Monday Mailbag: Jett Woo, Alternate Histories, and Elias Pettersson’s Personality

This is an interesting question. The effect of signing Hossa probably makes the Canucks better, assuming hey don’t have to jettison any of their core players to get the team under the cap; but more importantly, it keeps him off those Chicago Blackhawks teams that were a thorn in the Canucks’ side for years. With Hossa on the side of the good guys, maybe they make it past the Hawks more than once in three years and make to a Cup Final earlier than 2011.

I know it’s an anticlimactic answer, but my guess would be that things would be more or less the same. Maybe they can eke out one more win against the Bruins in 2011, but if Dan Hamhuis and Manny Malhotra are still injured, I doubt he’d be enough to change history.

Drafting Erik Gudbranson at third overall was always going to be a massive reach, but it was also much more likely to go unquestioned nine years ago than it is today. He wasn’t the only big, low-scoring defenseman to be picked early in the first round that year, either. Dylan McIllrath and Derek Forbort were both 6’5″ and scored less than 0.6 points per game in their draft years.

Teams have really only figured out the draft in the past 10 or 15 years, and only discovered that you shouldn’t draft low-scoring defensemen in the first round in the last five. Most drafts of the mid-to-late aughts had a guy or two like Erik Gudbranson. Keaton Ellerby, Jarred Tinordi, and Luke Schenn are a few others who spring to mind.

Elias Pettersson has already been hurt twice this season, and having Gudbranson in the lineup was not enough to act as a deterrant in either of Mike Matheson or Jesperi Kotkaniemi incidents. He also just doesn’t fight that much anyway, largely because no one really does anymore. I wrote at length about this topic earlier this year, and I think I made it pretty clear that I don’t really believe icing an enforcer-type really does anything to prevent injury or protect your star players. Even if it did, I certainly wouldn’t pay $4 million dollars a year and take up one of my six slots on defense for the privilege of having a knuckle-chucker in the lineup.

I can’t imagine it would be much more than what it cost them to acquire a player like Brendan Leipsic or Josh Leivo. The Jets are at the stage in their life cycle where depth is more important than potential, so perhaps they could be convinced to take a player like Tim Schaller or Tanner Kero in return. I think the jury is probably out on Petan, but he’d still be worthwhile buy-low candidate for the Canucks, especially if the rumours that they want to move on from Nikolay Goldobin are true.

It’s going to depend on what stage Thatcher Demko is at in his development. People are eager to point to Carter Hart when they talk about Demko’s future, but the truth is that until he gets some games in he remains a largely unknown commodity.

If they still aren’t sure what they have in Demko by next spring they could do worse than re-signing Markstrom, as long as they aren’t giving up too much money or term. If he keeps up his strong play, I’d be curious to see what you could get for him at the deadline next year, but Demko would have to come a long way between now and then for them to even entertain that idea.

It might boost the numbers of one of the defenders, making him more attractive on the trade market? That’s the best I can come up with.

My instinct is that this is the closest he’s ever been to being traded. The issue is that the Canucks thought a second and a fourth-round pick was not a significant enough return to justify trading him last season, and I doubt his new contract has helped his value increase since then. Unless the rumour mill starts to pick up over the next week, I think we should start preparing ourselves for the possibility that they come back with largely the same defense as last year.

It’s not just you. Woo looked like a decent pick at the time, the type of prospect with a decent shot at becoming an NHL regular but with limited offensive upside. The hope was that with an increased role this year, his offensive game would blossom and he’d look like the kind of player that could be a big part of this team’s future. What’s happened since then can only be described as the best-case scenario. He’s up to 46 points in 45 games and has jumped to the top of the Canucks’ defensive prospect rankings behind only Quinn Hughes and Olli Juolevi.

He’s on pace for 17-18 goals at the moment, and he could get there if he can spend some time away from Brandon Sutter, who has not been good linemate for him in terms of helping him produce offense. If he stays on that third line for the rest of the season, that number will probably be closer to 15.

I don’t think you can pin the attempt to sand down the edges of Pettersson’s personality solely on the Canucks. The NHL has a long history of fans, media, executives, and even other players taking umbrage when anyone gives off the impression that they might be more than a mindless, soulless hockey automaton. I have neither the time nor the desire to dissect why that is, but it extends far beyond the Canucks’ front office and it seems unfair to single them out for it.

The culture is changing, though. The new generation of NHL players appears to be more willing to break from the past and do things differently. My impression of Pettersson is that he’ll try his best not to ruffle too many feathers, but he can’t help being himself. Even if we don’t see the death stare anymore, I doubt there’s any real danger of him spouting “110%” cliches any time soon.