Trades are coming fast and furious in the NHL this week.
We even had one in TSN’s mock draft.
After initially projecting the Canucks to select Medicine Hat Tigers winger Liam Ruck at No. 24, TSN director of scouting Craig Button had Vancouver trading to get the No. 29 pick and selecting Tigers centre Markus Ruck, who is Liam’s twin brother.
“We like to see that,” Liam said with a big smile. “We obviously know that maybe it won’t be the easiest thing for a team to pull off, but we do have hope that someone can do it.”
The brothers are from Osoyoos, B.C. and have drawn inspiration from what Hall-of-Famers Henrik Sedin and Daniel Sedin accomplished with the Canucks. The Swedish siblings became co-presidents of hockey operations in Vancouver in May.
The Rucks, who are mirror twins and opposite-handed in just about everything, interviewed individually with the Canucks at the scouting combine earlier this month.
“Both of us said they were awesome,” Markus recalled. “They were pretty easy to talk to and, yeah, they both went well.”
The season went very well for the brothers as they finished 1-2 in the Western Hockey League scoring race. Markus, a lefty, led the way with 108 points, including 87 assists. Liam, a right shot, was just behind with 104 points, including 45 goals.
Vancouver opening a new era with a new set of twins seems like a storybook scenario, but after a flurry of trades changed the draft order, Button revised his mock draft. He still has the Rucks going to the same team, but now it’s the St. Louis Blues picking them at No. 15 and 16 overall.
“With all these trades going on and stuff you never know how everything could play out,” Liam said. “We’re just excited for the draft and then to experience whatever happens.”
During a joint interview with TSN, Markus and Liam broke down their special connection and shared their favourite Sedin twins memory. The following is an edited transcript of the conversation.
TSN: How much better are you guys together?
Markus Ruck: “Quite a bit. We’ve spent a lot of time together and had a lot of practice together. We watch a lot of video together at home. I think that helps a lot. We spent 18 years of our life together and barely been apart. I think we are better together. But we’d both do well apart as well.”
TSN: How much time have you guys spent apart?
Liam Ruck: Not a whole lot. I think the longest is four days, maybe once or twice. We’ve pretty much been through it all together.
TSN: How big of a challenge would it be to carry on your hockey journeys with separate NHL organizations?
Markus Ruck: On the ice I think it would be completely fine. I think off the ice at first would be a little challenging. I think I’d miss him and miss competing with him every day and getting better with him because I think that’s an important thing that we have going. We love competing with each other every day whether it’s just a little fun game or it’s in the gym competing to get better. We love doing that with each other. But on the ice I think if you put a smart player with either of us and watch the same film that we do together, I think you’ll get the same outcome.
TSN: Liam, can you give me a scouting report on Markus?
Liam Ruck: The first couple things to come to mind are smart and competitive. He loves the game. He’s a competitor and he’s such a smart player. Those are his biggest things. The way he can pass the puck, it’s pretty special. Getting the chance to play with him every night the puck just lands on my stick from random areas. He’s sure a fun guy to play with. His vision is pretty special.
TSN: Markus, what’s your scouting report on Liam?
Markus Ruck: It’s the same start. He’s a really smart player and competes all over the ice. He’s a really gifted goal scorer. He’s great around the net and always seems to be open. He’s great at finding the open ice in the slot and anywhere in the O-zone. Obviously 45 goals in your draft year, that’s quite impressive so he’s great at finding the back of the net. He’s a very smart player who does what it takes to win.
TSN: Were bragging rights on the line in the WHL scoring race?
Liam Ruck: No, no, there’s no bragging rights, but it is nice to have someone to push you. We’re lucky in that way. We get to compete with each other every day in the gym and on the ice and in practice. It’s a special bond we got and that does help us out in the long run.
TSN: Markus, what’s your favourite play by Liam this season?
Markus Ruck: One that sticks out from Liam is the Teddy Bear Toss goal. He scored it the past two seasons now. I loved to see him get that one this year. I was just coming on the ice. I was on the bench sort of so I saw it from afar, but I had a good angle of it. There wasn’t much room where he shot it, but it was a great shot. That’s kind of a great memory I have from him in this season.
