West Coast Bias: Canucks can’t make a mistake at the trade deadline

Vancouver Canucks forward Bo Horvat sits down with Scott Oake and Louie DeBrusk on After Hours to discuss how his role with the Canucks has changed over the season, what the All Star weekend was like, and the connections he's made with Canuck Place.

Every once in a while, a team’s needs and a rise in player’s dedication level intersect at exactly the right time. And once in a while, when you’re really lucky, it happens twice in the same season.

Zack Kassian was a wreck. He was in a drunken car accident as a passenger in October of 2015 that cost him his shot with the Montreal Canadiens and landed him in rehab. When he got out the stars aligned, and a new general manager in Edmonton (Peter Chiarelli) just happened to have a team that was short everything that Kassian could potentially bring to the table.

Almost two months later to the day — on Feb. 29, 2016 — the Anaheim Ducks finally ran out of patience with Patrick Maroon, whom they saw as lacking in dedication and not as physically fit as they wanted.

Kassian came to Edmonton in a trade for Ben Scrivens. Maroon came from Anaheim for prospect Martin Gernat (who has returned to the Czech League) and a fourth-round pick. Plus, the Ducks are eating one quarter ($500,000) of Maroon’s salary through next season.

They had far different issues, but each is at peace in Edmonton, while weaving themselves into a new Oilers culture of size and success.

“Me and him, we hated each other,” laughed Maroon, who was in Anaheim when Kassian was a Vancouver Canuck. “Always got into it, trying to fight. Now? We’re best friends. We hang out all the time.”

Again, their issues weren’t the same. But Maroon admits the point came when he looked at himself in the mirror and said, if he doesn’t become a better pro, “You’ll be out of this league quicker than you got in.”

“It’s not that I wasn’t dedicated,” he said. “Sometimes you think you’re in really good shape, but you’re not. Sometimes you think you’re doing the right things, but you’re not.

“It comes from someone else telling you. Maybe another trainer telling you, a player, a coaching staff, a GM. ‘This is where you need to be.’ And it kind of hits you. Like, ‘Maybe they’re right.’ Instead of being stubborn and finding ways of saying you’re in good shape.

“You listen. You take advice.”

Maroon found a new trainer, lost around 12-15 pounds, and learned how to eat right. Today he is 20–goal scorer in Edmonton, and he had eight goals in 16 last season, playing next to Connor McDavid every night.

Kassian works off the right side of Edmonton’s third or fourth lines, and definitely ranks ahead of Maroon as reclamation projects go. The similarity lies in the fact that each one concluded that the cerebral part of being a pro athlete is as important as the physical part.

“If you want to play for a long time, and be consistently good, that’s one thing you have to wrap your head around,” said Kassian, who is a new person now that he’s sober. “Everyone is good (at hockey) — to try and get that mental edge is what’s important. Patty’s taking full advantage of that.”

Kassian had burned through his third NHL organization at the age of 24 when Chiarelli called. “I can’t thank Peter enough,” Kassian says now. “I was down and out, and he gave me the opportunity.”

Like any recovering alcoholic, Kassian won’t tell you he’s kicked the habit for life. Only that he’s kicked it for another day.

“Oct. 5, 2015. It’s been 17 months,” he said of his sobriety. “Time flies by. I just passed my birthday — when you’re sober you have sobriety birthdays — and my actual birthday (Jan. 24, ’91) doesn’t mean so much now. I consider myself so fortunate to be in an organization like this. We’re clearly on the upswing, and I want to be part of it.”

Having interviewed Kassian many times as a Canuck, I can attest that he is a new person today. He looks the interviewer in the eye and offers real insight — two things I don’t recall when he was a player with something to hide.

“To see him now, it’s night and day,” said Maroon. “As much as he might be on the fourth line, we need him every night. He PKs, his line chips in every night. Every team needs a guy like him who comes in and lights up the locker room every day. He’s got a smile on his face — there’s never a bad day for him.

“He’s only 26 years old? He’s in good shape, he’s a good dude. Every team is going to want a guy like that. He’s got a long career ahead of him.”

Shall We Battle?

Everyone is watching their own team’s progress, as the NHL transitions into the final quarter of the 82-game schedule. The one I am watching particularly close is a possible Battle of Alberta — the first one since 1991 should the Oilers and Flames manage to meet in Round 1.

It’s a bit of a long shot, but here’s what has to happen: Edmonton, currently three points back of San Jose, has to win the Pacific. And Calgary, in the second wildcard spot one point behind Nashville, must win the first wildcard.

The Flames have heated up (7-2-1 in their past 10 games) and have a four-point edge on the faltering L.A. Kings in ninth place. It’s looking like we could have as many as five Canadian teams in the playoffs — a nice change from zero last season.

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Wake Up Call in Vancouver

OK — this is the final West Coast Bias before the Trade Deadline. I’m going to say this now: If the Vancouver Canucks don’t declare themselves as sellers and make every sensible move to accrue picks and prospects, I (for one) will have some serious concerns about how that organization is being run.

The Canucks would need a semi-miracle to make the playoffs, and even if they did, Minnesota would make short work of them in the first round. The Canucks only have five picks in the upcoming draft — they’ve dealt their fifth and sixth away — and they’ve got some assets that could bring back two or three picks in the higher rounds.

Vancouver made the wrong call last year when they failed to move Dan Hamhuis or Radim Vrbata, two players who could have garnered second-round picks, and can’t make the same mistake with players like Jannik Hansen, Ryan Miller, Alex Burrows, and perhaps even Alex Edler, who has a no-trade clause, so he’d require some convincing.

It’s time to take a long, hard look in that mirror inside the Canucks front office. And to realize what most Canucks fans have been saying all season long.

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