Daily Faceoff: Frank Seravalli and Jason Gregor on the DFO Rundown talking about the Vancouver Canucks and pending RFA forward Elias Pettersson working towards getting a contract extension done that would keep Pettersson in Vancouver long-term.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Gregor: “Frank Seravalli joins me, Jason Gregor, and Frank we’ll get to the Chris Tanev trade in a second but want to talk about big news on the West Coast. It looks like EP, Mr. Pettersson will be staying in Vancouver.”
Seravalli: “Yeah, this is a massive development for the Vancouver Canucks over the last 48 to 72 hours. There was so much talk and rumor and innuendo, so much idle speculation in a very combustible Vancouver market and understandably so given that, you know, more or less the centerpiece, the face of their franchise remained unsigned and was staring down what would potentially be a really fascinating summer for one of the teams at the very top of the standings and certainly in the race for the President’s Trophy.
So the development which I reported on Wednesday is the Canucks and Pettersson’s camp have made significant progress on what is believed to be an eight-year deal. I don’t want to speculate on the total dollars just yet. I think it’s fair to say certainly approaching $100 million total. But it’s, this is absolutely massive for the Canucks. Cannot say more as to what this means to this team and to be able to get something like that done if they can get it across the finish line in the next couple of days.
Would give them potentially, six, seven days before the deadline to really lock in their numbers and have a great idea of what their cut picture looks like moving forward that they could potentially even add someone with term when it comes to the deadline.
Gregor: “So what numbers are we looking at (David) Pastrnak here, are you going higher? What do you think?”
Seravalli: “No, I think it starts with a 12. So…”
Greger: “So higher.”
Seravalli: “Yeah, I don’t know if it’s, well, $12.5 (million) or $12.25 (million) or $12.75 (million) or whatever the number might be. I think it starts with a 12. Either way, it’s going to be significant.
And I think what’s way more fascinating is eventually getting the details on how all this came together because there was a report, a report on Saturday that teams were calling the Canucks trying to gauge interest and that just blew things up in Vancouver to the point where I’m told Pettersson went into the Canucks early this week and said, let’s end all this nonsense. I want to get a deal done. I want to stay in Vancouver.”
Gregor: “Well, it makes sense. Yeah. Especially if it gets the deal that he wants, and now you’re, I’m assuming Frank then we’re talking like eight-year deal?”
Seravalli: “Yes. Eight-year deal. That was one of the hang-ups early on in the process and not for the Canucks. They were fine with whatever he wanted to do, whether it was four years, five years, ten, eight years, excuse me the max. They were on board with that and it was just a matter of getting him to come to the table.
That was the part that had frustrated them the most was not his nonchalance because I don’t think he wasn’t taking it seriously. It was more just he was very comfortable in his own zone, playing this year, then becoming an RFA and figuring it out from there. And they’re sitting here going, this is arguably our best player. We’ve got other business to attend to that we really can’t fully complete until we know what his number is. We can ballpark it.
But to have him sign pen to paper is a totally different story. And if and when that happens there’s going to be a serious sigh of relief in that Vancouver Canucks front office.”
Greger: “So you look, you know he’s making $7.3 (million) now, that’s about a $5 million raise, give or take. They, they have the $2.2 (million) extra next year from Oliver Ekman-Larsson who jumps up as far as dead cap space .
So they’ll have to do some maneuvering now even with the cap going up. That’s an additional $7.2 million from those two for next year for Canuck fans, anybody who’s wondering about the future their cap.”
Seravalli: “Yeah, but Filip Hronek is gonna cost a lot. I believe that number still starts with an eight in front of it.”
Gregor: “Yeah. Well, Tyler Myers is $6 million that comes off the books. I’d, you know, I’d be surprised if, if he’s coming back at anything close to that.”
Seravalli: “So they also have a $4.5 million dollar increase. So, ya know, the bulk of that would be going to Pettersson.”
Gregor: “Oh, yeah. Pettersson basically eats it up, so. I know they’ll have to go up like every team. You know what, you’ll have to move around some pieces for sure. You know, they’ve got Ian Cole. I think they really like. Will they pay him $3 mill next year, remains to be seen? So they’ve got some, some ways to maneuver around. Obviously, doesn’t impact this year at their deadline but it does impact in a sense that if you’re trying to acquire guys with term, right?”
Seravalli: “Yeah, and that’s the thing, I don’t know how aggressive they’re gonna be, but they can’t really go down the Hronek path and get him locked up until they know officially what Pettersson is.
And then you’re looking at the rest of their situation. Like here’s where things started to get dicey for the Canucks, is if they go into the offseason, and he’s not signed Pettersson, really what your your deadline is, is the date to file for arbitration. Because if you don’t get a deal done by then and Pettersson files for arbitration and goes through with it, he forces you into a one-year deal. And then at that point, if you’re the Canucks, there’s almost no way you can have him enter next season on a one-year deal. And then put yourself in a precarious position where you have to move him before the deadline or risk getting nothing for him, in a year in which you’re expected to be a contender again.
So, I mean, I can’t stress enough how, had they gone through this regular season and not gotten him signed that, if you thought in already bubbling situation would have been interesting, it would have flowed over, I think in the summer and really turn the heat up. So again, huge, huge news for the Canucks. And you know, the fact that this could get done in the next couple of days is pretty massive.”
Gregor: “Alright, so Vancouver fans will be happy.”