TSN: Liam, what’s your favourite Markus moment?
Liam Ruck: He had a pretty sweet goal against Tri-City. You can see he’s got a pretty lethal shot. He’s got to start using it a little more. I think he knows that and seeing that one was pretty special.
TSN: How much of an inspiration were the Sedins?
Liam Ruck: They were obviously so fun to watch and just seeing how smart they were as players and how they connected with each other. Being twins, it was sure fun to watch. We were pretty young when they were in their prime but we got to watch a little bit of them and just now watching highlights and seeing all the things they did, it’s pretty cool. We had their shirts growing up and we tried to imitate the things they did.
TSN: What was your favourite Sedins moment?
Markus Ruck: The one play that sticks out, to me at least, is Henrik deflected the puck in between his legs to Daniel coming across the goal line. And then Daniel in between the legs scored. That’s the goal that sticks out to me when I think of their highlights.
TSN: Gavin McKenna mentioned the best way to tell you guys apart is you have different smiles. Is that correct?
Markus Ruck: That’s the first thing people pick up. When people first meet us, they say it is pretty, pretty tough. But I think just spending time with us you kind of pick out some differences. Some people say the nose. Some people said the hair as well. It’s all pretty similar, but with time you start to get to know.
TSN: Do you guys have similar personalities as well?
Liam Ruck: Honestly, away from the rink we are pretty much the exact same with how we act and things. On the ice, he’s more of a pass-first player, I’m more of a shoot-first guy, but away from the rink we have a lot more similarities than differences.
TSN: At the combine, Markus measured a quarter of an inch taller. Liam, does that make sense to you?
Liam Ruck: Yeah, I don’t know how accurate that one was (smile). No, yeah, I’ll give him that one.
TSN: At the combine, did teams ask a lot of questions about the twin connection?
Markus Ruck: Probably all of them, if not most, asked if we could play apart and asked a lot of questions about one another. I had to talk about this guy a lot (smile). But the whole combine experience was unbelievable. At first I was a little nervous but as the meetings went on it just became fun and I really enjoyed it. The meetings were great and, yeah, lots of talking about him.
Liam Ruck: I did usually get the question about whether I could play without my brother. I always say, ‘I think I can but we do hope to play together.’ So, we’ll see how it all plays out. The combine experience was pretty special. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing and we were pretty grateful to be there.
TSN: Will you guys have anything special planned in terms of the draft night fit? Something similar?
Liam Ruck: We got photos on the inside of the suit like lots of guys have been doing. For our colours, they’re a little different. Both blue, but Markus’ is a little darker. Our mom sent us a bunch of colours and we chose our favourite ones and they just happen to be different. But we both got blue suits with photos on the inside.
TSN: Did you guys request the same walk-up songs for when you get picked?
Markus Ruck: I did ‘Night Shift’ by Jon Pardi and ‘More Than My Hometown’ by Morgan Wallen. I don’t know if they just play one or both, but those are the two I put in.
Liam Ruck: (Smiles) I did the same two, but the other way around so hopefully we get one each.
TSN: McKenna is projected to go first overall to the Leafs. You guys played with him a couple years and got to know him well. How do you think he’d fare in the spotlight in Toronto?
Markus Ruck: I think he’d do awesome. He’s a very, very confident guy but also a humble guy. He just doesn’t crumble under pressure. He lives for the big moments so I think he’d do unbelievable. There’s no doubt in my mind that if he goes there, he’s gonna do awesome things.
TSN: Confident and humble, how does he walk that line?
Liam Ruck: I don’t know, but he does a good job at it. He’s pretty good at that. He’s handled the pressure up until this point of kind of being the No. 1 guy throughout his whole life pretty much. It’s pretty cool to see and seeing him two years back when we were with him, it was pretty cool. He handled himself well and I know he’ll do great things wherever he is.
TSN: Do you have a favourite McKenna story or moment?
Liam Ruck: In Game 5 of the WHL Finals (in 2025), he was battling a bit of an injury and decided to come back and he scored a pretty big goal. That’s a moment I always remember.
