On today’s episode of Canucks Conversation, David Quadrelli and Harman Dayal broke down the latest Canucks news, including the scuffle between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller at Wednesday’s practice.

The discussion began with Thursday morning’s roster changes, which saw the club assigning forward Arshdeep Bains and defenceman Erik Brännström to the AHL. The move frees up cap space for the next few days, leading many to believe it’s financially driven, with the likelihood that one or both players will be recalled before Saturday’s home game against the Penguins.

“This could just be a paper transaction, but it could also be the Canucks saying, ‘We have Forbort back, so the defence is going back to the way it was before Forbort left,’” Quads noted.

“I’d expect it to be a paper transaction,” said Harm. “Brännström’s last couple of games have been really strong, especially against Chicago, which was probably his best as a Canuck. He’s only played three, but he’s building in a positive direction. The underlying numbers have been a lot better for that third pair—controlling play, spending time in the offensive zone, not getting hemmed in without the puck—and it’s helped settle Desharnais’ game down as well. Given the struggles this blueline has had moving the puck with the second and third pairings, I’d expect Brännström to come back up.”

Next, the guys discussed the practice scuffle between Miller and Pettersson, where tensions flared during a battle drill. The two exchanged a few chops, Miller reportedly called Pettersson a baby, and they went their separate ways without any teammates or coaches needing to intervene.

“On the rankings of NHL practice scuffles, that’s low,” said Quads. “Garland and Joshua were throwing punches at each other, had to be separated by teammates, and were best friends by the end of the year. To me, it’s not a huge deal. We know J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson don’t necessarily love each other—they’ve had their run-ins in the past—but it’s an NHL practice, and they’re battling. Petey talked about it and said it’s good to get the temperature up in practice. We’ve seen worse.”

“If it was Carson Soucy and Teddy Blueger having that type of exchange, is anyone even tweeting about it?” Harm agreed. “This is getting more attention because it’s your two star players. Ultimately, it’s a nothing burger. Anyone who’s played competitive sports for a long time can think of situations where teammates get into it during practice, and it was never a big deal beyond that. We know Petey has been struggling, and maybe Miller’s trying to push his buttons to get him going emotionally. We’ve seen Miller step up and fight a guy for taking a run at Pettersson, so they clearly have each other’s backs during games.”

The conversation then turned to more general news, with Harm highlighting the struggles of the Myers-Soucy defensive pairing, which hasn’t been as solid as expected.

“I think there’s a higher level for Soucy to reach,” Harm said. “That pair shouldn’t struggle as much as they have to this point in the season. If we’re having this same conversation two weeks from now and this Soucy-Myers pair keeps getting caved in, you’re going to have to experiment, and it will become more of an issue as the quality of opponents increases. They’ve been able to get away with it a little against teams like Chicago and Philadelphia, but once the schedule gets tougher, you’ll need to make changes if the problems persist.”

You can watch the full replay of today’s show below: