The Vancouver Media Thread | Part VIII

[nuckss]

this maybe has been addressed already, but if so, I couldn't find it - Landon Ferraro. Why are we force fed this Nepo baby? It's an auto-off when I hear him joining a SN650 show - and he seems to be on all of them for some reason. I'd rather listen to my washing machine churn.

Perhaps dad took a big pay cut in return.

 

[Bgav]

this maybe has been addressed already, but if so, I couldn't find it - Landon Ferraro. Why are we force fed this Nepo baby? It's an auto-off when I hear him joining a SN650 show - and he seems to be on all of them for some reason. I'd rather listen to my washing machine churn.

Yeah, as soon as they say he's joining the show, I turn it off right away lol

 

[HairyKneel]

Landon Ferarro is taking lots of heat here. He isn't going anywhere. His dad is rampng up his color work with the Canucks and his stepmom works with the club. Her brother is rumored to be a person Manny may add to his staff. I don't get the hate. He needs more polish and tto loosen up but so does Thomlinson.

Its funny most of the folks that throw shade at Landon, love Jeff Fatterson (all 8mm of his neck with those angry beady eyes), Smarmy Price (born miserable) and Throat Goiter ( get off the candy or get your adenoids out) Sekeres. Three pieces of local media trash.

The three sides of Ryan Henderson.

The giggking infant that winds up Taylor and Dhaliwal. Giggles at every weak ass joke.

He can actually co host when Dhaliwal is sniffing through agents laundry and taking a day off.

He's in his 30's and looks like a senior citizen. Hard liver or poor genes?

 

[MarkusNaslund19]

I gotta' say, he seems like a nice guy.

But I don't know how people survive the banality of JPat.

He takes an hour to say nothing.

Goes in circles for ages, 'which again, I'm not saying...but we have to consider...because again...'

I can't do it for more than two minutes.

 

[tyhee]

Landon Ferarro is taking lots of heat here. He isn't going anywhere. His dad is rampng up his color work with the Canucks and his stepmom works with the club. Her brother is rumored to be a person Manny may add to his staff. I don't get the hate. He needs more polish and tto loosen up but so does Thomlinson.

Its funny most of the folks that throw shade at Landon, love Jeff Fatterson (all 8mm of his neck with those angry beady eyes), Smarmy Price (born miserable) and Throat Goiter ( get off the candy or get your adenoids out) Sekeres. Three pieces of local media trash.

The three sides of Ryan Henderson.

The giggking infant that winds up Taylor and Dhaliwal. Giggles at every weak ass joke.

He can actually co host when Dhaliwal is sniffing through agents laundry and taking a day off.

He's in his 30's and looks like a senior citizen. Hard liver or poor genes?

I don't like Landon Ferraro's voice so rarely hear enough of his comments to make a judgment about his ability. I can't blame him for what is ultimately my issue, not his.

On the other hand JPat has a great radio voice but it strikes me that he's a little bit like a radio version of Ted Baxter on the old Mary Tyler Moore show in that most of his appearance of expertise comes from his voice and apparent confidence.

Dahliwal is an anti-knowledge, anti-logic, anti-education voice whose virtue is that his line of non-thought might appeal to other non-thinkers.

While often disagreeing with them, I've gained respect for S & P over the past year and find their thoughts worth consideration.

 

[Kassattack]

I gotta' say, he seems like a nice guy.

But I don't know how people survive the banality of JPat.

He takes an hour to say nothing.

Goes in circles for ages, 'which again, I'm not saying...but we have to consider...because again...'

I can't do it for more than two minutes.

Once I noticed the way he stutters all the time I could not unhear it...

 

[rypper]

I gotta' say, he seems like a nice guy.

But I don't know how people survive the banality of JPat.

He takes an hour to say nothing.

Goes in circles for ages, 'which again, I'm not saying...but we have to consider...because again...'

I can't do it for more than two minutes.

He's done a lot of solo radio, like a lot. Gotta fill the air time somehow. Especially doing post game shows when the team wasn't giving a ton to work with.

 

[bossram]

Drance definitely has a weird thing going on with Willander, but he's otherwise getting way more criticism on here than he deserves. Just like other media members, or posters on here, he is sometimes right and sometimes wrong. The reality of being a host of a daily show is that you need to fill a lot of airtime and so you are going to have a lot of opinions, and by virtue of this, many are going to turn out wrong. Drance isn't dissimilar from most other media personalities.

