of experience? He’s done really well. I think I think he’s done he’s done quite well. And when I kind of package those two together is that you can see like the overall team defense when they’re ice on the ice hasn’t been great. But him personally, I thought he’s been quite good. And I think that he’s been generating a little more transitional play and a little more offense than you would have expected from him as such a young player stepping into the league and, you know, historically not a super offensive player anyways, just more of a transition guy. Um, so no, I I’ve been pleased with him and I’m sure the coaching staff and management there has as well and that they’re, you know, kind of patting themselves on the back for not moving him because surely teams have been asking for him as they’ve been searching for the second line center replacement. What What would you do if you’re the Canucks on defense or to prevent the goals from going in? Would you make a change of some sort or do you have to just try to find a different way to use the same ball of clay and and make it work? Yeah, I don’t see them being able to pull off something that’s going to really change the complexion of that core. Um, you know, Derk Forbear can come back and that’ll help on the PK a little bit. Um, you know, you could bring up a kid like Gratzv who who’s strong defensively at times, too, but I then it’s just another young body. So, I think you just really have to kind of hunker down and and maybe you look at playing that zone a little bit more or you you hope that Tyler Myers can have a few string together a few good defensive games. Um, but yeah, like I don’t see any easy options there. I saw you tweeting about this, but Jim Rutherford’s comments last week, Kim, um certainly uh had some eyebrows raising in the market, particularly the one about how the team uh direction and team building doesn’t pivot on Quinn Hughes when you’re rolling your eyes. Spray tail. Oh, well that I mean just don’t box yourself in like that. Like why why say that we’re not going to even look at rebuilding with or without Quinn? Because if you lose a arguably top five player in the league, you’re not going to reflect on what what the process is moving forward. Like obviously you’re going to have to do that, right? And and if you lose your captain and your best player and someone who’s that talented, it’s going to, you know, affect your team massively and you’re going to have to look at all options. And so I just think that that was it was just too firm a line to state. Um yes, and you know, giving the examples of, hey, rebuilds, they take time. They don’t always work. No, they don’t always work. And some do take time, but some do work. And we’re we see we see them right now, right? Like what’s Anaheim doing, right? How exciting is San Jose? Even Chicago, they’re not winning a ton of games, but they look exciting and they’re coming up and yeah, you got to win a first overall pick. But guess what? That’s part of it is that you have to be bad and then you have to draft well and you have to get a little lucky in it. But at the same time, would you rather that or would you just want to live in the mushy middle year over year over year and never have a real chance at a at a cup? I I It’s funny because uh you know I hear, “Oh, we don’t want no Buffalo style rebuilds.” And I say to myself, “Well, how about a Chicago rebuild? How about an LA rebuild? How about a Florida rebuild? How about a Tampa rebuild? How about all these teams that rebuilt with high picks and went on to win cups?” Do do you think he is saying that about Hughes? Because if the day comes where Quinn says, “I want out,” they’re going to try and trade him for win now lateral pieces. I mean that that would probably be the most likely thing that’ll happen is that and I mean you can’t let them walk. You can’t let them just walk away for nothing. And so you know historically this ownership group is not interested in a rebuild. And so if they are going to move Quinn Hughes, you could probably bet their first look is going to be at can we get, you know, two or three players that are 27 and under and maybe a couple draft picks that, you know, we can just throw into our lineup right now and hope that collectively we can moneyball this and they can bring what Quinn Hughes brings in one player. Um, which personally I mean I think that that is you know getting three nickels for a for a tuni depending on the players obviously I would I would target high high level prospects and you know 22 and under players and and you hope that one or two of them can get near the level of Quinn Hughes and then you have a chance to do something longterm rather than just kind ofating it. Well, good news. The Canadian Mint does continue to produce nickels. Yes. They are not yet the penny. Yes. Yeah. um you you can’t sign him yet. Quinn Hughes, like that their attempts to resign Quinn Hughes, you’re not allowed right now. And yet, if the Vancouver Conucks don’t improve their lot in life in their in the standings and there is good reason to believe that they will be at best within arms reach of where they are right now. Like, could they be three games above 500 by the trade deadline? Yeah, I could see that. But I don’t envision them being 10 games above 500 at the trade deadline. So I ask you there like if you’re going to trade Quinn Hughes, does it not stand to reason the the best way to get value spec especially if you’re trading him to the Devils? Like the Devils know they’re going to get him anyway. But if you get two more playoff years with Queen Hughes, that’s probably worth something to the Devils. They can wait one more playoff year if you wait till the following year to trade him, but getting two more playoff that’s worth something. Do you think the Vancouver Conucks are going to find themselves staring down that narrative here over