Drama feels different in Toronto & Vancouver ahead of trade deadline

Amidst rumours of the Leafs making a move for J.T. Miller, Canucks fans are split on whether their team should re-sign the star forward who turns 29 next week. It's never quiet in Toronto or Vancouver.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: On top of that podcast being good, you could say your Vancouver Canucks beat Omar's Toronto Maple Leafs. Buddy, Omar, like, between that and a near blown lead again to the Columbus Blue Jackets, how are you feeling, man? [LAUGHS] Just go cheer for the Raptors, dude. Just go cheer for another team because this is too much.

- I mean, do the Leafs make it easy? No.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: No. [LAUGHS]

- You know, the funny thing that-- I think the funniest thing about being a Leafs fan is that no matter what point of the game we're talking about-- first period, second period, third period-- they could be up by seven goals. But in the back of your mind, you doing the math, like, OK, so if they give up one goal every minute and a half, they could tie it up.

And that sounds crazy until it happens. So I'm watching this game, Michael Bunting scores the fifth goal of the game-- 20 goals on the season, good for Michael Bunting, right?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Good for him.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: No big deal.

- Right? It's awesome. And then Timothy Liljegren takes the penalty. So I'm thinking, all right, so they're down by-- so Columbus is down by 2. What can go wrong? And then Patrik Laine scored with 47.7 seconds left to go.

Am I concerned? Yes. Is there a possibility they can tie it? Absolutely. You know why? Because the last time the Leafs faced Columbus, high game, went to overtime, and then they lost.

So what it comes down to this team, I think we're in that like-- we're knee deep in the lull period where people don't know where they get to-- whether they get too high on the team or get too low on the team, and we're waiting for the deadline date to go on. And I know hockey Twitter is just like up in flames around dialogues for when it comes to player awards. You know, Auston Matthews is getting a lot of talk. And yes, Auston Matthews has had a great season, a Hart worthy--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Hart Trophy winner, Auston Matthews.

- --Hart Trophy worthy. Eddie [INAUDIBLE]--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Sulky winner, even though he doesn't play on the penalty kill, Auston Matthews.

- Listen, OK--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Calder Trophy winner Michael Bunting.

- OK, OK, so--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Hart Trophy candidate Mitch Marner.

- OK, so the Michael--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: [INAUDIBLE]

- --Bunting thing--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Don't' put it in there.

- The Michael Bunting thing, I is a 1,000% a bit. However, it would be cool to see him get nominated. Again, I've been on a record saying that I think Moritz Seider should win the Calder because he's playing top pair of minutes as a rookie. That's like, insane. Yes, Michael Bunting is scoring goals with Matthews and Marner, but, you know-- it's-- he's not getting the Calder.

Now, when it comes to Matthews getting the award, I think what it is-- and I know for a lot of non-league fans, this is difficult to get. Because yes, I will be the first to admit-- we, fans, can get very, very annoying because we take one positive thing--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You're missing one more berry.

- --and latch on it. Now--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I'm just kidding. I'm sorry.

- I'm going to say that one more time. We take one positive thing and latch onto it. Do you know why we have to take one positive thing and latch on to it? Because of years of negativity--

[LAUGHTER]

- --and years of pain. Now, I'm not I'm not saying it's right. I'm not justifying the outrageous takes. I'm not justifying dumping on other players. However, I think-- and, again, you know, if you're a non-Leafs fan listening to this or watching this, I just need you to understand that it comes from a place of having next to no positivity as an organization.

Again, the last time the Leafs won a thing was the draft lottery in 2016 to get Auston Matthews. That is no hyperbole. That was the last in the Leafs actually won. Since then, they haven't won anything. We lose in huge fashion.

We couldn't even qualify to make the playoffs in 2020 against Columbus, who we almost--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK, Cuthbert--

- --lost Blue lead to. So--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Cuthbert, can we stop Omar from making this in the mentions? He has his own podcast [LAUGHS] on how he's supposed to do this. Can you just kind of like-- I don't know-- add to this or just, you know, change the subject here. Or do [INAUDIBLE].

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I don't know. He's right. I want to know where he is on the debate of whether or not they need a goaltender or a defenseman, though. Because clearly, they need something.

So what camp are you on-- or in there, Omar? Because literally, it's-- the debate is raging. Do they need a goaltender? Do they need a defenseman? Or should they just go all in and forwards and hope to beat everybody 8 to 7?

- Yeah, but I mean like that's not going to work. And I think the thing-- the most common occurrence that we've seen when it comes to the kind of goals the Leafs are scoring and the kind of goals they're giving up, it's so interesting how similar they are.

Again, like the game against Vancouver is prime example of this, just not being hard enough in front of the net and just losing battles, whether it's just from not tying up someone's stick quick enough, just losing body positioning. So-- and, again, we saw the same thing against Columbus.

Like, prime example, I want to say it was the Jack Roslovic goal. Disgusting pass from Max Domi. But like Justin Holl is watching the wrong thing, right? He doesn't do a quick shoulder check or anything. And, again, this isn't to dump on Justin Holl. But it's a kind of a theme that we're seeing a lot when it comes to Leafs.

