This is a good poll.
I was quite disappointed with Pettersson's play for most of last season. Despite scoring over a PPG, he did not look anywhere near as good as he did in 2022-23.
There have been talks about him possibly playing injured, but I find it hard to believe he was injured for 6+ months. However it's a possible explanation.
On the defensive side of the puck, he was significantly better than Stutzle, but again, not at the same "deserves Selke votes" level he was in 2022-23.
As for Stutzle, there was pretty strong evidence that he was playing with an injured wrist for most of the season, which explains his dramatic drop in both shots and goals.
It was a disappointing season from him nonetheless, and frankly from the Sens as a whole. Personally I don't agree with his decision to play most of the season with a wrist injury and think he should've taken time off to recover fully.
Neither player got to play much with their top offensive players (Miller and Tkachuk) for most of the season.
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Stutzle is three years younger and locked up long term for three million less per season. I think his offensive potential is that of a 100-point player.
Defensively, he's quite poor.
Pettersson is currently the better player both offensively and defensively.
So it's really a question of whether you expect Stutzle to be able to catch Pettersson offensively while improving his defensive game enough to at least not be a liability (I highly doubt he will ever catch Pettersson defensively).
I'm really not sure what we will see out of Pettersson next season. I'd imagine it's somewhere between what we saw in 2023 and 2024. But if we get 2024 Pettersson, the Canucks will be in trouble.
I think I would take Stutzle in this situation. I expect him to bounce back offensively and even if he remains weak defensively, he's got a lot more room to grow and develop than Pettersson does given his age. Plus he's three million cheaper per season.