Like, I've posted this here before, but everyone shits on Drance for his reaction to the Hronek trade, but if you look at the thread on that trade on here, you will see that the overwhelming reaction to that trade on here was also negative at that time, and even @MS who both really likes Hronek and dislikes Drance, had a negative reaction to the trade.

What makes people really mad, but they won't admit it, is that Drance has been right on some major things to do with the club, and several others have been wrong,

 

[bossram]

Frankly I think JTM and Hronek trades were both bad from foresight perspective, but one was a lot riskier.

JTM was bad because of the risk of that pick being unprotected the following year.. and it nearly was because we were falling out of the playoffs with injuries at the time that COVID happened. Tampa made an intelligent bet that almost paid off.

The Hronek trade was bad.. not for value reasons but because they should have pivoted. They knew the culture was rotten and Frankie gave Rutherford the authority. The moves around the core to turn things around quickly worked, but it was always destined to fail.

And honestly, even with hindsight, like ok the players outperformed the asset they returned but what did that get us in the big picture? Were they wins relative to the alternative?

Bolded captures my thoughts and why I didn't like the trades at the time.

Even if they are "wins" (and I'm not denying they were, they were both good players for the Canucks), what is ultimately being accomplished? I didn't think they were ready to make those trades and move into the next step of being a consistent playoff team/fringe contender. In hindsight, they clearly weren't! The team's core was not good enough, they didn't have enough in the organization, and they ultimately had a one-year window that later flamed out spectacularly.

Like you said, it was a doomed-to-fail retool.

 

[MS]

What makes people really mad, but they won't admit it, is that Drance has been right on some major things to do with the club, and several others have been wrong,

He really hasn’t.

If he said the team needed to rebuild in 2023 because the dressing room was about to implode … hey, that would be correct.

Saying the team needed to rebuild because there was no possible way they could be good enough to compete immediately before the team nearly won the President’s Trophy and would have made the Conference Finals (or further) without the Demko injury is catastrophically, comically wrong.

Edit : and that’s even before getting into the abject stupidity of his ‘two year re-tool’ that somehow had Hughes/Pettersson still here at the end of it.

 

[bossram]

He really hasn’t.

If he said the team needed to rebuild in 2023 because the dressing room was about to implode … hey, that would be correct.

Saying the team needed to rebuild because there was no possible way they could be good enough to compete immediately before the team nearly won the President’s Trophy and would have made the Conference Finals (or further) without the Demko injury is catastrophically, comically wrong.

Edit : and that’s even before getting into the abject stupidity of his ‘two year re-tool’ that somehow had Hughes/Pettersson still here at the end of it.

The core was clearly not going to be a contender. The JR/Allvin brass created a one-year window (I was in favour of them spending the assets to do it in '24), then they reverted to back to what they really are, and later flamed out spectacularly. I wanted them to go all-in in '24 because I didn't think they were a legitimate contender, or even consistently "good" team, and that was their best/only shot.

Time has shown....They were not good!

This group was a fringe playoff team that was going to be a 50/50 shot to get in on any given season.

 

[thecupismine]

I think your initial take was pretty clearly negative on the trade. And like, I’m not using this as a gotcha moment or anything, I had a very similar take. My point is that people were shitting on Drance for his initial take where he faced palmed on live TV when he found out about the trade. But like, basically this whole board reacted initially in that same manner. So it really is a glass house kind of thing.

It’s really simple though - if a guy has a bad take but then admits they were wrong, hey, no problem. If people still got issues with you afterwards, that’s on them.

I thought the Hronek deal was dumb and that we should rebuild. That was stupid on so many levels in retrospect, one on value, and two on thinking Hughes and Petey would just sit here chilling like it’s a video game thinking it’s totally fine to not even try to make the playoffs until you’re 25.

Drance refuses to admit he was wrong on the trade, or will qualify it saying yeah value good but trying to build a good team around a 100 point u25 center and Norris dman was dumb. Like bro, just shut up and take the L. This is like saying the 2019 Panthers should’ve just kept rebuilding forever, or that Detroit was smart in building its asset base instead of trying to win. Once you have stars entering their prime, you owe it to them to build a winning team, or they’re going to ask out like any normal, rational human would, then you have to do the whole song and dance again.

Anyways, I hope Carolina wins this weekend so we can get back to talking about actual offseason things like trading Petey instead of rehashing this whole thing over again.

