Thomas Drance on the Canucks culture, trade deadline plans and more
February 6, 2026
Thomas Drance on the Canucks culture, trade deadline plans and more
Thomas Drance from The Athletic and Sportsnet 650 joined the guys and talked about the questions around the Canucks culture and leadership group and more.
35 comments
Preach, Drance. Preach.
Adam Gaudette ruined the culture. Incredible.
Bogus take. We had something going two years ago and management blew it.
I'm pretty sure everything went wrong when a stray puck hit Walker in the head and he couldn't coach anymore. That is when Bruce's PK and structure dropped off.
Gavin Mc Kenna, after what's been said, draft him! If he stands up for mom!
I don't see the point in constantly re-litigating this teams every mistake over the past 5โ10 years. It seems like we go through this every couple of weeks.
Enjoy your show , Drance is awesome
Drance seals it here. Fall of 2020.
2020 team was so good: Miller-Pettersson-Toffoli… Pearson-Horvat-Boeser, with Q.Hughes-Tanev on the back-end… Such a disastrous off season letting Tof & Tanev go ๐๐
This team hasn't won anything, so there is no pride to wear the jersey .Just the opposite in Montreal or Boston
Soft team, ๐ฉ results.
Drance may have a larger vocabulary but Dhali has a larger Hawaiian shirt collection.
no, florida (the state, where tampa bay is) didn't have as strict covid restrictions/protocols as every other state/province
Canucks culture; barely miss or make playoffs, draft a Swede. ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐
"we want a rebuild.. we want to tank"
"why are they losing, why can't they win games.. we are mad they are losing, they must have terrible culture!!"
This is why the media is toxic here. Who cares if you see Miller more in the media.. the fans in NY HATE HIM.. and hate him everytime he talks in the media. This is like total self centered bullshit by media figures that seem to think the players owe them headline quotes everyday… and if they don't get that they trash the players
Drance is spot on
Drance W
This is why I luv repping my Lindin and Bieska jerseys. They loved the city, the fans, loved being a Canuck, and was proud of the culture they built. These Canuck players nowadays are selfish and trash! I dont rep any Canuck past 2010!
So here's the thing. Asap find 1, 2 or three meateaters. And I mean real 80s enforcers. Always have one at the end of the bench. The minute you see someone target one of the kids send him out. Don't worry about penalties instigator or game suspensions. Where not going to win a lot for a few years anyway. The NHL will hate it. The fans will love it and keep coming to the rink.๐
I completely agree that the brooming of the veterans from the roster in 2020 was brutal: Markstrom, Tanev, Toffoli (after trading a fortune for him at the deadline), and Stecher. It basically orphaned their young captain when he needed those veterans in the room. The Lockdown also gave us the magic of having Virtanen show up in camp out of shape twice in the same season. And then a year later another horrible evaluation of character, with Gaudette partying during the Lockdown so he could infect the entire team.
Maybe we should have a MEDIA CULTURE CHANGE get some media that actually report positive stuff instead of azzclowns like we have constantly reporting garbage crying about everything WHAT A JOKE THE CANUCK MEDIA IS
THIS TEAM TRADED FOR EVANDER KANE. THERE ARE NO STANDARDS.
The character problem starts with the owner
Never really been a fan of Drancer… but man he's not wrong here… on anything.
TL;DR: If you came for โcultureโ in any recognizable sense of the word (shared rituals, stories, symbols, traditions, norms, ceremonies, etc.), this wasnโt that. Drance uses โcultureโ in the bizarre, meme-friendly way hockey talk has co-opted culture and rendered it as nonsensical shorthand for leadership, standards, accountability, and organizational decision-making.
Where did the culture get off the track? Uh maybe when the freaking captain of the team jumped off a sinking ship?
I sure hope Canucks owner and management listen to Thomas Drance. He should be a personal advisor for them.
Get rid of EP40 and the culture will instantly go up
How EP40 still has a letter is beyond me after the fiasco with Miller.
you prob cant get rid ownership, alvin and rutherford have had this team in reverse for a long time time to move on
Annoying Vancouver Media, part of the "culture" problem. Elias Pettersson, was right.
Astonishing that a true hockey savant like Thomas Drance doesn't have an NHL GM's job yet. He makes it all sound so easy!
If they are able to draft McKenna please do not repeat what they did with Cam Neely.
