Canucks trade for Lukas Reichel | Canucks Conversation

Canucks trade for Lukas Reichel | Canucks Conversation

[Music] Hello, Kucks fans. Welcome back to another episode of Kucks Conversation brought to you by Bet365. We’re coming to you from the Pacific Toyota Dealer Studios. Visit shop toyota.ca or visit your local Pacific Toyota dealer. Today my name is Dave Guelli. I am joined by Harmon. We thought we were going to have to talk about the Nashville Predators, but instead we are talking about a trade the Vancouver Conucks have acquired forward Lucas Reichel from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for a 2027 fourthround pick. Riel, 23-year-old winger, can play center, hasn’t done it much, um has has scored uh two goals and four points on the year in five games. Now, we’re going to give some context that most of those points came in one game, and we’re going to talk about that in a second. But Harmon, your initial reaction to the Conucks acquiring Lucas Reichel. I like this is a lowrisk flyer on a player that has a lot of pedigree and is still young enough that with a change of scenery could figure it out. I love his speed and skill. That’s the the biggest draw. That is why he had tantalizing potential and why the Blackhawks for many years thought that he was going to be a future top nine pillar for them. He was he was just never able to find a consistent role on that team and and for the price the Conucks gave up a fourth round pick. I remember when we had this conversation around two weeks ago, we were saying we’d prefer to pay a fifth round pick, but considering the injuries that the Conucks have suffered since then, we know that um it it was worth it for the Conucks to to bump up around. Fourth round pick’s not going to kill you. And I and I like this as a reclamation project bet because with Philip Heedle out of the lineup, you could tell the last couple of games how desperately this team needs some speed through the neutral zone, needs some high-end skill. And while there are certainly question marks around Riel’s ability to put it all together, we have seen at the NHL level flashes of that dynamic skill set. Absolutely. And the Canucks are hoping they can capture it. Now, a really interesting thing to kind of weigh when it comes to this acquisition is, is he going to play center? Is he going to be a winger? I’m sure that’s going to be among the questions that’s asked to Patrick Alvine, who’s speaking at 245. We’re not going to carry it. We’re not even going to uh have time to really dive into it, but we’ll see if the show goes along. Maybe we’ll see some stuff on Twitter X when things uh things start to come out from that press conference. But Alvine speaking with the media, he’s not just going to be asked about Reich. He’s going to be asked about a lot more. And we are going to talk about last night’s loss to the Predators. But on Riel, I did want to mention this as well because people see the point total. Again, four points in five games. That’s exciting. Two of those goals and one of those assists came in the 8-3 win that the Blackhawks had over the Blues. And that was a night where Joel Hoer just didn’t have his best. Hell, Jordan Bennington came into that game and also didn’t have his best. I went back and watched the highlights of that game. I really what I was trying to do is I’m going to go watch all of Riel’s goals. All I had to do was watch the highlight of that game. And what I saw was, yeah, he slides a puck along the ice that Joel Hoer should have had, should have stopped it. But what I noticed there was he was entering the zone with possession, with speed, and then he took a shot from again a low percentage shot, but he shot it low looking for a rebound. It squeaked through Hoer, so it’s a goal. Aside from that, like what I saw in that in that in that highlight package I watched and what what I’ve seen from Riel is that he likes to carry the puck into the zone. I think that’s going to be really beneficial for this team. Uh he likes to try to make big plays and he likes to shoot. Like I think he likes to shoot the puck and his shot totals are a little deceptive again because it’s six shots on the season and everybody’s really excited about that. Oh my gosh. Volume shooter. uh he took five of those shots in that game against the Blues. So, Riel is going to be an interesting one because he put up all these points and had this great game against the Blues, but other than that, it’s hard to really get a gauge on what he’s been able to do this season. Now, it is worth mentioning uh that Riel put up a really impressive season as a 20-year-old in the AHL. Uh in the 22 23 season with or excuse me, 2122 with Rockford, he put up 50 21 goals and 36 assists through 56 games. That’s over a point per game pace in the AHL. Um, I know it hasn’t worked out yet at the NHL level, but it’s hard to ignore those kind of point totals when you’re still so young. Actually, yeah, he was 20 in that season, right? Yeah, he was 20 20 years old in that season. Yeah. And even the stretch he had during the 20 2022 23 season where he played with Chicago and had 15 points in 23 games down the stretch. That’s the moment a couple of years ago where Hawks fans were penciling him in as he’s going to be a top six stud for us and then for whatever reason last couple years he just hasn’t been able to build on that. So again, that’s part of why I like this bet is it’s not just, oh, he was a first round pick, so therefore he has predigory, but players with his kind of stat statistical profile at the age that he was producing at at the American League level, um, like a large chunk of them do end up being pretty solid NHL players. And then when you combine that with, oh, by the way, he also had 15 points in 23 NHL games in one year. That’s the kind of spark that makes you think, all right, there might still be some upside here. And we’ll see. I think the first task for the Kucks is going to be figuring out where and how do we use him to optimize his performance. He was drafted as a natural center and I reached out to my athletic colleagues in Chicago, Mark Lazarus and Scott Powers. They said that Riel sees himself as a center too. and with the team’s desperate needs down the middle, it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets a shot there. However, he’s typically been at his best in Chicago when he was on the left wing and he was given an opportunity to be the