 

[MS]

The core was clearly not going to be a contender. The JR/Allvin brass created a one-year window (I was in favour of them spending the assets to do it in '24), then they reverted to back to what they really are, and later flamed out spectacularly. I wanted them to go all-in in '24 because I didn't think they were a legitimate contender, or even consistently "good" team, and that was their best/only shot.

Time has shown....They were not good!

This group was a fringe playoff team that was going to be a 50/50 shot to get in on any given season.

The only reason it was a ‘one year window’ is because 3 of our 4 best players essentially obliterated themselves for reasons that nobody - especially Drance - predicted. It wasn’t like they went all-in on old players and then everyone left in UFA.

Everything he said was stupid, and wrong.

The core clearly *was* going to be a contender and then imploded for bizarre and injury-related reasons.

 

[Michael Dal Swolle]

View attachment 1253344

He said this two days ago. He legitimately lumped in Willander with ****ing Jurmo or Klimovich and is alluding that it was a Klimovich over Stankoven style blunder. It's insane, he is completely pot committed to this take while we have an elite skating rookie RHD who did not look out of place skating in the top 4—but if you listen to him you'd think he struggled in college and has flatlined in his rookie year.

The other great take he had was that Rob Blake did a great job in LAK and was a good GM. We just watched them blunder a huge booster crop of touted prospects, get pushed around by what Kopitar/Doughty wanted, and are the definition of a mid team that flames out in the first round. Awesome job, Rob.

Willander bad. Zach Benson good. Ad. f***ing. Nauseum.

For a guy who makes his living on his hockey opinions, the guy sure insists on shoveling the same f***ing opnion at his audience over and over again.

 

[bossram]

The only reason it was a ‘one year window’ is because 3 of our 4 best players essentially obliterated themselves for reasons that nobody - especially Drance - predicted. It wasn’t like they went all-in on old players and then everyone left in UFA.

Everything he said was stupid, and wrong.

The core clearly *was* going to be a contender and then imploded for bizarre and injury-related reasons.

This was a team that missed the playoffs the previous 3 seasons and was considered a coin flip to make it going into 23-24. This is crazy revisionist history.

 

[theagelessstranger]

It’s not semantics. The example I gave to the glass house rock throwing was the initial reaction Drance had - live on air - to the Hronek trade where he face palmed. Many posters here have posted that reaction and shit in Drance for it, but again, the Hronek trade thread on here is literally littered with similar reactions. I wasn’t looking at non initial posts in that thread as they wouldn’t be analogous to Drance’s live action.

attempting to take this out of the news thread so the mods don't lose their minds.

personally, I think that if drance wants to act like a hyper critical internet fan, he should pick that lane instead of the "paid journalist" lane. comparing his reaction to a forum poster's reaction isn't the same thing-- or, well, shouldn't be, anyway.

 

[Hodgy]

It’s really simple though - if a guy has a bad take but then admits they were wrong, hey, no problem. If people still got issues with you afterwards, that’s on them.

I thought the Hronek deal was dumb and that we should rebuild. That was stupid on so many levels in retrospect, one on value, and two on thinking Hughes and Petey would just sit here chilling like it’s a video game thinking it’s totally fine to not even try to make the playoffs until you’re 25.

Drance refuses to admit he was wrong on the trade, or will qualify it saying yeah value good but trying to build a good team around a 100 point u25 center and Norris dman was dumb. Like bro, just shut up and take the L. This is like saying the 2019 Panthers should’ve just kept rebuilding forever, or that Detroit was smart in building its asset base instead of trying to win. Once you have stars entering their prime, you owe it to them to build a winning team, or they’re going to ask out like any normal, rational human would, then you have to do the whole song and dance again.

Anyways, I hope Carolina wins this weekend so we can get back to talking about actual offseason things like trading Petey instead of rehashing this whole thing over again.

For sure, I don’t disagree with any of this. Again, I’m not trying to provide a complete defense of Drance.

The only reason it was a ‘one year window’ is because 3 of our 4 best players essentially obliterated themselves for reasons that nobody - especially Drance - predicted. It wasn’t like they went all-in on old players and then everyone left in UFA.

Everything he said was stupid, and wrong.

The core clearly *was* going to be a contender and then imploded for bizarre and injury-related reasons.

There are some merits with your position, and I’ve pointed this out to you before, but the reason the Canucks one year window slammed shut, wasn’t actually because three top players obliterated, it was actually because they lacked enough depth and talent in their lineup, and cap space, such that they couldn’t both improve their forward group and maintain a quality defense, and ultimately while trying to improve scoring after the Oilers series they ended gutting their defense too much. And it was their terrible defense that shut their window. It was having Myers, Desharnais, Juulsen and Forbort as the bottom half of their defense.

