The Vancouver Canucks, Elias Pettersson and their center situation
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman on 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – Edmonton Shake it off to win Game 4 episode, on Vancouver Canucks, Elias Pettersson and their center situation.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Kyle Bukauskas: “How about in Vancouver? What do you want to touch on there? Naturally, there’s a lot of Elias Pettersson chatter in the BC West Coast.”
Friedman: “When it comes to Pettersson, he came back from Sweden to meet with Adam Foote when Adam Foote got hired. What did they ask him to show a bit more investment into the team. They took that as investment into the team. They really liked that he did that.
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I, I just feel that Vancouver is only doing this if it solves their center problem. Like that, that’s the only way I think Vancouver is doing this, is if it, if they, because everybody knows they’re a part on (Pius) Suter. What the market looks like it can do for Suter, Vancouver doesn’t want to go there. They would like (Filip) Chytil to either be their 3c or a top-six winger. I think in a perfect world, that’s where they see Chytil playing.
So if Pettersson, if they trade Pettersson, and they don’t solve the other holes, I don’t think they believe it makes any sense for them. So they asked him to show a bit more investment. He’s doing that, and I think they’ve made it clear that, unless it really makes sense for them to fill their other holes, they don’t think it’s good business. That’s where I think it stands.”
Bukauskas: “All right, so for Vancouver as a whole, that as we’re kind of starting to look towards the summer of the seven Canadian teams, I mean, they’ve got to be up there in terms of wanting to do the most in the offseason, to at least put themselves back in the conversation of being a playoff team knowing what could be coming with their captain shortly over the horizon. Would that be fair? Or how are you looking at them right now?”
Friedman: “I think they want to be a contending team, 100%. 100%. That’s why I think this Pettersson move is as we just described it, how do you trade that guy and go backwards and not solve your problems?
I think it’s a perfect way to put it, Kyle, this is a time where you’re looking to solve your problems, not creating more problems for yourself.”
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Bukaukas: “Yeah, there’s been enough problems in that market over the last year.”
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