Donnie & Dhaliwal: J.P. Barry, the agent for Vancouver Canucks forward Elias Pettersson, on the potential contract negotiations this offseason.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Don Taylor: “When do you expect to start talking with the Canucks about Elias Petterson?”
Barry: “Like the last several guys we’ve been involved with, generally they do start in the summer sometime. They get past July 1 and you start up, get past the initial rush of July 1 cause there’s no rush to this negotiation, and then you get in and talk, they take their own life, you talk about the future.
Sometimes they take a whole year like (Filip) Forsberg did. Sometimes they take eight months like (David) Pastrnak did. Sometimes they take four months like (Mathew) Barzal did. Those are all the last recent ones.
I think it’s going to open a dialogue and everyone can talk about all the issues. I’m pretty sure we’re going to talk about a longer-term commitment this time.”
Taylor: “So on Saturday, J.P., Canucks players were made available to the media and Elias Pettersson when it came to the subject of contract extension, said, ‘he likes it here.’ And of course, Canucks Twitter is like, that set off a firestorm because he didn’t say, ‘he loves it here.’
J.P., where is Elias at when it comes today when it comes to his desire to stay in Vancouver?”
Barry: “I think he wants to stay in Vancouver. I think he just wants to make sure there’s a really lengthy discussion about all the right things. It’s really hard for a player, obviously, it’s the biggest contract of their lives, so I know everyone wants to hear them 100 percent commit but I mean part of it, part of their own leverage in negotiating with those options is free agency.
So if you want to throw those out the door. So I think he’s being a well-schooled client and saying, ‘Well look, I mean I have to talk about everything about my future,’ and that really is the way it is when it comes to a free agent deal.”
Rick Dhaliwal: “J.P., in 2004 you went to England with the Sedin twins to meet with Dave Nonis and Mark Crawford, to get a feel about how the Sedin’s fit in Vancouver.
Are you going to have to do the same thing here, meet with the Canucks, and get a vision and a plan, because the last seven, eight, nine, ten years J.P. have not been great in Vancouver and they’ve done a lot of losing.”
Barry: “I expect there will be some face-to-face. I do. Whether or not Pat and I go out there or we do it somewhere neutral, we need to talk.
It’s going to be a significant deal, especially if I think, pretty sure this time that Vancouver would like to take as many years as they could. So, I expect those kind of meetings to happen.”