full-time second line center. Um after that 15 points in 23 games stretch that he had in 22 23 which was mostly done on the wing I believe he opened the he opened camp in 2324 at the center ice position and and you were thinking all right you got Bard as your 1C you got Riel as your two seed this is the foundation pillar for the Hawks future and it was just so off from day one he only had one point in his first 12 games his underlying numbers were pretty horrious IC. I think we’re talking like 40ish% shot attempts and expected goals. So, not just, oh, he isn’t creating offensively, but this guy’s getting his TE’s kicked in from a play driving perspective. And I know plus minus isn’t isn’t a perfect statistic, but he was a he was like a minus5 like six weeks into the season. Um, and so that’s the point where that’s the turning point I think for where things went wrong for Riel in Chicago was they shifted him to center. It didn’t work out. And then as soon as it didn’t work out in the beginning, then it’s all right, you’re on the wing, now you’re one night you’re playing on the first line, one night you’re playing on the fourth line, you got a bunch of different linemates, you’re in and out of the press box. That’s sort of been the story the last couple of years for Riel is he hasn’t had a consistent opportunity um in one spot to really prove himself. And I think a lot of Hawks fans have been frustrated that he hasn’t had that opportunity because it’s not as if the it’s not as if Chicago has had the stack four group where there are so many other guys that deserve to have opportunities ahead of Riel. I also should have mentioned 19year-old season. He was 19 when he did that in the AHL with 57 points in 56 games as a 19-year-old. That’s crazy. And the year before that, uh, won a championship with the Berlin Polar Bears, the Jeff Patterson’s favorite de team. Remember, he went to the Berlin Polar Bears team shop on Riel. Um, where do you think he’s going to play? You just brought it up. Center wing people in the chat. Actually, sorry, I got to get to this. It was a super chat from Owen and it segus into the question I asked. He said, “Do you think we see him with Pey at some point?” That was a 279 super chat. We appreciate it. If you want to make sure your question or comment gets on the show, hit us with a super chat. Proceeds former super chat go to the BC Mental Health Foundation. Changing the face of mental health and addiction by supporting breakthroughs in care, public understanding, research, and knowledge exchange. Do you think we see Lucas Reichel with Elias Person at some point? That I don’t know. I I genuinely don’t know. Would you play him as a center or would you play him as a wing? You’re Adam foot. I think just because you are so desperate down the middle, I imagine at some point you should give Reichel a look there. But I I wouldn’t be confident or overly optimistic that it will necessarily stick. The fact of the matter is you don’t have Teddy Blue right now. So you have whether you want to call it Max Assassin or Ratu Ratu as your second line center technically. Yeah, I I think you at least need to explore the idea at some point, maybe not right out of the gate, but with Heedel out long term and and given how dynamic uh Riel is off the rush creating ent creating entries, I think you need that down the middle in a ideally and at least you have to try it. It wouldn’t surprise me, however, if his best fit ends up being on the wing. I I think it’s something that you want to have the conversation with the player talk get his perspective on his experience in Chicago why it wasn’t working and and keep in mind Riel has said has been put in tons of opportunity uh tons of different spots wing center all over the lineup I would want to if I’m Adam foot have a conversation with him and be like hey what worked for you in Chicago what worked well with you what kind of linemates did you have success with um do you prefer do you want to get a crack at center do you feel more comfortable in the wing. Uh if we are playing you at center ice, considering you’re a smaller guy, do you feel comfortable um with the with you know the defensive responsibilities and and demands that that are involved with that position? Um do you want an opportunity right out of the gate to play on the wing where you’d have a little bit more help with Garland or or Person? I think the approach I would take is I’d want the players take on this because after a couple years where he’s been jerked all over the lineup, I would want to put him in a position to succeed. And I think it’s more than just is the best fit at center or is it at wing because it’s also about what what linemates he’s going to be with. What I will say is one of the other concerns with the the fit at center is that he has struggled mightily in the faceoff dot historically. 40% 40%. Now, it hasn’t taken a lot of draws, but he’s going to get crushed in the faceoff circle. Um, so I I think the where do you slot him is is something that you determine after you have a conversation with him directly. Yep. And like I said, Patrick Alvine speaking at 245. I uh Yeah, I’m going to be curious because I think he’ll be asked about that. I think he’ll be asked like, “Do does the club see him as a center or a winger?” um to start. Okay, so we got a P Sudtor comparable. Don’t quite love that comparable. And someone said he’s more like Daniel Sprong compared. Yeah. No, he’s Riel’s pretty much the opposite of PS. He’s got the flashy skill, but not really the allaround game necessarily. Overall, uh grade the trade as we kind of close out this. Excuse me. Um Beg Mil might join us on today’s show. Canucks play the Oilers. Uh to be honest, I forgot that Bag Milk was going to join us, but I talked to him last week about it. So hopefully he can join us. We want to talk about the Oiler start and everything. Um but grade the trade as a whole. I’m giving it an A minus. Think keeping it from an A+ is that I’d be a hypocrite because I also said uh if it’s a fifth round pick, you’re laughing. That’s a great trade. Um it’s a fine trade. It’s a lowrisk, high upside bet for the Canucks. I like it. It’s a it’s a it’s a great trade. I’m just giving it an A minus because I think it’d be a hypocrite. Yeah, I was leaning B+. Um, I like it. The other note I’d make on Riel, especially for maybe one of the reasons it didn’t work out in Chicago, I was mentioning he was all over the