the course of the next two months? That the narrative absolutely. Whether or not they have any sort of appetite to do that, I think is very low because I think that they’re going to try. It’s it’s it’s kind of like that, you know, when when you got a girlfriend, you know she’s going to leave you, but you’re like, “Maybe I can change. Maybe I can keep her around if I just buy her some flowers or or take her out on a nice date. I think they’re going to do everything they can and push this as far as they can and so it’ll be the deadline of next year if they if they end up pulling the trigger on and and and I get it to a certain degree because you can’t even like it’s one thing for them to say have a heartto-he heart with Quinn Hughes and say listen we’re going to make you the richest blah blah blah blah blah until it’s actually laid in front of you I don’t think you as Quinn Hughes know how you’re going to react. So you can say, “No, I we’re going to we’re going to see what the, you know, the the market holds and all that sort of thing.” But then, you know, 4 months later when you can actually on July the second put the offer in front of them and it’s tens of millions of dollars on paper, I get it. If you’re the Vancouver Con, you probably think, “No, no, we want the ability to put that in front of him and see what he says.” Yeah. But I still don’t know that it makes a difference. I don’t know if it makes a difference either. I I I mean, it should probably make a bit of a difference, right? because you would think because they can offer him the max, right? And and they can and they can and it can be huge huge money, huge money where if he goes to New Jersey or he goes anywhere else, you know, they they have to offer fewer years, two fewer years and and arguably that maybe the dollars will be a little bit lower than what Vancouver can just go, we’ll give you anything you want, exactly right. And and so 20 million $20 million a year, right? They they could do that. They could put that out there. They could if they really wanted to. Um so you’re right. And when that is right in front of your face, and I’m sure they want that opportunity to put that giant treasure chest right in front of him and say, “Are you really going to turn this down?” Yeah. You’re the captain of a Canadian team. You really going to turn this down? The only thing that I would add there is uh you know, as much as he would help New Jersey on two playoff, he’d help anybody on two playoff runs. Like, yeah, I think the value is so much higher at this deadline for a team not named New Jersey because you’re looking at two playoff one runs with Quinn. Whereas, if it’s in the summer, they pretty much know it’s a one-year with Quinn, which makes things a little more difficult and I think probably suppresses your price tag. Yeah. A little bit. Absolutely. I don’t think there’s any question that this deadline would elicit the largest potential package. It’s just I don’t believe that there’s going to be an appetite for it. Uh tough night last night in his Vancouver Conucks debut. Tossed right into the lineup. But uh tell us about David Camp. Yeah. Was Was he a dash five? Not officially, I don’t think, but he was on for five. Okay. I think officially he was PO Joseph on the score sheet too, right? Yes, he was too. So I don’t think officially he did anything right away for him. Yeah. Yeah. Great. Great for showing. I mean tough like you said getting air lifted in and just dropped in like that. And his job is going to be to, you know, take the pressure off of Elas Person’s defensive responsibilities there. and you know, he won some faceoffs, did not do well defensively. Historically, has been a fairly decent defensive player in a fourth line role, but you know, that’s the key here in a fourthline role. This is a fourthline center. This is someone that can help bridge the gap. Um, you know, it’s he can kill some penalties. He can win some faceoffs. He can play 10, 12 minutes a night, but he’s not a differencemaker, but he can hopefully take the load off Person and allow him to continue to look, dare I say, a little bit like the old Leas Person. M he’s he’s we’re 20 games in and while the process wasn’t great especially early on with either Quinn or Elias can you argue they’re doing their part they’re pulling their weight for this connects team I mean Quinn without question right like pays for 100 now again um in a full season but no PD he’s he’s the effort was certainly there early on like he was blocking shots he was hitting he was doing all those defensive responsibilities and the points just weren’t coming and now the points are coming now we’re getting a couple goals goals here. Two goal game, right? Couple apples the other day. Like it’s starting to come along. You can see the confidence with the shot. Like that shorty that he scored the other night, right? Like picking it off and just snapping it bar down. That puck was on his stick for half the short side goal to last night was very nice. Mhm. On the backand there. That was nasty, right? Like that’s those are confident, skillful plays that you want to see and those are great signs for him long term. Um so let’s keep that momentum rolling. But yeah, absolutely. Those two are bringing the heat. um you know and now they need everybody else to kind of contribute offensively. Not named Drew O’ Connor and the offense is not the problem. No, it’s not. It’s not. It’s the defense. There are very few players on the offensive side that I think you can look at and say not really doing their part. Maybe a Vanderane because he’s gotten so much time. I actually think he’s been very assertive lately. I’ve got zero problem with the way he’s played offensively. Offensively lately. Yeah. Yeah. At the primary last night. Yeah. So, I mean, really, you’re just looking at bottom six guys and even them even they have done a little better