Elliotte Friedman Reveals Canucks' Trade Plans for Elias Pettersson
NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman has given some insight into what the Vancouver Canucks intend to do with Elias Pettersson after the JT Miller trade.
JT Miller was traded much to the chagrin of Canucks fans as well as his former teammates, as the rift with him and fellow star Elias Pettersson reached a critical boiling point with Miller the casualty being sent to New York in a blockbuster deal.
It was a move that hasn't sat well with Pettersson's teammates, and a new report from Elliotte Friedman signals that those players with an axe to grind with Pettersson will only get sharper by the day.
A wait and see attitude is not necessarily something anyone wants to hear and GM Patrik Allvin seems fairly confident in his team's ability to compete, but if Pettersson's teammates are unwilling to put in the effort to work with him, it becomes moot.
The Canucks are the definition of middling. It's always one step forward, two backward. Last season the team first in the Pacific and were a surprise all season. This year they're fifth.
They've gone cold offensively and gotten worse defensively. From being sixth in goals in the NHL last season to 22nd this season, it was players like Miller who stepped up when Vancouver needed it. It's the Quinn Hughes show for sure, but beyond that their best scorer besides Miller is scrappy winger Conor Garland.
Pettersson this season only has 11 goals and 22 assists, on pace for some of his worst numbers ever. His defense has dropped, he's winning less faceoffs and he went from a plus-20 last season to a minus-5 this year; a stark contrast.
He signed a mind-boggling eight-year, $92.8M deal last March and seemed poised to be the future of the Canucks, but up until a day or so ago was potentially on his way out.
For his career, the former fifth overall pick has 181 goals and 264 assists in 453 games with a plus-51.
While Vancouver is waiting to see what's happening with their team and if they can succeed with him leading the forwards, it's still going to be rough for the Canucks. But if he can turn things around it could be a trade fans look back on as a sigh of relief instead of disappointment.
