What insiders are saying about Pettersson's Canucks contract negotiations
There’s new hope this week that the Vancouver Canucks can soon sign Elias Pettersson to a contract extension.
Pettersson indicated in the summer that he was going to take a wait-and-see approach, but perhaps that won’t mean waiting until the end of the season.
Canucks GM Patrik Allvin told Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff earlier in the week that he’s been talking to Pettersson’s agent, saying, “Hopefully we’ll get it done sooner rather than later.”
Multiple insiders have shared intel on the negotiation in the past 24 hours, and the news sounds positive. A deal doesn’t sound imminent though.
The big question with Pettersson’s contract is the term. The 25-year-old is eligible to sign a deal of up to eight years in length, but both Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet and Rick Dhaliwal of Donnie and Dhali on CHEK have hinted that the deal could be much shorter than that.
Friedman brought up Owen Power’s contract negotiation, in which the Buffalo Sabres wanted to sign him to an eight-year deal. Power, who like Pettersson is represented by CAA Hockey, ended up taking a seven-year deal because it would see him become an unrestricted free agent at age 29 instead of 30.
“Pettersson, if he signs a three-year deal, will next be eligible for an extension the summer before he turns 29,” Friedman said on today’s edition of the 32 Thoughts podcast. “I’m not saying it’s going to be a three-year deal, but I think it’s possible that Pettersson goes for that area of term instead of eight.”
Speaking with Mike Halford on Sportsnet 650 this morning, Dhaliwal also dropped hints on what the term could look like.
“A shorter-term deal is definitely on the menu… Possibly a three-year deal, maybe four years,” he said.
“A new deal is not happening anytime soon. This is going to take time. The fact they’re talking is absolutely huge and positive. One person in the know said, ‘It’s in the early stages, lots of work to do.’ Whether it’s long term or short term, the key is this looks like it’s going to happen and have a happy ending.”
Similarly, TSN’s Darren Dreger had good things to say about the negotiations on Insider Trading.
“There’s good communication between the Vancouver Canucks and CAA Hockey, who represents Pettersson. But it’s still too early to get to a place where you’re swapping comps or you’re swapping parameters. But again, there’s a chance this gets done in-season.”