Welcome Matt: Canucks need to make playoffs this season to avoid Pettersson trade talks
The stakes were already going to be high with the Vancouver Canucks this season.
Perennial losers who fall short of their stated goal of making the playoffs, this year comes the added challenge of keeping Elias Pettersson’s services.
Elliotte Friedman told our old friends Halford and Brough this morning on Sportsnet 650 that he believes that “almost all” of Pettersson’s decision to re-sign with the Canucks will be based on team performance this year.
Pettersson foreshadowed this two years ago — the last time he was negotiating a contract extension — saying he wanted to play for a team that is perennially in the postseason and has a chance to compete for a Cup.
The Canucks have missed the playoffs twice since then, and haven’t approximated Cup contention.
Last season was embarrassing from tip to tail. Allegations against the owner by his own children, a Human Rights complaint against management, the botched firing of Bruce Boudreau, the mishandling of Tanner Pearson’s injury…anything close to the clown show of last year effectively chases Petey out of town.
We’ve been waiting, wondering when the dam would break with these Canucks. How much losing could the fan base take before we start seeing attendance declines?
Well, turns out it may be the star centreman whose patience wears thin first.
The fact is, the Canucks have just not been a well-run organization for the past decade, and eventually that comes home to roost.
Suddenly, that home opener against Edmonton on Oct. 11 and the five-game road trip that follows becomes even more urgent than it already was. The Canucks have had two straight dreadful Octobers, burying themselves in the Western Conference playoff race before it even began.
A third straight and the talk around this team will focus on a Pettersson trade.
And nobody wants that.
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