Patrick Johnston: Which Canucks will trend up, and who will trend down this season.

0:00Patrick Johnson was enjoying at the ball game last night beside me. I'm not sure how responsible it was. He was feeling good. He looks great. He must have been responsible. He talked for 11 innings in a 10 inning game. It was quite a feat. He was a chatty fella last night. How are you keeping up with your brother? I mean, would your brother say, Leachie or Leachie? That's the real question. He would say Leachie. I believe in South Asia. They call Leachie. I'm not sure they do. Well, you know, listen, Matt, Blake is a professional communicator. So we're arguing. Right, right. You were telling me that you were working on a piece of consequence here today. Forgive me. I may have missed it. And while there were some years consumed, so I completely forget the topic. No, what are you coming up in the province? I was like, here's what we can talk about. Yeah, listen, it'll be up by the time people hear this. I think, you know,

1:01people will see. All right. It's fine. I have written about Phil Heidel. Yeah. Nice chat. Yes. Nice chat with with Big Phil, as I call him, looking fit. I mean, you know, everybody looks great. Looks fit. You know, blah, blah, blah. But you know, he looked well and you know, among many questions, why did he change 77? And it kind of turns out there's a theme. The man realizes, he needs a fresh start. He needs to reset himself a little bit. It says he's been watching a lot of clips, not just of sort of, I guess, when he's gotten himself into trouble, but also how players that play fast and he wants to be a guy that plays fast, avoid those moments. So an acknowledgement that he does have to change something of what he does of how he plays. So that's a chance because in the end, he wants to show like he's like, I, you know, I've had a difficult two years and I don't like it and I want to believe that I believe that I can be a everyday player and that I want to show the fans what I can do. And I said, what we've seen of you, it's been great. But obviously,

2:06there's a decent player there. There's a decent player there. But rewind, rewind, rewind that brain, though, to do what he's trying to do. Like your instincts and all like, God, that's hard. And I made that point to him. I said, you know, like that's got to, yeah, I got to, he's like, that's, but I've got to figure it out because I want to make sure that I'm a, I'm a player that's out there. Yeah. Yeah. Because you can't play tentative and you can avoid conduct, right? Like, you can't play slow because his wheels are, do you guys remember when he first came over after the trade before he got injured? And we all sat there and marveled at how much pace he played with through the Niskel zone and how easy zone entries came to look on a team that was not making zone entries look. And he's not so, that's imposing to see that much speed through the neutral. And he can handle the puck a little too. I mean, I got to say like of all the players on this team. And I'm sure there would be some who would cite Patrick Amko and understandably so.

3:07I'm pulling for this kid. For sure. Goodness gracious with what he's gone through. A lot of people would have shut it down by now and also understandably so. Yeah. He, you know, 77 turns out as a number that's in both his wife and his daughter's birthday. He's a new fresh start. Nobody, I don't think anybody family's ever worn this number, you know, because you know, before they interview, I was trying to let's look and throw like, what? Why? It's because 72 he told me last year was his father's birthday. And so that was part of the story. Why he picked that. So you guys can feel that's how you can feel. You can feel what I feel every day now, which is how old are you? And I basically had this chap with Luke Shen yesterday because he's 30, he's turning 37 and like half the teams in their early 20s. Yeah. He could, you know, I'm like, could be their dad. Like he really could be. Like you're going to wake up one of the day. You're going to be like me and I like it's really hitting out 45 now. It's hit me and like, he was 20. Like I could be this flopper. Lucky number seven. And he's got two of them. Yeah. So he's also got a little bit of numerology there.

4:09Did he, did he say like how long he's been fully healthy, symptom free of everything? Like we read now like seven months from the last concussion symptom. Yeah. Everything. Yeah. I mean, he acknowledged has been a long time. But no, I mean, he's, I think he had a pretty clear, he's been feeling good since the beginning of the summer, since he got himself back into sort of pregame for preseason sort of workouts and all that. Yeah. I, you know, he, and they're, you know, he argued a little bit of what it actually was and all that kind of thing. That's fine. Yeah. Fine. Symantex. Yeah. But fundamentally, yeah. I know he's been feeling good for a long time. And listen, like the fact he's been out there. They're playing hockey. He's been there every day. There's been, you know, he's not like he's avoiding whatever they're doing out there. He's been a full participant. So, um, so far so good. But, you know, that's not kept up for him. And so that's why he, and he knows it. Like that was, you know, in a way, I, I wasn't going to say,

