Confirmed with Link: Pettersson Signs 8 Year Deal with the Vancouver Canucks, AAV $11.6M

[Hodgy]

That hurts to hear, but I can't immediately dismiss it.

Pettersson could just be afraid and soft, but then that doesn't reconcile with Bubble Pettersson. Nor does him being afraid align with the start of the playoffs, as he was being questioned since the All-Star break.

He mentions a mental issue where Pettersson cannot flush bad play. This could be it, but if it is, then it's again not the heebeejeebees due to the playoffs.

So many questions as to what happened to him...

Ya, I think when you are confident and being decisive with the puck, and making moves and plays with speed, then its hard for the other team to hit you. But when you are playing like Pettersson was its actually really easy for the other team to hit you if you try and hold onto the puck. And I think it was kind of a positive feedback loop in that he was playing poorly (not confident or decisive or quick with puck) for the last half to a third of the season, and this carried over into the playoffs when the speed and opposition forecheck and physicality increased, and he wasn't able to speed up his game and become more dynamic and quick, and as a result, he was forced to become even more tentative and less confident with the puck.

Personally, like countless other star players that have struggled at some points in their career I believe Pettersson is going to make many people look stupid and eat their words. I really do.

For sure. Petey has already gone through a similar stretch of poor play and he bounced back and scored a 100 points. I don't view his play as showing us that he can't be a playoff performer. I think its pretty obvious he was bad over the last half of the regular season and came into the playoffs playing bad, and its not surprising that he wasn't able to get out of his slump during the playoffs when its the fasted most tight checking time of the year.

If he came into the playoffs playing great and then played liked he did then I'd be more concerned on that point.

 

[Hit the post]

Ya, I think when you are confident and being decisive with the puck, and making moves and plays with speed, then its hard for the other team to hit you. But when you are playing like Pettersson was its actually really easy for the other team to hit you if you try and hold onto the puck. And I think it was kind of a positive feedback loop in that he was playing poorly (not confident or decisive or quick with puck) for the last half to a third of the season, and this carried over into the playoffs when the speed and opposition forecheck and physicality increased, and he wasn't able to speed up his game and become more dynamic and quick, and as a result, he was forced to become even more tentative and less confident with the puck.


For sure. Petey has already gone through a similar stretch of poor play and he bounced back and scored a 100 points. I don't view his play as showing us that he can't be a playoff performer. I think its pretty obvious he was bad over the last half of the regular season and came into the playoffs playing bad, and its not surprising that he wasn't able to get out of his slump during the playoffs when its the fasted most tight checking time of the year.

If he came into the playoffs playing great and then played liked he did then I'd be more concerned on that point.

He put up pretty good/respectable post-season numbers in 2020 (not bad for a 20 year old/sophmore).

 

[theguardianII]

He put up pretty good/respectable post-season numbers in 2020 (not bad for a 20 year old/sophmore).

Ya, but something has changed. there have been 50 goals scorers disappear due to injuries, thinking about Cheechoo here.

We shall wait and see when they do the end of year presser.

But if there is some doubt strike while the iron is hot and teams will pay for him. Utah and Columbus really need to make a big splash and EP's totals will be headline news in those markets especially with his age. Both teams are deep in top prospects and with Utah, oodles of draft picks.

 

[thecupismine]

Nah, this is just stupid analysis and bothers me a ton as someone who used to coach a lot of highly talented, but highly introverted people.

Hockey media, alongside most sports medias, have a really tough time evaluating poor performances from guys who aren't rah rah, show a ton of emotion kind of players. Petey these playoffs wasn't avoiding contact, if anything his contact game went UP during the playoffs as he was trying to find his game - the soft argument is just playing into a narrative Frank wants to build.

Petey's issues to me are pretty cut and dry. When his play slips, it gets in his head, and then his play slips more, and gets more into his head, etc. and starts to spiral out of control. This is what happened at the start of the season two seasons ago, and it took a massive wake-up call (new coach + new management) for him to get his confidence back.

The opposite of this is true too - when he's playing well, it inspires his next game, and it really starts to take off. While this is seemingly good, being this reliant on your play from a previous game to inform your mental going into the next game makes you prone to prolonged lapses if things go wrong (especially if your linemates can't get you going and the pressure is squarely on your shoulders).

What he needs to work on is controlling those emotions better, and learning to get himself into that flow state consistently + independently of the outcome of prior games. The best thing the Canucks can do is get him working with a sports psychologist, similar to what Boesser did last summer.

 

[mossey3535]

Personally, like countless other star players that have struggled at some points in their career I believe Pettersson is going to make many people look stupid and eat their words. I really do.

Like the Marner comparisons are dumb IMO. They've been watching him choke for SEVEN SEASONS (I forgave his rookie year). This is effectively the entire team's first real playoffs.