lineup. He hasn’t had much talent to play with historically. I went back to natural static and looked from the 2022 season till last year. His most five his most common five on five uh teammates in terms of time on ice Andreas Athensu, Patrick Maroon, Philip Kurichev, Craig Smith, Mackenzie Antwistle. Kind of funny because I think all of those guys aren’t on the team anymore anyway. Um, but the point being that’s not a lot of skill to play with. And for a guy that thrives off of speed and zone entries and wanting to make plays offensively, I think that’s part of the draw for the Canucks is you’ve got a long runway because of how depleted you are up front to actually give him talent to play with and see what that looks like at the NHL level. All right. Anything else on Rikel? You want to say $1.2 $2 million cap hit RFA at the end of this season. Uh, anything else you want to say about Riel? Uh, nope. I’m sure people have questions, right? Like if you have questions, folks, we’ll get to them and anyone else. So, fill the chat. Jacob’s there writing them down. Um, not sure if Bag’s going to join us, but let’s talk about last night’s game. Before we do that, though, I want to tell everybody about our friends over at Greta. A great spot for all games home and away. You can skip the line and not pay any cover on game nights if you’re wearing the home team’s gear. And of course, there’s also the game day specials at Greta, including 333 off select food items, 333 for select drinks, and more with the arcade bar and street food menu. Make Greta your spot to watch the big game. It’s a great spot. 50 West Cordova Street is the address. Let the games begin. All right. Um, last night in Nashville, a tough loss for the Canucks. you you willing to call it a tough loss because you’re you’re happy with the overall record. We said at the start of the trip, if you get to three and two on the trip, you’re laughing. But the Canucks exit with that record, but also lose a ton of bodies. They’re really short-handed now and really struggled um against the Penguins. They struggled less against the Predators. But I also think it’s worth mentioning the Predators suck, man. The Predators are such a bad team. That was an awful game of hockey last night. Like the Predators are so bad. So I think that’s worth mentioning at least. Um, yeah, it wasn’t a blowout, but like the Penguins aren’t world beaters. That one was a blowout. And the Predators really really stink. Like that was the Predators first win in uh in four in four games. Like they had four straight losses. It ain’t going to be as easy as it was against the Predators last night when Montreal’s in town when Edmonton’s in town. I did also want to say this, people were like, “Oh, the CS gave up so many shots.” Nashville’s shots mostly were from the outside. Like Nashville did not penetrate the middle very well in that game at all. I didn’t think I haven’t looked at either. I I still thought they had some decent looks though. Of course. Of course they had decent looks. Dr. Demco was the only reason that wasn’t a blowout. Let Let me make that clear. But also, people been like, “They give up 35 40 shots, whatever it was.” A lot of those were from the outside. Like, let’s let’s at least you you know, you can criticize the team. You can say, you know, all you want, but let’s also let’s be real here. Let’s be factual. The a lot of those chances came from the outside. That’s what I thought at least. But some of them came from in tight and it could have been a blowout if not for Thatcher Demco. He was great. That Demco was great. Gonna be interesting to see how they roll out the goalies this weekend with Montreal in town on Saturday, Edmonton on Sunday. Going to be really interesting to see how they decide to roll roll the goalies out. It’s going to be Demco. It’s going to be Lankin for one of those starts. Who do you start in each game? I’m curious what the chat thinks about this. Personally, I think I go Demco on Saturday, but if someone says Sunday, I’m not going to disagree. Like, I don’t think you can really go wrong. You’re obviously going to start one or the other, but man, I I keep bringing it up. Kevin Lincoln has got to have a really strong game at some point. He’s got to have a really strong game for this team. Yeah, last night was it Vancouver’s last two losses. It’s not just the result, it’s how dispir dispiriting their performance has looked, um the flow of play, how little offense they’ve been able to generate. And I think what’s concerning is we can talk about injuries, right? I know they’re they’re depleted and they’re missing a lot of bodies, but the fact of the matter is how much is that really like you’ve gotten Besser back. Um you had your power play. Power play one had no excuses last night. And now credit to the PR’s PK because I I thought they executed unbelievably well, but no doubt Vancer’s power play did not react to that pressure um very well. But my overall point being, let’s be honest, at this point, even if HeedLed does come back at some point, you can’t rely on him. Like, you can’t picture this Kuck season with the idea that Heedle’s going to play a significant number of games because even if he does come back, we’re all going to be worried about one more knock and he he could be in the exact same position he is right now. So, if we look at this Canucks lineup, even if it’s healthy, minus Filipedle, it’s a group that doesn’t have a lot of offensive juice to it, right? You get Teddy Bluger back, you get Jonathan Leer, M Mackey back, you get Nils Hoglander back. How much better is this forward group really? Um, I think that’s part of the concern. only getting 13 five on five shots on uh goal against um the the Predators and and not really having much juice against the Penguins either. And I understand it right tail end of back to back you’re pretty tired but it just feels like this team desperately lacks highend offensive skill. And I thought it was interesting in the first period where the Canucks they actually had significantly more offensive zone time than the National Predators. The broadcast flashed the offensive zone uh possession statistics for both uh both sides. And yet I think the shots were something to the tune of um 12 to 12 to2 in favor of Nashville. I think that’s part of the issue for the Canucks as well is they’ve had some offensive zone time but they don’t have the high-end skill and speed to actually get