So I think the focus needs to be on defense. And I think the interesting thing is that there's a lot of question marks because we don't know whether Justin-- whether Jake Muzzin is going to come back. We don't know if-- yeah, I know Kyle Dubas has said that they want Muzzin to come back before the deadline or before the end of the year.

That could be-- yeah, that could be something that is just being said because you can't outright and say, yes, we're going to purposely keep him out of the lineup to get the cap space, right? [CHUCKLES] Well, you can't say that.

But I think when it comes down to it, I think if you focus and you-- in overall, you get the team to be harder to play against in front of the net-- and I literally think if you make a compilation of what Ilya Lyubushkin is doing and to show that on repeat, I think that is something that the rest of the Blue line can get the message of. So I--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: So team chicken. I'm team chicken too. It's team chicken versus team egg. Team chicken, baby.

- Yep, absolutely.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: So if you know that you need this, why is it every time Ben Chiarot is suggested to the Leafs, y'all just lose it?

- Because y'all-- because-- like, I don't want to give up a first round pick for Ben-- Listen. OK, OK--

[LAUGHTER]

--listen. Listen, all right? Here. This is the reason as to why-- this is the true reason as to why I'm apprehensive to a Ben Chiarot trade.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I have a question for Sam after this.

- I don't know if the Leafs can make the second round. I truly don't. Because, again, I've seen a lot of things. So I don't want for us to get knocked out of the first round, and then the Habs get like the 15th pick, draft someone, and then that pick wrecks us for the next decade. And then every time they score--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: 15th pick? What do you mean--

- I don't know.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: --the 15th pick?

- I don't know. Whatever--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: How'd you end up with a 15th--

- --ends up being--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: --pick?

- Whatever--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Is that how bad they are now--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: 25th.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: --right now?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: 25th. 25th.

- I don't know. I don't know. Whatever the pick ends up being that they have to give the Leafs and say, for example-- or they have to give the Habs in the event that they need a first round pick. And I don't want to watch the pick or the prospect light us up.

You know how worried. I was when we made the [? Thomas ?] [? Mechanix ?] deal? I was petrified. When they selected-- I forgot who they selected in the second round in 2018. I was like, oh, my god, please, please. So that's usually what it comes down for, especially the apprehensive. I just don't want to be lit up by the thing that we give up, right?

You know, every time Mason Marchment does something, people tweet us and say, ha-ha, Dubas made a horrible deal. Where's Denis Malgin? You see what I'm saying? So that's why we latch onto things like the Matthew stuff. But anyway, that's--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK, all right. Apparently, someone made a bold suggestion on Leafs lunch a couple of days ago. I think it's pretty bold. So I'm just going to ask you the question to you, Sam. If you're the general manager of the Vancouver Canucks and Kyle Dubas calls you and says, hey, first off, your podcast is great. Two--

[LAUGHTER]

--I want to offer you William Nylander for JT Miller. How fast do you say yes?

SAM CHANG: No-brainer. I say yes immediately.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Why did anyone suggest-- Omar, you look befuddled. You didn't hear about this?

SAM CHANG: Dude, there are people on Canucks Twitter who would be enraged by this. They're like, you should absolutely not trade JT Miller. He is--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: What?

SAM CHANG: --an elite player. He's like-- I think he-- to be fair, he's had like something like-- he's in like the top 10 scorers over the last two seasons basically since they've acquired him.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah.

SAM CHANG: But he's going to get-- he's going to ask for $8 million. If he's not asking for $8 million, he's taking a massive discount, which I don't think he's going to do. He shouldn't do. Players should not take discounts. Like, get your money.

He's turning 30 on his next contract. It's going to be his last contract. He's going to want long term, and he's going to want a massive contract. And there are Canuck fans here who are like, but you can't blow up this core. And he's in this core. And so you should give him his money because he's been really good.

And it's like, OK, but what happens like five years from now? Did we not just do this? Did the last eight years just-- did I imagine that? Did I hallucinate?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I believe in this core so much, man, but you're right. I mean, you could-- like what? Like eight points out of a playoff spot right now? 10 points?

SAM CHANG: Yeah, if you just completely discount games played.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, that's true. Just trying--

SAM CHANG: Let's just ignore--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Just trying to be optimistic.

SAM CHANG: [INAUDIBLE] contacts.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Just trying to be optimistic. I don't know Too many good players up front here like Brock Boeser in trade rumors. And obviously, Miller too. I mean, Miller would fit really well with the Leafs. But like, man.

- But doesn't the Brock Boeser thing make-- is Brock Boeser the player who has a-- he's going to have like a $7 million qualifying offer? Or was that someone else?

SAM CHANG: $7.5.

- Yeah, so like, yeah. [LAUGHS] Yeah, like that--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You got to figure out if you have that money.

- That one makes-- that one may make sense because-- yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: So I forget who suggested like, hey, it'd be fun if you went to Minnesota. So $7.5 million qualifying offer to go to Minnesota, which has to do with all those contracts coming up? Probably not the best place.