5:12do you have to play? But I said, how do you prepare? What, how do you, you know, do you feel like, I can't remember how I framed it? But, you know, do you feel you look at how frustrating the last few years it's been? You look at what you want to be this year. You know, what do you have to, how do you keep yourself? What do you, you know, and then he took a direction that he knew we need to go, which is that I do have to change some of what I do. Switching gears here. But if you just mentioned as a footnote last year of the contract too. So does he turn himself into a tradable asset? Can you trade that guy? That particular guy? Sure. Yeah. I don't know. Honestly, it may take 50 or so healthy games. Yeah. Pretty much. Well, I am all right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know. Yeah. Switching gears here. Look, I'm not sure the Jim Rutherford Patrick Elvine administration will be remembered fondly here by Vancouver Connects fans. But when you hear the comments emanating from the state of Minnesota

6:14and the former captain, it does seem like the die is cast at this point and that as soon as this time next year he'll be soothing up with his brothers. I think we have to go back and look at that trade of nine months ago and say Jim Rutherford and Patrick Elvine did a hell of a job in that moment as traumatic as it might have been for Connects fans to watch the single best offence. If not player in club history, dealt at the height of his powers. Yeah. Those four assets and the three players, including the one they just gave an eight year deal, look like an awfully strong return compared to what Minnesota might be looking down the barrel of a while. Yeah. That's what's going to say. Garen's return is going to put an exclamation mark or question mark on that on that deal because if he gets almost nothing, Connects look amazing. If he gets something comparable to the Connects and you can make the argument, he's going to

7:15get something. But I don't think it's going to be comparable. Like three former first round picks. One of was an established second line NHL center. The one with a potential first line or first paired defense and a middle six potentially even top six winger and Ogren plus the first one. He's not getting close to that. Probably not. Probably not. Patrick. No, I mean, it's it's at the time we saw what the return was and that's a never, you know, those trades are never easy. That's not a mind blowing statement by an issue of the stretch of the imagination, but the finding any kind of value when you trade your best player is the challenge. And William listen, we get what I'm fascinated to see how he does, you know, one of the big discussions things we talked about yesterday was I mean, we talked to Max Max Max, and talked to the group, but then I talked to him afterwards. And I you know, I asked him, he made a reference to like, what are the, you know, what is he telling the veterans about what man he's like? And I said, well, what are you talking about? He said, well, he's he's so prepared. Everyone's going to know what they're doing on the ice. So the environment,

8:18you know, literally, I looked at it and I said, well, you know, he he understood what I was not into. It was the last year, it was chaos. It was not good for anybody. So, you know, William, having a chance to play in a stable structured steady environment with a coach who does understand the sort of nuances of man management, if you will, like the call in soccer. That's going to be huge. That alone is going to be huge because me and William is the is the piece, right? If you can turn Liam Ogren into a consistent scoring NHL winger because I thought he was a pretty consistent winger, but you need him to put the pot. Then you're starting out somewhere. And like that, and Marco Rossi, like I like Marco Rossi, I don't think he's a necessarily a meter mover of a center, but he does enough on this team for what they need. And again, we've already talked about Phil Keel being, you know, a trade ship. You know, what's Marco's Rossi's, what is Marco Rossi's future, right? Same kind of question. So, yeah. And then, yeah, like the just the return was outstanding.

9:23And then you sort of look at everything else that's around it and the culture shift. And listen, I don't blame Quinn Hughes for wanting to get out because things were going nowhere. So they've got a chance to set something new. Like, everybody I think was by the end, they're everyone was frustrated. And whoever is cast a blame, there was not a good vibe here before he left. And you say the return is outstanding. And Patrick, the other thing it did. And look, it's going to lead to a lot of losses over the short end near term. But it finally crystallized the need to rebuild with Conox ownership. Yeah. I think that can be understated either in terms of what that trade produced, not just in the here and now. And in that Conox room that you talk about, but for this Conox feature. And frankly, for the market as well, many of whom have been asking for this for the better part of a decade. We've seized on Paul Cotter's comment from a couple of days ago. And what you just outlined as well, there's an optimistic bent there. Like,