I also thought Quinn was playing at like 50%, his point totals are inflated because most of the offence runs through him. But he has a lot more to give too. Not worried about either of them.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

Pasta’s is quite impressive actually, a good chunk of his mins were played without a top line caliber linemate and he had an amazing season.

I agree that he is the most impressive out of the players the poster I replied to listed.

But still Zacha and Marchand for like ½ a season vs what EP got outside of his short stint with the Lotto line.

Lol the Garland-Lindholm-Joshua line was our best line along with the Suter-Miller-Boeser line. Then there was a big drop off and the next best line was our 4th line. The worst was the Pettersson line. Tocchet mentioned he didn’t want to split up his strongest line just to get a struggling player going, but to help insulate EP 5-on-5 he eventually had to put Lindholm with EP and move Petey to the wing. The fact is Pettersson wasn’t amongst the top 7-8 forwards on the team in the playoffs.

Dont start your posts with "lol"...

The Garland Lindholm Joshua line was not doing anything.

Nothing changed when Lindholm was replaced with Blueger.

 

[PuckMunchkin]

You are right that Pettersson's production would have been improved somewhat by better wingers. But if he was playing like a 1st line centreman in the 2nd half of the regular season OR the playoffs, he would have been given 1st line wingers. I don't think Tocchet was biased against Pettersson at all. He was given 2nd/3rd line wingers and 2nd/3rd line matchups because he was playing like a 2nd/3rd line centreman.

Im not saying anyone was biased against him.

We dont have 2nd line wingers to give him.

Mikheyev was playing replacement level hockey and Höglander is a very unproven player and a defensive liability.


My point is this if you read the thread I was replying to.

You cannot expect MacKinnon level consistency out of Pettersson if you dont give him his Rantanen and Makar to play with. It wont happen.

 

[sting101]

1 primary assist at 5v5 in 13 games and you guys want to keep blaming his linemates?

Zadorov for the love of god had 4 goals and 7 pts playing with Ian Cole.

He sucked at executing on the PP, was soft on pucks overwhelmed and out skated often.

He signed that contract felt insecure by the fact he was now being paid way more than anyone had ever in a Canuck uniform yet wasn't even the best player. (really should have been 9.975 tops) Tocchet Miller Hughes Boeser alll these alphas to look in the eye after they teased and congratulated him. followed by media and management ownership etc

Then he struggled the confidence and insecurities got worse more sinking and he just didnt know how to climb out of it with little help and no time to feel sorry for himself as the games became tougher and more magnified

He'll find his way out of but you can't erase it and it will linger around until he shows that he can control these swoons and be a leader. (sports psychologist yes)
The video games social media BS needs to give way to a dedicated warrior man with a killer instinct not a stand offish teen with insecurities. There is no short cuts. Get in the gym on the ice and train like the best do and the elite skills will take over.

Enough of the excuses

 

[supercanuck]

Im not saying anyone was biased against him.

We dont have 2nd line wingers to give him.

Mikheyev was playing replacement level hockey and Höglander is a very unproven player and a defensive liability.


My point is this if you read the thread I was replying to.

You cannot expect MacKinnon level consistency out of Pettersson if you dont give him his Rantanen and Makar to play with. It wont happen.

The best player in the world spent the entire season with either another top 5 forward in the game on his line, or 50 goal scorer Hyman, or both. I know it's McDavid but how would he fare if got stuck with Connor Brown and Warren Foegele instead?

 

[PuckMunchkin]

The best player in the world spent the entire season with either another top 5 forward in the game on his line, or 50 goal scorer Hyman, or both. I know it's McDavid but how would he fare if got stuck with Connor Brown and Warren Foegele instead?

He would still be great.

But probably not contending for the Art Ross.

 

[mriswith]

The best player in the world spent the entire season with either another top 5 forward in the game on his line, or 50 goal scorer Hyman, or both. I know it's McDavid but how would he fare if got stuck with Connor Brown and Warren Foegele instead?

I found it funny that after game 1 Oiler fans were complaining that having Janmark on McDavid's wing neutered him.

I can only imagine what they'd have posted if he had two Janmark's on his wings like EP instead of just 1 + 50 goal Hyman

 

[racerjoe]

I don't normally write these... probably partially because I am wrong often... but sometimes it feels good to be right.

 

[Bgav]

Petey injured since Jan. Some of yall went crazy on him. Yikes

 

[Regal]

Petey injured since Jan. Some of yall went crazy on him. Yikes

Eh. A knee injury that doesn’t require surgery but they still didn’t rest him for it despite it still affecting him 5 months later is certainly…interesting. I don’t doubt he was injured but I do question how bad it was, and I get the impression he’s someone who can really start to struggle when something is off more than other stars because so much of his game is on timing. That’s fine at 7 million, but he’ll need to find a way to still be effective when those things happen once he’s making 11+

 

[bossram]

I will absolutely take this opportunity to dunk on the people who vehemently insisted Petey wasn't injured, and was just being "lazy" or "depressed" or something.

