Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - SATURDAY HEADLINES: Connor Zary To The Vancouver Canucks?? | Instant Reaction

Episode Date: October 11, 2026

Gould reacts to the latest edition of Elliotte Friedman’s Saturday Headlines on Sportsnet, leading with the trade talk surrounding Calgary Flames forward Connor Zary. The Vancouver Canucks are among the teams interested, but the Flames aren’t looking to retain salary in a deal. Could Zary end up with a Pacific Division rival? Gould also breaks down the New York Rangers’ next steps with Igor Shesterkin out for the season, why a Connor Hellebuyck move isn’t expected, and the unchanged situation involving Simon Edvinsson, who still wants a trade while the Detroit Red Wings want a new contract. Plus, the latest on Alexander Nikishin, with no trade imminent and the Carolina Hurricanes open to bringing him back. Video Link: https://youtu.be/cw4AHLpkhBcAll reporting and information discussed in this segment comes from Elliotte Friedman’s Saturday Headlines on Sportsnet. #nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #vancouvercanucks #calgaryflames Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Of course, today is Saturday. It's not Hockey Night in Canada anymore, but it is Saturday, and that does mean Saturday headlines over from Elliot Friedman on the national broadcaster and some really, really interesting takeaways from tonight's show from Freed, including some discussion about Connor Zerry, potentially being a target of the Vancouver Canucks. Now, the Canucks, there was a lot of buzz around the Canucks when Zari first went on waivers from their fans and from their media because they had the first dibs on waivers

for the month of October having finished last in the NHL last season. They got first dibs until it were a month way into the new season. And Zeri is apparently on Vancouver's radar, but not enough that they were willing to bite the bullet and take on his contract without sending something Calgary's way. Of course, they could have taken them out for free, but if they can move a body or have the flexibility with Zeri having already cleared. waivers to keep him in the the HL, maybe for a little bit.

They'd be a team that according to Elliott Friedman is interested in the 25-year-old forward. Now, I found this particularly interesting for a couple of reasons. Vancouver, if they were to, for example, take on Zeri at his full freight, they would be able to flip

Zeri with salary retention. Now, the Flames are a team that is limited in that arena, and as Freeman noted, they are not willing to retain money on Connors area because they only have one retention spot left this season and they don't want to use it on Connor's area. The Canucks, however, have no such limit.

Well, they do have a limit, but they're not up against the limit like the flames are. They have retained on Tyler Myers, but they have two open retention spots. So if the Canucks choose to take a flyer on Conner's area and it doesn't work out, they have a little bit more flexibility as far as potentially flipping him with retention, getting him down below two million a year potentially at some point down. the line. Now, the Canucks also have their fair share of problem children. Don't mean to sound too majority, but they have their own players who maybe have had their time in the Canucks organization are looking for a change of scenery themselves and who maybe wouldn't have, maybe Zari wouldn't

have room to join the Canucks without them putting one of these players elsewhere. A name that I'm really kind of interested in, this purely speculation on my part, but I'm really curious about Atu Ratu from the Vancouver Canucks. A similar aged player is a year younger than Connor Zeri. But like Connor Zeri, he was one of the older players in his draft class. Zeri was born in September of 2001. And Atu Ratu born in November of 2002 and was at one point projected to be one of the top picks in the 21 draft, ended up going to the Islanders at number 52, and was traded to Vancouver

a couple of years later for Bo Horvat. Atu Ratu had 14 points in 66 games at the Canucks last year. He has a left shot center from Finland. He's on the bigger side. He's 6 foot 2. The one reason why I wonder about Atu Ratu and a Missouri trade, though,

he's only signed through the end of the year, and he is great in the face-off circle, which is something the flames could honestly kind of need. Ratu, for his career at 117 NHL games, is 59.3% in the dot for the Canucks and the Islanders. Played 15 games, or pardon me, 12 games of the Islanders in his rookie year before being traded for Bo Horvatt. And since then, I mean, last year with the Canucks, he went 60.5% in the dot. This year, in three games with Vancouver, he's won 20 of 33 face-off.

So kind of an interesting idea, if you're looking at maybe a body-for-body swap from the Flames and the Canucks, maybe Atu Ratu as a player who they would be interested in because other than taking face-offs, Ratu doesn't have much of a role in Vancouver. He averaged just 12 minutes tonight with Vancouver last year and is down to under 10 at 921 with the Canucks this season. So just something maybe to keep in mind. Atu Ratu is a potential piece for the Flames to covet

if the Canucks are as interested as there, as the Friedman makes it seem. That was an interesting part of Saturday headlines tonight. There were some other interesting pieces as well. Freeman does not expect the Rangers to make any rash, decisions in the wake of Igor Shisterkin's sudden season ending injury. My expectation is Dylan Garand, who has roots here in Calgary, will get maybe an extended chance between the pipes for the Rangers. They were very fortunate. He cleared waivers a couple of weeks ago. Garand has appeared in

five NHL games with a 954 save percentage. So pretty good numbers there. Other notes from Freeman is that it's status quo on Simon Evanson, no trade with Alexander Nikitian is on the radar. So a lot of status quo, but some big news, or at least moderate-sized news about Connor Zeri coming down the pipe from Elliott today.