of late in terms of getting on the getting on the score sheet. Uh, so you’re on this side of the straight. Mhm. Welcome. Thank you. We love having you here. Yeah. And you’re here to see Ryan Lynn, the undersized right shot, possible top 10 pick defenseman for the Vancouver Giants. Yeah. Don’t lead with undersiz. His agent’s going to be texting me right after this. Right. But he’s just right. Just right. He’s just right. Yes. He’s not 6 foot. He’s just shy of 6 feet. And that is inevitably probably going to, you know, impact his draft stock here, too. Like we had him fourth on our board at EP preseason rankings. Highly gifted two-way back, I would say. Like last year as a draft minus one, nearly a point a game, too, for the Giants, 50 and 60 or something like that. Um, but his defense is what always stands out to me. Like he’s so smart. He’s so cerebral. He has a great stick. He knows his positioning and that I think alone is going to it’s like 6′ 5’11, whatever it is. He’s going to be able to play and play well defensively because of his mind, because of his stick, and because of his skating, which has always been a differentiator for him coming up. Now, at this level, it’s not. It’s it’s he’s a good skater, but he’s not Quinn. He’s not he’s not electric, and he’s not like super shifty at the blue line either. He is, but he’s not one of those guys you’d be like, that’s number one power play defenseman in the NHL. But you can see now this year he’s kind of sacrificing a little bit of his defensive play for that offense. And so now he’s well above a point per game and he’s taking some more chances and he’s really kind of pushing that offensive side because he has the defensive side in his back pocket and as long as he’s not making the same mistakes twice. I’m sure the coaching staff in Vancouver is totally fine with that and and that’ll be okay too for teams that are watching him as well is that like hey clearly he’s trying to push the needle offensively and sometimes that’s going to cost him but we’re we’re exploring the bounds of his offensive creativity and I think that that you know alone at at the end of the day there’s a ton of really good Western league defenseman in the draft this year. Carson Carol’s Daxon Rudolph a former first overall pick in the bantam draft obviously Ryan Lynn and I think at the end of the day we might see it go Carol’s Rudolph Lynn in the draft and I think long term it’ll be Lynn Rudolph Carols who are the best players. Yeah, Carol is up in PG and of course uh we would also be looking at Katon Verhoff if he didn’t leave the Victoria Royals uh North Dakota. We had the conversation about McKenna last week and whether he’s still a lock lock or if someone can get in there. Uh Lynn from Richmond played at Delta Hockey Academy and it’s 24 points in 21 games thus far. Uh too young for Canada’s World Junior team is the defense. We’ve talked about the forward group being like out of this world competitive. What’s the Canadian defensive group looking like for the World Juniors? It’s going to hinge on who gets sent back, right? So they’re not getting Mattie Schaefer back. I feel pretty good about that. Yeah, Sha and maybe Mlin probably not coming home um up front. Maybe not. Uh, but you know, there is Sam Dickinson who was there last year. I do wonder if San Jose will consider it to send him and then bring him back up to the NHL, but he has been there. He’s done that and now he thinks he’s an NHL and I’m I’m sure he feels like, hey, I’ve done it and I’ll just play in the NHL. Zane Perk not doing so well and didn’t play there last year. The thing I wonder about Zay Perk though is does he want to go right? They snubbed him last year and and I don’t think that there was any, you know, shyness in in him and Michael Misa being like, “What? you didn’t bring us to this and now now he’s probably like guess what I’m in NHL you had your chanceing him too well that’s true that’s true and and you know he’s one of these players that you he makes a mistake you can’t you can’t just burn him to the bench because he’s too good he’s his offensive upside is too massive but he is going to make mistakes for you um so there’s those two guys there’s Harrison Brunick who plays in Pittsburgh who’s been sitting on that nineame threshold for a while now they’ve been healthy scratching him he’s getting close to that send you down to the American League for a conditioning stint so what happens with some of those guys I think they might get Brunick I think Verhoff might be the only draft eligible guy that comes and then it’ll be more of those older guys. Ben Danford and guys like two two other little local Italians, Caleb Mhaltra, is he is he tracking for the first round and uh Tobias Tomic also of the Vancouver Giants. Is he squeezing to the end of the first round? Probably not. Maybe maybe the tail end, but probably day two guy. Um Kim Mahaltra started, you know, shot out of a cannon, you know, he he’s he’s again pushing into that into that world as well. Yeah. Manny’s son. Yeah. Yeah, of course. Uh, and came out from Ontario. His dad was coaching in the Leaf system. Came out from Ontario, played in the WCHL, and then went back to the Ontario Hockey League. So, great seeing you. Thank you for the visit. Appreciate this. All right. Enjoy your time out at the LEC. Yeah, appreciate it. Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects every Tuesday here on Sakarrison Price.

Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects stops by to talk about what he’s seeing from the group, including the star players’ renaissance and the concerns in goal. Cam also talks about the good and bad from the two young D-men in Tom Willander and D-Petey. Then Cam looks ahead to the draft and Giants defender Ryan Lin’s season to date, plus, a couple of other players with local ties.

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