So while you are probably right that the decline of Pettersson, Miller and Demko would have likely closed their window, it’s not actually what closed their window. It’s lack of depth and talent that closed their window, and this was because they never properly rebuilt.

 

[MS]

This was a team that missed the playoffs the previous 3 seasons and was considered a coin flip to make it going into 23-24. This is crazy revisionist history.

The team *WAS* a contender in 23-24, literally months after Drance said it was impossible.

The team had 5 or 6 prime-aged star level players across all positions, signed long-term. This was one of the strongest core groups in the NHL.

Then a whole bunch of unexpected shit happened and everything fell apart.

The only revisionist history here is people saying 'oh, it was inevitable'.

 

[MS]

For sure, I don’t disagree with any of this. Again, I’m not trying to provide a complete defense of Drance.

There are some merits with your position, and I’ve pointed this out to you before, but the reason the Canucks one year window slammed shut, wasn’t actually because three top players obliterated, it was actually because they lacked enough depth and talent in their lineup, and cap space, such that they couldn’t both improve their forward group and maintain a quality defense, and ultimately while trying to improve scoring after the Oilers series they ended gutting their defense too much. And it was their terrible defense that shut their window. It was having Myers, Desharnais, Juulsen and Forbort as the bottom half of their defense.

So while you are probably right that the decline of Pettersson, Miller and Demko would have likely closed their window, it’s not actually what closed their window. It’s lack of depth and talent that closed their window, and this was because they never properly rebuilt.

This happens with all good teams all the time. They all have holes, and have ebbs and flows as these open up and then get addressed.

If Demko was healthy and Pettersson performing in 24-25 we still would have been a comfortable playoff team, and we probably trade our 1st for MPettersson at some point to fix the thin blueline.

 

[bossram]

The team *WAS* a contender in 23-24, literally months after Drance said it was impossible.

The team had 5 or 6 prime-aged star level players across all positions, signed long-term. This was one of the strongest core groups in the NHL.

Then a whole bunch of unexpected shit happened and everything fell apart.

The only revisionist history here is people saying 'oh, it was inevitable'.

I'm not really going to call a team that had one good season in over a decade a "contender".

The club was flawed. The organization was dysfunctional. They weren't that good.

 

[MS]

I'm not really going to call a team that had one good season in over a decade a "contender".

We were one of the best regular season teams in 23-24 and then would have gone on a long playoff run if our goalie didn't get hurt. That's a contender.

And again, when you looked at the core group - two 100-point Cs, Norris D, Vezina-level goalie, Boeser, Hronek all prime-aged and signed long-term this was clearly a team that should have expected to be legitimately good for 3-5 years.

 

[Hodgy]

This happens with all good teams all the time. They all have holes, and have ebbs and flows as these open up and then get addressed.

This is true to an extent in a cap environment, but it’s absolutely not some kind of inevitability that you are going to go into a year with Myers, Desharnais, Forbort and Juulsen as your 4-7 defensemen. That’s atrocious depth, and I predicted at the time that the Canucks could be terrible, and I was right.

The Canucks had zero depth, no good prospects, and were capped out. And it’s because they had consistently been prioritizing the present over the future for years leading up to this mess.

If Demko was healthy and Pettersson performing in 24-25 we still would have been a comfortable playoff team, and we probably trade our 1st for MPettersson at some point to fix the thin blueline.

This is mostly revisionist history though. At the time, basically everyone recognized that the Canucks were struggling because of their poor bottom three of defense, and their total lack of ability to move the puck. That was easily the most identifiable and often cited reason why they were playing poorly. And while Demko was injured, Lankinen actually played quite well and earned his contract in that fall. Goaltending wasn’t the undoing.

Pettersson was bad but he was bad half the year before and it didn’t sink the Canucks.

Ultimately, I don’t disagree that the three crash outs of Pettersson, Miller and Demko would have derailed this team, but it’s not actually what was the death knell.

 

[I am toxic]

Drance is twice as smart as me

That's how stupid he is

 

[beachcomber]

Drance writes well enough. He just needs to find a subject that he has knowledge of, which obviously isn't hockey. He is just another less bombastic version of Tony Gallagher at this point.

 

[Goatlender]

@Vector reading this thread discussing prior rosters while the Canucks News thread discusses Drance: