There was a latest push on extension talks between the Canucks and middle Elias Pettersson, and it seems that push helped get a deal over the end line. The workforce introduced that they’ve inked Pettersson to an eight-year contract extension. The workforce didn’t disclose the contract’s monetary phrases, however Every day Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli studies that the deal is value $92.8M in whole for an AAV of $11.6M.
Vancouver drafted the 25-year-old within the first spherical (fifth general) again in 2017, and since then, he has gone from being a key core piece to a respectable franchise participant. Pettersson gained the Calder Trophy in his rookie marketing campaign in 2018-19 the place he had 66 factors and adopted that up with 66 extra the next season. Nonetheless, an injury-riddled 2020-21 season finally resulted within the two sides deciding on a three-year bridge deal, which was set to run out this summer time the place he would have been a restricted free agent with wage arbitration eligibility and a 12 months away from unrestricted free company.
This season, Pettersson’s per-game averages are down simply barely as he’s on tempo for 38 targets and 61 assists, that are nonetheless upper-tier league-wide whereas he’s an all-situations participant. That had solely helped spur on hypothesis about his willingness to signal long-term with the Canucks since he was nonetheless wanting to attend till the offseason to place pen to paper on his subsequent contract. That hypothesis received to the purpose the place Vancouver and Carolina reportedly entered into critical discussions a few potential commerce earlier than Vancouver and Pettersson took a step again and opted to take an actual run at hammering out a brand new deal, which proved fruitful.
The contract is by far the richest in franchise historical past, an consequence that shouldn’t come as a lot of a shock contemplating Pettersson’s latest efficiency and the excessive demand for top-end facilities. The deal will make him the fifth-highest-paid participant AAV-wise within the NHL subsequent season behind solely Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, and Artemi Panarin.
Vancouver has somewhat over $60M in spending on the books for subsequent season per CapFriendly to only a dozen gamers with Filip Hronek headlining their crop of restricted free brokers. Of word, solely two full-time common defensemen are below contract for 2024-25 so GM Patrik Allvin might want to allocate numerous their remaining cash to filling out the again finish. In the meantime, Pettersson is now certainly one of simply three Canucks below contract previous the 2026-27 marketing campaign, becoming a member of middle J.T. Miller and blueliner Quinn Hughes.