to the inside and translate that into shot quality um either. And when they do get looks, they’re missing the net. Um, you know, that’s a frustrating part as as well. But yeah, the proc the process overall this year just and and again, I understand how banged up they are. I understand that there there are reasons they should be struggling. We’re going to have to talk about Quinn Hughes very very soon. He’s part of the story. Um, like there are a lot of things going against them right now, but overall through eight games, you’re talking about a team that ranks 30th in the NHL at five on five shot rate offensively and 28th at five and five shot rate defensively in terms of what you’re surrendering. So, it has not looked pretty. And when you look at them having a a PDO higher than 105, you could almost say they’re a little bit fortunate to be four and four. We’ll get a super chat from Alfred. Uh, Vancouver failed to convert a five on three as well. Yeah, great point, Alfred. Uh, that was a $5 super ship chat. We appreciate the donation to the BC Mental Health Foundation. I feel like the conversation about the power play not penetrating the middle, all this stuff. People are talking about Person uh, you know, one shot on goal last night. Obviously, that’s not good enough. But Quinn Hughes seemed to be in the spotlight for the wrong reason last night. Um, Missell in the chat said, “If PD isn’t scoring, we could still win as long as Quinn Hughes is going.” We’ve talked about it since the start of the season. Quinn Hughes hasn’t looked like himself. Um, hasn’t tilted the ice in the Canucks favor the way you’re expecting to. I texted you this last night. Is Quinn Hughes shooting too much? Cuz I’m starting to get Alex Edler vibes with just how many shots are just getting rifled into shin pads and it’s just like, I’m going to shoot the puck in a different way than Edler because Edler never did it because like, oh, I’m alone. when I’m on an island, I have to I have to drive the offense all by myself, which is what it feels like Quinn’s attitude is. And I don’t blame Quinn for having that attitude. But does it feel like he’s shooting a little bit too much right now? Because I’m seeing a lot of shots miss the net and I’m seeing a lot of shots hit guys in front. Well, I think this is a good time to move over to our stat of the day, which is a presentation of Uber Eatats. Uber Eats is enabling fans to maximize their fandom all season long with exclusive game day deals on the app. From game day eats to paper plates and napkins if you’re hosting to all the ingredients you need to make your favorite game day dip. Before, during, and after the game, Uber Eats is assisting every fans hockey experience all season long. # crave the stats. Now, a tear to my eye brings a tear to my eye. Harm, that was that was I Yeah, you could host this show alone. Yeah. So, my stat of the day was actually around um Quinn’s shooting and um how little he’s been able to get pucks through. Um one second a afterition. Yeah. Yeah. No, take your time. Take your time. The chat is absolutely loving that transition. Kin said, “What a transition.” Don B said, “Quad’s setting up Harmon like a transition wingman.” I appreciate that shout out. I didn’t set up Harmon at all. I did not know he was going to do that. I didn’t know the stat of the day was about Quinn Hughes. Harmon, when you people, I shouldn’t say you people, when you when you hear the stat of the day for the first time, you listeners of this show, when you hear the stat of the day for the first time, that’s also when I’m hearing it for the first time. Harmon doesn’t tell me what it’s going to be beforehead. So, that was all harm. I can’t take any credit for that. All right, so this year, Quinn has taken 59 shot attempts in all situations. Only 18 of them have actually gotten through to the net. That’s 30%. It’s a significant decline from um years past where it’s typically been in in the near 40% range. If I look back to last year, for example, 39% of his shot attempts ended up on net. So, it’s not just an eye test take where it seems as if he’s missing the net, hitting shin pads, for forcing shots that aren’t there. You’re seeing it in the numbers as well. So, fully agree. Um, that’s one aspect of his game that isn’t working right now. And we look at Quinn’s I think broader game. I I brought this point up to you. I think there are a few things going on with with why he’s maybe had a disappointing start to this season. One of them is it seems as if for whatever reason he has less explosiveness off his pivots in his turns when he has the puck. That Luke Evangelista high sticking penalty in the first period. I actually ironically think that’s an example of Quinn not being as sharp as he usually is because I I think if you put him in that exact same spot last year, there’s just no way Evangelista is even able to close on Quinn quickly enough quickly enough uh and be close enough to him to high stick him like Quinn in that spot with a defender on his back. He’s doing that turn and you’re not even you could reach your stick out. you’re not touching him. Um, and even with about 2 minutes left when the Canucks were pressing, there was another attempted zone exit where he was under pressure in a tight area and he’s attempting the usual turn that he does on a dime and he gets checked and it’s a failed exit. And I’m going, this isn’t the the Quinn I know. he’s not as easily separating from checks as we’re used to, which is a massive part of his game. Um, and then I also think there’s an interesting conversation to be had around the whole teammates aspect where is he trying to do too much? How much it are the lack of threats outside of Quinn hurting this team? I think that’s where the conversation conversation has to shift to as well. Are you ready to shift the conversation there? Let’s do it. Let’s keep that conversation going because people in the chat right now, um, like this is one thing that was pointed out last night as well. Um, and you brought it up, but not being able to elude for checkers, like I could probably count on one hand how many times Quinn failed to do that last year. It’s probably happened more times this year than it did last year. Like he’s he’s really really struggling to to move the puck by himself. and usually like oneman breakout machine like he’s not that right now and it’s so weird to see. Um but yeah, he doesn’t have it right now. He doesn’t