It was quite visually obvious his mobility was impaired, particularly his skating. Now we know he had a nagging knee injury since January that got progressively more painful.

Is BobbyMiller guy gonna take his big L?

 

[arttk]

Eh. A knee injury that doesn’t require surgery but they still didn’t rest him for it despite it still affecting him 5 months later is certainly…interesting. I don’t doubt he was injured but I do question how bad it was, and I get the impression he’s someone who can really start to struggle when something is off more than other stars because so much of his game is on timing. That’s fine at 7 million, but he’ll need to find a way to still be effective when those things happen once he’s making 11+

i mean knee injuries explains why his shot went to shit, his balance went to shit, his speed went down and why he wasn't moving as much.

 

[Britton]

Yeah given what we saw from him, the way he was avoiding contact and the impact on his shot and the fact that he just seemed hesitant to shoot in general, a knee injury makes a lot of sense.

 

[ScottishCanuck]

I'd have shut him down in January and not doing that cost us. It makes a lot of sense as to why so much of his game and timing was off, and why his stride went to shit the longer the season went on.

But hey, he's a quiet, introverted European so according to Canucks Twitter it's an excuse and he must be lying.

 

[Hodgy]

I will absolutely take this opportunity to dunk on the people who vehemently insisted Petey wasn't injured, and was just being "lazy" or "depressed" or something.

It was quite visually obvious his mobility was impaired, particularly his skating. Now we know he had a nagging knee injury since January that got progressively more painful.

Is BobbyMiller guy gonna take his big L?

How many people were actually arguing as you suggest, or are you just enjoying throwing up a strawman to knock it down?

For my part, and I think for most on here, the question was whether he had a significant injury that was causing his poor play. And I thought, on a balance of probabilities, based on the available evidence, that he didn't. His acknowledgement that he was playing through a knee injury doesn't entirely address that since we don't know how bad the injury was, and how much it caused his poor play.

To put things another way, if Pettersson's knee injury, which can be healed through rest, was causing him to be a 50 point player from a 100 point player, then why the hell wasn't he rested at all from January to the end of the season when the Canucks were pretty much guaranteed a playoff spot? It doesn't make sense.

 

[Regal]

i mean knee injuries explains why his shot went to shit, his balance went to shit, his speed went down and why he wasn't moving as much.

You’re missing the point. A knee injury that doesn’t require surgery and only requires rest, yet they decided not to rest him a single game all year is certainly suspicious in terms of how severe it should have affected all those things. And while I understand not saying he’s injured, it’s weird to have Tocchet calling him out if it was all on injury. So the question is was he actually unable to do those things well because of the injury alone, or were they somewhat affected and it was his timing and mental game that subsequently fell off because of that? I suspect it’s the latter, and if so it’s not a good sign that a nagging injury has that much of an effect on him.

I fully expect him to be back to himself again at the start of next year. My concern is that with what happened here and going back in 2021-22, whether he’s always going to be more prone to nagging injury slumps than stars who have more physically dominant traits to fall back on, which would be unfortunate at his new price tag. I feel like while this news is better than to hear he wasn’t injured at all, it still leaves us with questions.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Heard a rumour from a coworker that knows someone in the organization who said there's something wrong with his knee. No idea if any of that is true or not but it would explain his lack of separation speed this postseason.

Winrar

 

[Grifter3511]

I'd have shut him down in January and not doing that cost us. It makes a lot of sense as to why so much of his game and timing was off, and why his stride went to shit the longer the season went on.

But hey, he's a quiet, introverted European so according to Canucks Twitter it's an excuse and he must be lying.

I wonder how much of not shutting him down was on Elias himself. He was in a contract year. Last thing he probably wanted was to miss significant time. Probably was told that he could keep playing but whatever is wrong would get worse, or at least more aggrevated.

 

[TruKnyte]

Winrar

Yea I guess the source was good. I can’t remember if they said if it was a sprain or a tear, but if it doesn’t require surgery it’s probably the former.

 

[arttk]

To put things another way, if Pettersson's knee injury, which can be healed through rest, was causing him to be a 50 point player from a 100 point player, then why the hell wasn't he rested at all from January to the end of the season when the Canucks were pretty much guaranteed a playoff spot? It doesn't make sense.

the team will never tell us why. Doesn't change the fact that:
a) he has an injury that did not heal since Jan.
b) actually is a logical reason why his speed decrease, his shot went to shit, his balance went to shit and he skated less
c) this management now has a history of letting players with major injury play (Mik and Petey now).

Also I think most players prefer rehab option over surgery because rehab time is longer, your body is not the same again and needs time to get used to and there is always additional risk with opening your body up.

 

[AlainVigneaultsGum]

Man I love this player.

He's gonna come out flying next year and put up 110. Book it.