Craig Button on the Canucks current state, future of Quinn Hughes and more

Craig Button on the Canucks current state, future of Quinn Hughes and more

Donnie and Dolly, the team is supported by abblections.ca. Closing your business. We can help. Wednesday, all of our guests today, including Craig Button, TSN scouting director, standing by. Brought to you by our friends at Pastime Sports and Games. And like I said, more on pastime a little bit uh later. Craig, thanks for doing this, sir. How are you? I’m good. Big game on Saturday. the Wolverines versus the Buckeyes. I think the Buckeyes are a much better team, but you never know in this game. I’m hoping. But big upset last year, but then Ohio State went won the uh the college championship, but I think that Ohio State not only has revenge on their mind, but uh in the big house, it could get a little bit ugly for the Wolverines. What’s your hope? What’s your connection to to Michigan? Yeah, correct me if I don’t. I was in Ann Arbor for 12 years. 12 years I was in Ann Arbor. Lived half a mile from the stadium through the whole thing. Yep. It was uh it was a great time. They won the national championship in 97. It was a great time to be in Michigan at that time, guys. The Pistons were backtoback NBA champions. That was the Fab Five that came into Michigan. It was it was like a it was like rock stars coming in every every week. Then you had the Red Wings who were good. They ended up winning. You had the the Michigan Wolverines hockey team winning the with Michigan Wolverines football team winning the national championship. And you know, it was just a really great time. and uh I was working with the Dallas Stars and they ended up winning as well. So, you know, it was just a it was a great time in my life and I got to see a lot of great teams and great athletes and some really uh you know, what I would call great championships celebrated by the city of Detroit. Now, maybe the Lions can do it. Yeah. Well, what what a life you’ve had. Then, we talked a couple weeks ago about growing up in Montreal in the 70s with the Havs and and all those Stanley Cups. Okay, Michigan, you got the hat. Donnie, Donnie, I got to say this right now. Winning follows me around. Like what can I say? There you go. There you go. I agree. Well, we’ll try to do something about that on this show. Okay. Okay. You’ve got the Michigan hat on. Quinn Hughes, former Wolverine. And Rick, this leads to you asking him a question about the Conucks. All right. Uh heard you on a podcast yesterday say the Conucks are relevant and have been for many years. Craig, uh tell us uh how that came about, that comment. I haven’t. Well, number one, I I I wasn’t referring to a number of years. I’m talking about right now. They don’t seem to have relevancy in in their play or in their team. And you never want to be an irrelevant team. And and maybe I was maybe there’s a little bit of hyperbole. I I I the Vancouver Canucks fan base is a great one. Vancouver Conucks have had success. We don’t know. I have to go back very far two years ago and I thought they’d be a playoff team this year, but but right now there just seems to be so much surrounding the team. I mean, last year there was there was the the JT Miller, then you got EP 40 who’s, you know, been so subpar for 18 months, and we we hold out hopes of uh that we see signs that he’s turning it around and then all of a sudden it’s back to what he was. And then the uncertainty with Quinn Hughes, and that that’s the that’s the genesis of of where you find yourself. and and you find yourself and and and and maybe it’s too strong a word, but you find yourself where your relevance in the league, the way other teams look at you, you know, they don’t take you seriously and and that’s just a fact. They they don’t take you lightly. They like when I say but like they kind of go, “Okay, that’s Vancouver, you know, we better not lose to them. We better go in there. They’re on a” And when when you when you find yourself in that spot, I I think you got to recognize where you’re at. And then you have to really work to to understand not not where you hope to be, not where you wish to be, but where you are. And then address the issues. And I I I think right now in Vancouver, there’s a number of them. Okay, Craig. They wake up on Monday morning, 30th place in the NHL. Embarrassing loss the night before. They send out a memo. Veterans are available. What is the message? What are they telling the rest of the NHL when they do all that stuff on Monday? Well, but how about if we go in and say what are they telling their own players? Yeah, they’re telling their own players that hey, you know what? You’re available. You know, we don’t we got to move in in that direction. Now, I mean, you you move in you move in a different direction in many different ways. But, you know, that becomes public uh a public statement and and and here’s what ends up happening. And I’m going to give you an example. Chris Bury did it in New York. Yeah. What did it do? It created it created real challenges for the franchise. It creates challenges for uh you know not just your current players, players that have left, players that you know go on and and look at what Trouban Krider are doing in Anaheim. They’re a big part of that team. So it’s not that players are bad or players, but sometimes you need to change. I I I think how you manage change is is just as just important in leadership as when you’re trying to strengthen your team. And I if you’re going in a different direction, then you just kind of you have those calls. I I’m I’m a big believer that that I don’t think it’s necessary to send out a memo to all 31 teams and say, “Hey, by the way, you know, why don’t you just take out a an ad and fly it over every city? We’re open for business. You know, all our veteran players are available except Quinn Hughes.” What do you think Quinn Hughes is thinking right now? Thank you. Thank you. Right. What do you think Quinn Hughes is going like, “Well, what’s going on here?” And and I I told you this, Quinn Hughes is a competitor. He’s a great guy. He’s a a wonderful leader. We know what he means to the Vancouver Conucks, but now you put this in into his head of like, what’s going on around here? And nobody nobody wants to be in a situation where it’s not functioning. You can find