have it and I’ve seen a lot of um conversations around Quinn looks like he’s trying to do too much all by himself and he does look to me like a player that doesn’t fully trust the rest of his team to make plays when they need to press for offense. And I do think that’s leading to some mistakes, but I think I think the I’m not sure that the alternative would result in the team creating a lot more offense as a fiveman unit in the in um in that alternate scenario. And I think there was a third period shift which is really uh telling for why Quinn has maybe been been um trying to take on too much by himself where Quinn was at the end of a shift. This is about midway through the third period. Conucks are obviously down a goal. Quinn’s near the end of his shift and he’s regrouping in the neutral zone. And I was curious, is he going to try and make one more dash to create something offensively or is he going to spin off, get to the red line, chip it in, and go off for a change? He does his spin and then he has an option to either try and take defenders on and drive an entry all by himself or kick it out to Leas Person on the wing. Quinn decides to kick it out to Leas Patterson on the wing um right by the offensive blue line. And Quinn continues sort of like times his off puck movement. Want to give and go. He wanted to give and go. Like he he’s he’s thinking let’s like I’m at the end of my shift but let’s still create something. Yeah, let’s go. Petey accepts that pass, takes about one stride in, falls over, gets checked. It’s a natural counterattack the other way. And Marcus Patterson ends up taking a penalty. And so put yourself in Quinn Hughes’s situation for a second. One of the few times that you defer to your teammates, they can’t make a play make a play. And it’s not just that they can’t make a play, they turn it over and it results in your team being short-handed. So like as as much as yes, Quinn does need to maybe use his teammates a little bit more, like how is he going to have any confidence in his teammates right now, there is nobody on this team that can reliably create give and goes with him right now that can reliably play off of him. And I also think that the lack of weapons around him is becoming a bigger and bigger issue where yes, we knew last year he was really the only player that was dangerous offensively, but I think if you’re an opponent trying to prescout the Canucks, it was still a little bit different because at the start of the year, you had JT Miller who was coming off 100 point season and Person, yeah, he struggled in the second half of the playoffs, but he was still coming off overall an 89 point season. So you still had a couple of centers where Quinn was almost always going to be on the ice with one of JT or Pey and I think at that time if you’re priest got in the Kucks especially earlier in the year you still have to give a little bit of respect to those guys whereas what was one of my first observations after the season opener against Calgary was oh my god the Flames were ready to double and triple team Quinn all over the ice. They were cheating over the weak side winger. They would rather have they would they just want Quinn to get rid of the puck and it’s like they don’t even respect any of the other players on the ice and I think that’s a reflection of JT’s gone now who is your number one center and just overall Person is coming off a 45point season so he doesn’t command the same respect that he even did at the start of last year when he was still coming off an 89 point season. I think I just think if you’re scouting the Conucks, the it’s a very simple game plan that just hound Quinn, have multiple guys on him at once, force him to get rid of the puck. Even if it means giving extra time and space to other players, let those other players burn you. And and to this point, I don’t think Quinn’s adjusted to that very well. And I don’t think the Conucks have the weapons to necessarily adapt and and take advantage of that either. salt hair brew in the chat. Harmon just filling us all with hope right now. Um, and someone said, “Can we be happy?” Uh, DM Payne said, “Can we be happy about the road trip record, please?” Yes, I said that off top. Must have joined the show late. happy with the record, but also realistic that those wins came before all these injuries and the team looked a little bit better when they didn’t have these guys absent from the lineup. So again, we’re not it’s not over by any means. Like that’s not what we’re saying, but you can’t roll a center center crew of Elas Patterson, Atuatu, Max Asen, and Nil Zaman. You can’t do that for long. and Teddy Bluger is an upgrade on those guys. But again, I would also argue if you want to make the playoffs, you probably can’t roll a center group that has Teddy Bluger as the two seed. Now, they traded for Lucas Reichel today. If you’re that late, which he admitted he is late, um they traded for Lucas Reichel today, and what we’re trying to figure out now is if he’s going to play as a center or if he’s going to play as a winger. He’s got a 40% uh face off faceoff winning percentage. So, we’ll see where they want to put him. But again, Patrick Alvine speaking at 245. We’ll see where that goes. Uh you can read about it at kucks army.com. We’ll be diving into it in all sorts of different ways. We’ll dive into the Alvine um the Alvine press conference that he’s going to have. Um yeah, I don’t know. I don’t think I have anything else on Hughes to add. I it sucks seeing him look so dejected like we’re you talk about Sky is falling in all the media like Quinn slamming his stick like Quinn looks like so upset after the game when he’s doing media and I mean he’s doing it with the road media it was less than a minute long he had to speak to the media so don’t give me the oh he doesn’t want to speak to media for 10 minutes he spoke to them for less than a minute so don’t give me that it sucks see Quinn look so upset and of course this all comes with the dark cloud I know. Just tons of positivity today. It all comes with the dark cloud that Quinn might might not be here that that long, right? Like that’s the thing that everybody at least knows about. So, it’s just it’s just a it’s an unfortunate I guess uh turn of events that on top of everything that’s going wrong for this team, Quinn’s not performing at his best and he looks sad. I I think Phil Filipedo alone, you would feel so much better about this team