The Vancouver Canucks still have important decisions to make with their pending UFAs, but signing Elias Pettersson through his prime years is a bargain, says Adam Proteau.
The Vancouver Canucks still have important decisions to make with their pending UFAs, but signing Elias Pettersson through his prime years is a bargain, says Adam Proteau.
The Vancouver Canucks made a huge investment in their future on Saturday, signing superstar forward Elias Pettersson to an eight-year contract that carries an annual salary cap hit of $11.6 million per season.
The deal comes on the heels of rumors the Canucks were exploring trade options with the Carolina Hurricanes for Pettersson, but many observers were skeptical a trade would happen. Vancouver executive Jim Rutherford and GM Patrik Allvin didn’t want to be known as the ones who sent Pettersson packing, and if the Canucks could re-sign him at a reasonable rate, they always were going to keep him in the fold.
Pettersson’s extension cuts into Vancouver’s cap flexibility, with the team now having 15 players under contract for 2024-25 and about $24.9 million in cap space to fill out the roster.
If they re-sign recent trade acquisition Elias Lindholm, that will make Allvin’s job even more difficult to keep their defense corps intact, with Filip Hronek becoming an RFA after this season and Tyler Myers, Nikita Zadorov and Ian Cole becoming UFAs. Pettersson’s willingness to take a relatively cheap extension does give Allvin more power to keep the team competitive, and although Pettersson will be the highest-paid player on the Canucks, the talent that’s been assembled around him takes some of the pressure off him to do all the heavy lifting for the franchise.
Pettersson won’t be the NHL’s highest-paid performer, but at age 25, he will still get another big financial swing at the plate when he becomes a UFA in 2032. But this new contract means Pettersson no longer has to deal with questions about his immediate and long-term future. He’s committed to the Canucks, he’s made some sacrifices to keep the roster as intact as possible, and he’s still moving into his prime. All he has to worry about now is the challenge of winning a Stanley Cup.
That said, Pettersson has given Vancouver management a bargain. If he had’ve brushed off long-term extension offers, signed a one-year deal this summer and walked to unrestricted free agency the following year, Pettersson would've easily been able to make much more than the $11.6 million he settled for with the Canucks. Instead, Pettersson was loyal and humble, and that’s why he’s made Vancouver fans love him all the more. He wasn’t going to settle for a deal that was in the $9-million to $10-million range, but by ratcheting up the money to nearly $12 million per year, Canucks brass found a way to keep Pettersson around.
In this year of many positive things for the Canucks, Pettersson’s extension ranks up there with the very best news they've had in many a year.