10:31if Philip Edo's Philip Edo, and he's already proven like top-end Philip Edo's a 2020 guy, you sort of asked Liam Ugrin to show us that he's a 2020 guy. If those two things alone happen, it seems a lot better than the team of last year. Again, that's the big if. But Paul Cotter seems to think that they are an underrated team. Do you give this team any chance to really surprise people? I don't think there's enough on the blue line. I think there's some interesting pieces up front. There of course is the forever-pettersome question. I'm more than anything what we're looking for as a team that's going to hustle and compete and work hard. And that's the to me the standard that you're looking to assess them on. And whatever else happens with gravy, listen, like I. It is, I think, in hindsight now. We're going to realize this is more and more that Adam foot just didn't have chance. He just had no experience,

11:32no plan. I remember thinking when he first told us that I'm going to change the way I want to simply defense, I was thinking why? He wanted to read. He's like, what year is this? And it just turned into chaos. And so just the coaching change alone. And again, not the first person to say this is going to be worth points and the standards. That's just by simply not playing in the chaotic fashion they were playing. And then yeah, is there growth? What happens with what guy like over it? What does he become? Can he do a stare? But at the end of the day, the defense core, like listen, a boon, I have big hopes for and I believe in him as a person, as a character, and a servant talent. But the rest like Elias Patterson had our terrible year. Can he get back to the promise that we saw the season before? That would be big. Jimmy Laxiac is a giant offenceman. And it's actually funny that he is so giant that from time to time, I kept on the

12:37ice yesterday, I kept thinking, why is Tyler Myers holding a left hand at stick? But he's obviously not. Right? Like he's just, he's just, you know, I need to listen, I think I've got time for him. But you know, I've already mentioned Luke Shen, you know, the thing that hit me thinking about Shen and just the age gap, if this were 30, 40 years ago, there would be player coach next to him. Right? Like, you know, in the old days, this is how you brought coaches along. Was that you kind of said, okay, well, you're going to play. So, you know, that is a conversation I'm going to have with him is like, what is, I mean, I know you're going to play, but like, this is going to be real. Like, what's the curve here? What is the expectation? And I said yesterday, 40 games. He shouldn't be playing more than 40 games. No, he really shouldn't. And so, you know, that's sort of part of the story here is that how does that all work out? So yeah, like, Tom O'Lander, I mean, you mentioned Tom O'Lander, like I think Tom O'Lander should have spent most of last season in the NHL. So now I'm interested to see what they do with him, because I think he needs, I actually

13:41think he's a guy that needs less spotlight. I think he needs just time to go play and understand the pro game and all that, because he didn't, nothing last year's surf temp. So, that to me is the main challenge. And then of course, there's a question and goal, right? Like, we don't know when Nemco's going to play. And if he does play, well, how good will he be? I assume he'll be his best self, but how much can he play? Kevin Lankin and we know it was going to battle, but Kevin Lankin and can't make too many starts. He did reference that to me when I spoke with him about it. And he said, you know, one of the lessons last year was trying to ignore, just get focused on what you can do. And try not to, you know, he didn't say the noise, but the noise is always there. What in the noise can be many things. And the kid who told a pillow, like, he's going to probably have to play. We'll see you, Chris, you're by the way. I have to point this out. People say, oh, the connox are going to wear. I mean, I haven't actually double checked this, but the photo that's going around, oh, look, they're wearing old pads and they're going to wear the old orcalogo. And I'm like, that's Chris Drieser wearing his old gear. That is not Naked Dolopila.

14:43Like he just does their red and blue things. Yeah, yeah. People are just like, I saw this thing on social media. So I'm just like, people are literally inventing stuff. And I'm just like, what is going on social media? Are you serious? I know. But this is the most extreme case I've ever seen. They're like, they're going to wear the old orca. And I'm like, no, that's a golly on a PTO. Like, what are you talking about? Yeah. Okay. We're going to end it there. It's 17 good minutes here with PJ. Like I said, he talked for three hours straight at the ball game last night. I told some great stories. He did. And then he told one story where the punchline was supposed to be his child with her sad face on. And then he could find the photo. I'll let down. Brother was really disappointed about that one. It's three foot long. That's where the yard dog. The four year old. The mistake of ordering the three foot long hot dog. And and the vendor was like, sir, you do know the regular ones are 75 cents, right? Like you can

15:46just get all four rows and eat it. Yeah. Interesting choice. Anyway, so it was good paling around with you last night. Thank you for this. Can't wait till next week already. Take care, take your