solutions to that, but if you don’t have a belief that it will function, you’re looking for the exit door. And that’s a fact. Absolutely. Hey, if the Conucks were smart, they’d look at your Craigslist that just came out cuz they might be smart people. They might be picking one, two, or three. Hey, on that list, there’s a Giants defenseman uh that did not make your top 10. Uh Mr. Lynn, talk a little bit about that, Ryan. Listen. Well, I mean I mean there’s always a range, Rick. I I think I I always like to go in groupings and everything and I I think the grouping of four defenseman, you know, Verhoff, Pipper Rinan, uh Chase Reed, and Carson Carl who plays up in Prince George. I I think right now they’ve separated themselves as a quartet of defenders that they’re ahead of the next group. And the next group is good. Make no mistake about it. Ryan Lynn included. He’s a he he he’s a really good offensive player. Certainly when you when when you look at it today, I mean, lots can change and a lot does change between now and next month now and the and the spring for certain. And Ryan’s a good player and and there’s going to be good players that aren’t going to get drafted in the top five, the top 10. But at this point in time, it’s a it’s a point in time. It’s a data point in time. And right now, I I just see those four defenders just separating right now. Then you got the forwards. I I could easily have put Ryan Lynn in the top 10. You know, if if you think that the 14th guy should be eight, you’re not going to get an argument from me. And that’s what I mean about grouping. With Craig Button, TSN scouting director, sticking with the your Craigslist, um, you have Gavin McKenna at number one on your Craigslist. There’s a lot of people out there, people who do the same job as you that don’t have him number one anymore. They’re not blown away by his numbers at Penn State, 18 points in uh, 16 games uh, so far. Can you understand where they’re coming from, Craig? Although you do have him still at number one. Well, here’s I think you just nailed it, Donnie. You said they’re not blown away by his numbers. Okay, that’s fine. So, if you want to just look at the stat sheet, I I’ve watched Gavin for a long time. I I I it’s a large sample size of him being brilliant. And watching him this year at Penn State, he’s going through a lot of different changes in terms of off ice training, you know, the the challenges of playing against older, stronger players, being a student athlete. Those are all things that factor in. But that being said, and having seen him uh earlier this season, and then again, watching his two games this past weekend very closely. And here’s what I came away with watching those two games close. If I just look at the stat sheet, it’d be really easy for me saying, “Geez, G is not doing good.” But I watched the two games on the weekend with Penn State. There is nothing, and let me just tell you, nothing that indicates to me that there’s anything that anybody should be concerned about with with Gen Canon. He’s creative. He’s got a great imagination. He handles the puck. He makes plays. You know what the biggest challenge for him right now? And coach Kai Gdowski said this as well. There’s not there’s not a lot of skill around Gavin. So, he’s making plays and doing things where, you know, wait till he gets with the with a talented group at the World Junior. Uh I I I think you’ll see that the that produce more goals and more points for Gavin McKenna. watching those two games closely. And I’m talking watching them live, re rewind reinding, watching, rewinding, looking, trying to trying to see if it’s you hear it, right? And you go, “Okay, I better be open-minded about this.” And after watching those two games, let me tell you, zero zero doubt. I have watched this guy since 14. You’re looking for maybe red flags. I’ve seen none. Kuck fans should pay attention to that. Um, Oilers losing 83 yesterday. And quickly if you don’t mind Craig and defensively what four or more goals they’ve given up in in 12 games just absolutely horrible. Everybody points to the goalending and I know they were coming off a road trip yesterday but everybody Edmonton saying that was inexcusable. What’s going on defensively? I I I’m watching that game and it it goes beyond the goalending. There’s no question. I mean, goending is a part of it and and certainly it’s going to get uh uh a certain amount of uh responsibility for for the losses that they’ve had and the record defensively they had, but defensively it’s been a very poor team, right near the bottom of the league and in in all the meaningful defensive metrics. And if if if you don’t want to commit to playing defense, and committing to playing defense isn’t just about, you know, when you’re in your own zone. It’s in the offensive zone. what are you doing, how you’re reading, how you’re supporting one another. It’s being responsible with the puck, not giving it away, not creating rush chances against, you know, making sure you’re not chasing out of position. So, when I just mentioned those things just and there’s other things, they’re they’re at the bottom of the league in all those areas and and so no surprise that their goalenders are being left alone a lot of the time and they’d have three or four less wins this year if they weren’t able to outscore those problems. So, it’s it’s it it’s easy to look at it and go, “Well, geez, look at the record.” Yeah, the record. The record belies how poor they’ve been. And we keep hearing the same thing. Oh, yeah. Well, we got to turn it around. It’s got to start now. You know, there was some signs in Tampa Bay that look good. They hung on. Skinner was great against Florida, especially in the third period on their last game on the road trip. Bottom line is they’ve shown they can play good defense. They just haven’t shown they can do it for any sustained period of time. And if they don’t, they’re going to find themselves in this problem all year long. And forget about the playoffs. We’re talking, forget about the Stanley Cup. Playoffs will be a reach. Have fun watching the Wolverines and Buckeyes. Go Wolverines. Thanks for this, Craig. Go Blue.

TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button joined the guys and talked about where the Canucks are headed and the future of Quinn Hughes in Vancouver.