CA Podcast: Episode 15 of Canucks Conversation ft. Irfaan Gaffar & Patrick Johnston

Another week, another podcast. This week we are joined by Sportsnet’s Irfaan Gaffar and then get to sit down with former Canucks Army writer turned Canucks reporter Patrick Johnston of The Province. Lots of great Canucks chat to go along with both of their stories on how they got to where they are in sports media.

First off this week we were joined by Irfaan Gaffar, a local Vancouver guy who’s been reporting on the Vancouver Canucks since the 2010-11 run. Irfaan and I talk about his time being the teleprompter operator for Don Taylor back in the Sportsnet Pacific days and how he has learned so much from some of his mentors like Don Taylor, Farhan Lalji and Dan Murphy.

We talked a bit about his career and then transition into chatting about how this team has surprised the fan base coming off of the final season for the Sedins. We also chat about how Quinn Hughes will be coming to Vancouver very soon and how Irf thinks the coach will deploy Hughes as he breaks into the NHL.

After Irf, I was lucky enough to chat with Patrick Johnston, a former CanucksArmy contributor who now writes for the The Province newspaper. We get into how he came up through media and gave up his former job of being a school teacher to explore the sports writing market in Vancouver.

Patrick Johnston talks about how much he has loved being on the road with Canucks this season and having a two-page spread in the Province. We talk a lot about Quinn Hughes coming to the Canucks as well and chat about how this team has shaped out this season with the growth of the young core and how far away they are from being a playoff competitor.

These two brought a lot to this episode, figuratively and literally, as this was the longest episode I have ever released. I also talk a bit about being a Vancouver Island guy who was over in Vancouver all week, having some run ins with other podcasters like Ryan Schaap of PucksOnNet and Justin Morissette of Real Good Show and Sportsnet650. I also talk about my first experience at The Roxy and how it was a lot of fun being able to have the opportunity to go on-air live in studio with Matt Sekeres and Blake Price on TSN1040.

Hope you enjoy this weeks episode as this was a lot of fun for me to chat with these two awesome guests. Next week we dive back into the crazy world of Canucks twitter and will be chatting with some local fans. As always, if you are interested in coming on the Canucks Conversation podcast please send and email to CanucksConvo@hotmail.com and we will get in touch!

10:55 (Irfaan Gaffar Conversation)

1:04:26 (Patrick Johnston Conversation)