just just having him. I think that that injury really crushed them in in that Washington game and and since then it’s it’s been um now I don’t want to overreact obviously to two bad performances, right? Because they had the bad performances against St. Louis and Edmonton and were able to bounce back and completely flip the script. Uh so you hope they can tap into that uh same resilience and and we we still know that that Demco is going to give them stellar goalending which is uh an advant an advantage and and even though Leas Person Leas Patterson’s an interesting point of conversation as well where it I’m somewhere in between in the sense that you could look at the stats and say one goal and four points in eight games. Oh, it’s the same PD as last year. But watching him play, I think we are we are genuinely seeing that, okay, he he’s making more of a consistent impact offensively. Um especially as a playmaker, doing more things to set the table. He looks better than last year, like just take for sure. Um so you’re hopeful that he’s able to to get back on track, but I’m also not through eight games of the season confident that he’s going to be a 90 to 100 point player this year. And I I I think this is remember in the offseason we were saying what version of Leas Patterson are you going to get? Are you going to get the same version of last year? Are you going to get the oh he’s a top 10 center in the league version of him? I think quite clearly the answer is probably going to be somewhere in the middle. Um and and you hope at some point that it translates to a little bit more production. Um, but we know that with there not being a lot of other help around him right now that he is also having to take on more Diesel draws, kill penalties a little bit more, and um, that’s extra responsibility on on his plate. Uh, when ideally he’d be freed up to just focus on offense. I want to go back to this. This was a question we got in the chat. Uh, is Quinn angry with his teammates or himself? Most of what I’ve seen assumes he’s mad at teammates. I think he’s pissed about his own play. I fully agree. I think he is pissed about his own play because if you think his teammates are bad now, like don’t forget what Quinn’s been here for before and this has never like as much as we’re like, “Oh, like Quinn looks so sad.” Quinn’s his own biggest critic, right? Like he always has been. He’s always like even when the team was struggling, he’s always talking about how he can be better and how he wants to be better and all that sort of stuff. I have very very very little doubt that Quinn is just extremely frustrated with the way he’s playing right now. I don’t think this is Quinn saying everybody around me has to play a lot better. I’m sure he’d like that. Like he might have those thoughts, but that’s not what’s manifesting into this um you know, these sad postgame pressers, the frustration on the ice. Like I think Quinn wants to be able to impact the game way more than he has so far. So um yeah, that’s what I’ll say to that for sure. And I think it’s as much as we’re talking about Quinn being human, ordinary, and kind of underwhelming to this point in the year. Yeah. That is the biggest reason that you can’t despite there being some early concerns and and injuries and center ice wos. That’s why you can’t be totally out on them um this early into the year because once Quinn if and when Quinn gets back to being what he was the last two years which I expect to happen at some point this year um and you have that Hughes heronic pair driving play like one of the best first pairs in the NHL that’ll be a massive boost to this team and until we see this team with that version of the Hugh user own a pair. I’m not going to write them off. Sure. I like it. I like it. Uh let’s get to anyone else, which is a presentation of Pacific Toyota dealers and the Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid. A no compromise approach to electric vehicles that offers the best of both worlds. Drive up 72 km on the battery alone. Seamlessly transition from electric mode to the gas engine for a combined range of 962 km. There’s no sacrifices when it comes to horsepower style. With its sleek, low and wide exterior and sophisticated interior, it’s loaded with tech that’s actually easy to use. You can plug in to recharge at home or at one of the over 2,000 public charging stations in BC alone. And now you can lease a 2025 Prius plug-in hybrid SE from $99 weekly at 3.49% APR for 64 months with 3,600 down. And it includes a $3,000 discount. Visit shoptoyota.ca or your local Pacific Toyota dealer today. Uh Amirit in the chat is bringing up how the Devils have started very well. It’s like the Squidward staring at Spongebob and Patrick having fun outside meme right now for Gwin years. The Devils are off to a pretty hot start this season. Yeah, they Yeah, I I’ve always been pretty high on the Devils, but what you always have to remember with New Jersey is unfortunately Jack Hughes gets hurt a lot and that’s always the biggest question mark uh with New Jersey is they’re such a talented team and um when they’re fully healthy they can be a wagon in this Eastern Conference, but Jack’s games play totals over the last few years I haven’t been great. I mean he had 49 games played in the 21 22 season. Uh 22 23 he was actually healthy. Um 78 games that’s the 99 point season he had the year the Devils uh won a playoff run against the Rangers and he was great in that playoff run too. But then after that 62 games played, 62 games played and he obviously missed the playoffs last year and and that Devils team was nowhere near a threat to beat Carolina in round one once uh Jack got hurt. So that’s always the big cav caveat with the Devils is Jack has to prove he can stay healthy. Amid in the chat again says, “Jack Hughes gets a hattie while we celebrate Pey winning a face off.” All right. Uh people want We’re not doing this today, folks. We’re not doing this. I won’t do it. People are throwing their Quinn Hughes trade proposals in the chat. Come on. We’re not doing this right now. Come on, folks. Come on. We’re not doing it right now. We’re not. Stop it. Uh yeah, talk about glass half empty. People think the media is negative. No, we’re not doing it. We’re not doing it. Um Walk asked this. Does Ratu still have a chance of being a decent middle sixer or is he just more bottomline fodder? I don’t think you need to call him bottom line fodder. I think he’s always the ceiling. I said this last year. I remember there was someone in the chat. I don’t know if they’re still here, but when I said at this point Ratu’s ceiling is a is a third line center ceiling, and I don’t think he’s ever going to be that 3C that can jump up and be a good 2C. Like I think he’s a 3C, maybe a 4C, but what is he? A bottom six center. And I was saying like that’s probably his ceiling at this point. And I’m again, I’m not I don’t mean that as a bad thing. That’s just my realistic evaluation of what Atu Ratu is and what I think he can become with what limitations he has in his game with what I’ve seen from him to this point in his career. This is where I think Auratu is going to finish out. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing. Like people are saying like, “Oh, I don’t know what your expectations for Achiatu were.” Mine weren’t for him to be much more than what he’s been. Yeah. And again, after last season, maybe some people got excited by some of the goals he scored, but before the season started, I I met I I brought up that, hey, he was on a bit of a shooting percentage heater down the stretch. And I I I would have hoped that maybe his skating was a bit quicker in camp and that he would have been a little bit more um effective as a play driver maybe. But overall, if you asked me before the season started, is Ataratu going to play closer to the level of a fourth line center on true talent or a third line center? I would have said closer to a fourth line center in terms of actual quality. And that’s what we’ve gotten. I mean, his face off ability makes him indispensable to this lineup. He’s what, 56% in the draws this year. Something in that uh range. He’s the only centerman on this team who can hold his own in in that regard. And that’s always going to keep him in the lineup. Um but we know the foot speed is still a concern and is going to hold him back. And I also don’t think he has the highest IQ necessarily on on the ice um with how he sees plays developing, how he reads and and reacts. And I think that’s limited his ability to to make a top nine caliber impact. DM Payne wants the Canucks to go get Stamos. $8 million. Uh stop it. Stop it. $8 million. Not this these no until the 27 28th season when he’ll be 38 years old. Hey, if you’re desperate, you’re desperate, but you don’t want to make a move out of desperation. Damn, I I just looked it up. Stamos is two points in eight games. Yeah. No, it’s not been a good start to the season, dude. Change the scenery. Him and Riel, man. I’m telling you. All right. Um Yeah. Uh, okay. Now I want to get to this. No, I don’t. No, I don’t. No, I don’t. Why do people? Okay. No, we’re good. Sorry. Someone just lost it in the chat. Oh, it’s about Stam Coast. Okay. Someone was like, “No.” So, I thought the Conucks made a move. They made some sort of trade, so I quickly looked at my phone, but no, no, no. That’s not what happened. Um, yeah, Dawson Mercer Little Boston would like to know about Dawson Mercer. That’s a bit of a play. That’s a player that the Conucks have liked before that they’ve been connected to in the past. I think they made a real play at Dawson Mercer at one point, but um yeah. Do you like Dawson Mercer? I do, but why would the Devils give him up? This is I think the last time we talked about Dawson Mercer, how this conversation went and he’s off to a great start. Seven points in seven games. Devils are first play. Why would you get rid of Dawson Mercer? Moving on. Uh Johnny Kox said, “How long do I need to just Well, I mean what what am I supposed to say? Like someone in the chat wants I didn’t mean to just stomp on the idea, but like you make a great I just want to be realistic. I just wanted to be realistic. Well, you know why I moved on for that conversation? Because everybody’s going to respond and say because Quinn Hughes is going the other way and I said we’re not doing that. I said we’re not doing that. Smart. Smart. It’s Friday. It is Friday and I’m having a good day so far. Yeah, there it is. I literally literally called it because there’s a slight delay on the chat for what went out. Three people right away said because he’s in the Quinn trade. That’s why. Anyways, stop. Stop. We’re not doing it. We’re not We’re not doing this. Um, oh yeah, Johnny Kuck asked, “How long do they have to announce uh what’s happening with Heedle?” The realistic thing is like they’ll give an update tomorrow, but it’s going to be he’s going to be continu continue to be evaluated like you and I had I had a concussion doctor once explain this to me too is you can put a timeline on like, “Oh, he fractured his leg. going to be about eight ten weeks or whatever, right? You know what I mean? Like when you have a a structural injury like that, when it’s your head, it’s like, okay, this is what you’re going to do until you feel better. And that timeline can totally vary. Like, you don’t you can’t tell the severity of a concussion as soon as it happens. You you can’t like you well, I shouldn’t say that, but there’s a wide range in that when you have a severe head injury, there’s a wide range of what that can mean. So, you go through concussion protocol, which is different steps, and you build up to a point where you say, “Okay, now I’m going to skate. Now, I’m going to get the heart rate up. How does my head feel after that?” And if it feels well, great. You’ve progressed to the next level of your recovery. And if not, okay, we got to dial it back. You got to go um back a step. And that’s that’s really how it is. So like people if you’re if you’re sitting there thinking the Canucks are keeping information close to the vest and they don’t oh well they they know exactly how long Philip Heedle is going to be out and they’re just not saying that’s not true. Like that’s not how that’s not how head injuries work. Now they haven’t even said if it’s a concussion for Heedle. So obviously there’s there’s that part of it and that that’s fine. Like I said they’re back home. There’s going to be media there tomorrow. Um Adam Foot will be asked for an injury update. Hell, Alvine is speaking right now. He might be asked for an injury update. So, we might get it today. You You never know. Um but yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. And again, we’ll have two games to break down on Monday. We’ll have some more stuff. Uh Dolly Well reported as well that Riel should get in for this um