NHL Network: Elliotte Friedman on Elias Pettersson preparing for the season and his contract situation with the Vancouver Canucks
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jamie Hersch: “Well you mentioned you’re in Stockholm. Another Swedish superstar other than (William) Nylander that you got to sit down with is Elias Pettersson.
Who is in no rush to hurry up and sign a long-term deal with the Vancouver Canucks. What was your sense from your conversation with him in terms of his future?”
Friedman: “Well you know Bruce will have better insight into Elias than I will cause Bruce coached him for all that time.
But first of all, I would say this Jamie, that guy is dialed in. He’s absolutely dialed in for this season. He moved into Stockholm to be close to his trainer. Like a funny story was, we did the interview on one of those tour boats around Stockholm, and he brought a lunch with him. He’s eating the right foods. He’s eating prepared meals. He’s working out really hard. He’s putting on a lot of muscle. Like he’s dialed in and serious.
But he made it very clear, he’s eligible to sign an extension now, even though his contracts up after this season. He’s not an unrestricted free agent. He has another year before he hits that. But he made it very clear that it’s not his priority right now and he wants to wait and focus on the year.
So what that says to me is, he wants to make sure that he can win in Vancouver. He knows his next year is going to be, the next deals going to be big one. Where he is, he’s gonna get a big deal.
One thing I would say to Canucks fans is, don’t take it as he’s not staying. I don’t believe that’s the case. Nothing in my conversation with him said to me that he’s not going to stay there. But I think he wants to make sure that the team, he believes he can win there before he’s going to commit to a long-term deal.”