So, Drancer admits that the return on Panarin was woeful because of his No Move Clause, but he thinks the Canucks should trade guys with No Move Clauses..
35 comments
Preach, Drance. Preach.
Adam Gaudette ruined the culture. Incredible.
Bogus take. We had something going two years ago and management blew it.
I'm pretty sure everything went wrong when a stray puck hit Walker in the head and he couldn't coach anymore. That is when Bruce's PK and structure dropped off.
Gavin Mc Kenna, after what's been said, draft him! If he stands up for mom!
I don't see the point in constantly re-litigating this teams every mistake over the past 5โ10 years. It seems like we go through this every couple of weeks.
Enjoy your show , Drance is awesome
Drance seals it here. Fall of 2020.
2020 team was so good: Miller-Pettersson-Toffoli… Pearson-Horvat-Boeser, with Q.Hughes-Tanev on the back-end… Such a disastrous off season letting Tof & Tanev go ๐๐
This team hasn't won anything, so there is no pride to wear the jersey .Just the opposite in Montreal or Boston
Soft team, ๐ฉ results.
Drance may have a larger vocabulary but Dhali has a larger Hawaiian shirt collection.
no, florida (the state, where tampa bay is) didn't have as strict covid restrictions/protocols as every other state/province
Canucks culture; barely miss or make playoffs, draft a Swede. ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐
"we want a rebuild.. we want to tank"
"why are they losing, why can't they win games.. we are mad they are losing, they must have terrible culture!!"
This is why the media is toxic here. Who cares if you see Miller more in the media.. the fans in NY HATE HIM.. and hate him everytime he talks in the media. This is like total self centered bullshit by media figures that seem to think the players owe them headline quotes everyday… and if they don't get that they trash the players
Drance is spot on
Drance W
This is why I luv repping my Lindin and Bieska jerseys. They loved the city, the fans, loved being a Canuck, and was proud of the culture they built. These Canuck players nowadays are selfish and trash! I dont rep any Canuck past 2010!
So here's the thing. Asap find 1, 2 or three meateaters. And I mean real 80s enforcers. Always have one at the end of the bench. The minute you see someone target one of the kids send him out. Don't worry about penalties instigator or game suspensions. Where not going to win a lot for a few years anyway. The NHL will hate it. The fans will love it and keep coming to the rink.๐
I completely agree that the brooming of the veterans from the roster in 2020 was brutal: Markstrom, Tanev, Toffoli (after trading a fortune for him at the deadline), and Stecher. It basically orphaned their young captain when he needed those veterans in the room. The Lockdown also gave us the magic of having Virtanen show up in camp out of shape twice in the same season. And then a year later another horrible evaluation of character, with Gaudette partying during the Lockdown so he could infect the entire team.
Maybe we should have a MEDIA CULTURE CHANGE get some media that actually report positive stuff instead of azzclowns like we have constantly reporting garbage crying about everything WHAT A JOKE THE CANUCK MEDIA IS
THIS TEAM TRADED FOR EVANDER KANE. THERE ARE NO STANDARDS.
The character problem starts with the owner
Never really been a fan of Drancer… but man he's not wrong here… on anything.
TL;DR: If you came for โcultureโ in any recognizable sense of the word (shared rituals, stories, symbols, traditions, norms, ceremonies, etc.), this wasnโt that. Drance uses โcultureโ in the bizarre, meme-friendly way hockey talk has co-opted culture and rendered it as nonsensical shorthand for leadership, standards, accountability, and organizational decision-making.
Where did the culture get off the track? Uh maybe when the freaking captain of the team jumped off a sinking ship?
I sure hope Canucks owner and management listen to Thomas Drance. He should be a personal advisor for them.
Get rid of EP40 and the culture will instantly go up
How EP40 still has a letter is beyond me after the fiasco with Miller.
you prob cant get rid ownership, alvin and rutherford have had this team in reverse for a long time time to move on
Annoying Vancouver Media, part of the "culture" problem. Elias Pettersson, was right.
Astonishing that a true hockey savant like Thomas Drance doesn't have an NHL GM's job yet. He makes it all sound so easy!
1:11
If they are able to draft McKenna please do not repeat what they did with Cam Neely.
So, Drancer admits that the return on Panarin was woeful because of his No Move Clause, but he thinks the Canucks should trade guys with No Move Clauses..