for this home stand, the these two games on the weekend, which is great. He’s It looks like he’s going to play tomorrow. So, that’s exciting. We’ll have two games Luke Strikle to kind of chew on there. Any final thoughts? Uh nope. Okay, let’s get to our bet 365. Bet of the Day, which is brought to you by Bet 365. We’re not touching an NHL game. We’re taking the uh World Series. That’s right. We’re taking the World Series today. Oh, no. Series game one. Yeah. What’s wrong with that? You going to jinx the Blue Jays? No. As a salty Mariners fan. No. I You know what? I’m I’m warming up to the Jays. Bo Bashett’s back at second base. That’s the other thing. Like I I watched so many Jays games this year. Like I’ve probably watched more Jay’s games than people who are like rooting for the Jays right now have watched. Like if you don’t know who Richard Love is, don’t talk to me about your Jay’s fandom. I actually don’t know who that is. He he he was on the team for like on opening day. Like he he was a high leverage arm for them to start the year. You thought the Jay’s bullpen was bad in the ALCS. You thought it was bad in August. Like talk to me about Richard Love. Who was that other bum that was on the team? Jacob pitching high leverage innings that he also pitched on opening day. There was a few. Uh yeah, what was his name though? There was one that got DFAD. Uh I I’ll I’ll remember it by the end of the segment. Give me a sec. I got to say this is my who the hell is Bobby McMahon moment. Who the hell is Richard Love? Whatever. Jacob Barnes. Jacob Barnes. Jacob. That’s who it was. Yes. Yeah. Again, he he lasted like less than a week. Yeah. Uh, LC250 said, “Quad’s converting to a Jays fan.” I’ve said this before, like, “I like the Jays.” It was just I like the Mariners more. And I was really buttthurt about the Mariners losing to the Blue Jays. But like, I watch a lot of Jay’s games. The The other thing is, I’ve explained this before, I watch a lot of baseball. I have Mo TV. Every day of the summer, there’s baseball on in my house. I watch whatever game I want at 4 p.m. Usually, I watch Big Inning. I watch all the teams. Um, I’m a Jay I’m a Mariners fan. I watch the Jays. My grandpa really loves the Jays. He was very confused because I I go to his house to watch a lot of Jays games. He’s very confused uh why I was rooting for the Mariners. It was tough to explain to him, but like he’s a big Jays fan because he only gets cable. Oh, I’m I can only watch the Blue Jays. Anyways, what did I say was the bet? I don’t think I even picked one. You didn’t yet. No, you you went off on your love lady. Am I allowed to take the super boost? Uh I don’t think so. Okay. Uh, give me Jay’s money line. Give me Jay’s money line. Uh, plus 125. You can get Jay’s money line. You savage on the bump. Vlatty hits super well against lefties. Blake Snell going for them. And this is the other thing. Jake and I were having this conversation right before. You want to know how much I know? Ball. Okay, everybody’s talking. Oh, Blake Snell. Ace, ace, ace. I was talking about how I think the Mariners would match up better with the Dodgers because their pitchers are all like strikeout guys. Don’t give up uh don’t give up a ton of contact. So when you make contact, you need to hit a bomb off of them. If there’s one guy in that Dodgers rotation who you could kill by a hundred paper cuts or a thousand paper cuts, rather um with a bunch of singles, it’s Blake Snell. Blake Snell’s whip was like over 1.2. And there you go. And the Jays love to hit the Jays love to have base hits. So I’m telling you this as like an actual like I think I think the Jays have a chance against Snell tonight. I’ll say that. I I don’t think Snell gets out of five innings tonight. I And I’m telling you that as a as a certified ball knower. So anyway, where’s your fantasy team uh in the in the Moj League standings right now? Again, plus 125 odds. You can get the Jays money line. Uh that was our bet of the day. It was brought to you by bet365. Whatever your bet is, it’s never ordinary at bet 365. Download the app and get on the game. Use the code nation at bet365. Must be 90 plus play. If you choose to play, please play responsibly. Free PD EP40 fan in the chat said, “How much caffeine is flowing through quads at the moment?” I’m glad someone noticed. I had an extra espresso today. I did. I uh I I I was out. I got a haircut today and I said, “You know what? I’m going to get myself another coffee.” And I had another espresso. So, twice as much caffeine as usual, uh for those wondering. But it you know what? Sometimes you got to you got to and I I did it because you know what, Lucas Reichel, you got a lot to talk about. You gotta bring the energy. You gotta bring the heat. I had a good time. All right. We’ll close it out there. Oh, do you have something to say? No, I was just gonna say I love it. All right. Thank you for my co-host Armen Dial and our technical producer Jacob Zar. My name is David. Thanks so much for the episode of Kucks Conversation. Kucks Conversation is live Monday through Friday every weekday at 2 PM over on the Kucks Army YouTube channel. Make sure you like, subscribe, and interact in the YouTube live chat every day with us, folks.

In the final episode of the week, Quads and Harm break down last night’s loss in Nashville and look an what’s going on with Quinn Hughes. They also dig in to the first trade of the regular season for the Canucks, who acquired forward Lukas Reichel from Chicago.

💻 Website: https://canucksarmy.com
🐦 Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CanucksArmy
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canucksarmy…
👍 Like on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanucksArmy/
📺 Subscribe on YouTube: @Canucks_Army

———————

Thank you to all of our sponsors:

🟢 @bet365: It’s never ordinary! Download the app today and use promo code: NATION | http://www.bet365.ca/
🟢 Pacific Toyota Dealers: https://www.shoptoyota.ca/british-columbia/en?utm_source=TNN&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=pacific-influencer&utm_content=TheNationNetwork
🟢 GRETA BAR YVR: The home of all our watch parties | http://lnk.to/GRETAYVR
🟢 Uber Eats: https://www.ubereats.com/ca

Daily Faceoff Survivor Pool – Register for free: https://fantasy.dailyfaceoff.com/dfo/hksurvivor25/home

———————

Intro Song: Get Sport Movement – Defense (APM Music)

#Canucks #VancouverCanucks #NHL #Hockey #Vancouver