SAM CHANG: I think the funniest thing--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Well, they cleared space and just didn't do anything with it. So I don't really know-- I don't really understand the point of that move because they haven't tried to get any better. Maybe they were trying to get Brock Boeser, and they just didn't happen. But I don't know. That's a story for a different day.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah, look, we could do an entire episode of Zone Time on the Vancouver Canucks and everything they have suffered. We could do an entire episode. We don't even--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: We will.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: We do.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: And we will.

SAM CHANG: The thing that's--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: We will.

SAM CHANG: --ridiculous is-- but the thing that's driving me crazy is people are like, you can't get rid of JT Miller. You can't get rid of Brock Boeser. You can't get rid of-- obviously, you're not getting rid of Pettersson, Hughes, or Demko. They're like, we should be trading Tucker Poolman.

I'm like, who is taking Tucker Poolman?

- [INAUDIBLE] who's taking Tucker Poolman?

[LAUGHTER]

SAM CHANG: Like, who are you trading these people to?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: It could be like a Plan F if you don't get like--

SAM CHANG: We should--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: [INAUDIBLE]

SAM CHANG: --absolutely trade--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: --or something.

SAM CHANG: --all the worst players on our team because, obviously, other people want them.

- Yeah--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Also, mentioned Thatcher-- oh, sorry, go ahead. Go ahead, Omar.

- I was going to say the two funniest things that always comes up in trade discussions when it comes down to amongst fans-- one, people usually overvalue their own prospects. And then two, everyone automatically assumes that the other team will take this player for just because-- yes, I will definitely take this player on a bad contract, for sure. [LAUGHS]

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: In a buyer's market, it's really difficult to see six defensemen getting paid, like third defenseman being moved at the deadline. But crazier things have happened.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Crazier things have happened. Also, you mentioned Thatcher Demko in the Canucks core. How dare you mentioned Thatcher Demko when Jack Campbell is out there and is a much better alternative?

[LAUGHTER]

- Man. Man.

[LAUGHTER]

- Man, listen. Listen, OK? I don't support-- I don't-- I am not part of that era--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Not Campbell [INAUDIBLE]?

- --of dialogue. No, I'm not. Listen, I'm not-- I love Jack Campbell, OK? Jack Campbell is an awesome dude, and I believe that Jack Campbell will do better and get closer to what he was at the beginning of the season. And I think a lot of that will come down to not only his own confidence but I think also this the team playing better in front of him.

However, "comma," I watched Thatcher Demko's top 51 shots in rage and not just once. I've seen Thatcher Demko stop many shots a lot of times.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: There are different ways to get to 9-17.

- Yeah, so [LAUGHS] it's just like-- you know, I feel like we should get to a point where it's just-- you know what? You have your players. Someone else has their players. People are having a good season, whatever. Just enjoy it. Let's just make-- let's make hockey Twitter a better place and not do the whole like, this person that's better than that person.

SAM CHANG: It's really a compliment. It's really a compliment to the Leafs for us to think that Demko is better. Because it means the Leafs have a better team up front than the Canucks do. That's, you know-- you could look at it that way.

- See, here's--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: On paper, they do.

- See, but here's-- the fact that we're having this conversation-- like, on paper or like-- you know what I mean? Like, we're [INAUDIBLE] paper. This is the-- we're talking about a team that we know-- we're not sure if they're going to make the playoffs, and we're saying, on paper, they might be-- like, what?

But that's fair, though. But that's fair, though. Because the Leafs are always a better team on paper. And it's something just goes wrong. So yeah. So yeah, so when it comes down to the Thatcher Demko-Jack Campbell stuff, I'm not really-- I'm not-- I don't really stand with that too well.

I think everyone just enjoy what's going on right now. Because, you know, the playoffs happen, there can be highs and there can be lows. And they can-- and there can be tears, so. Can you tell that this last stretch of games is very-- has really concerned me? I'm very concerned.

[LAUGHTER]

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I mean, in all fairness-- I mean, I hope you're not too-- I don't know-- shrug up on all this. I hope you're able to cope in some ways or not be too lost on it. That being said--

- Oh, I mean, Michael Bunting has 20 goals. So that's cool. So I can turn to your left and say, oh, yes, 58. It's awesome.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That jersey wasn't bought in vain.

- Buddy--

[LAUGHTER]

--that was a good purchase.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: For this season, at least.

- However-- again--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Next year--

- Exactly, yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You score seven goals next year, you get roasted. [LAUGHS]

- I mean, yeah. But I can still say that I had the jersey when he was a 2020 goal scoring rookie.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: It's--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: At the age of 26.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: --such a great season for Bunting because you don't even have to think about what you have to pay him. You can literally just enjoy it without ever-- except for this moment-- having to consider what his next contract will be. Next year is going to be a lot different, honestly.

Maybe there's going to be a little bit of like doom associated with Bunting because you're going to be worried about losing them or who's going to be lost because you have to pay him $4.5 million or whatever it is. So enjoy it while you still can, Omar