This is a follow-up, and we’ll start by mentioning that it’s not going to feel very complete if you haven’t read the first one. That one was titled “Which NHL teams are most likely to be interested in an Elias Pettersson trade this summer?” and took a more clinical approach to those teams that had the roster need and the salary space to accommodate a Pettersson acquisition in this upcoming offseason.

We left off with a mention that, for each of the teams listed, there was still plenty of debate to be had about whether Pettersson was the right target for them, or if he was worth the considerable risk he represents. We mentioned that each of the teams would definitely have to hold some intense internal discussions on the topic, and would effectively have to convince themselves to trade for Pettersson against all reasons to the contrary.

Below, we’re going to attempt to get inside the heads of these various franchises and see if we can’t imagine how those internal debates are going to go. Obviously, we’re leaving the realm of even rational rumour-analyzing here and entering into Pure Speculation Territory. We haven’t talked to any of these teams, we don’t know what they’re saying in their private meeting rooms, and we have no hard evidence for anything we’re saying here.

We’re just making guesses of the slightly-educated variety. It hopefully goes without saying that this is all intended to be taken light-heartedly, and at least a little tongue-in-cheek.

Anyway, here’s how each of those teams we mentioned in the last article – plus one bonus team – are going to internally convince themselves to trade for Elias Pettersson this summer.

For the Hurricanes, it’s all about system. It seems that pretty much everyone who goes to Carolina ends up playing well for them, and this is something that Canucks fans know well. They watched Jalen Chatfield go from a tweener cast-off in Vancouver to a borderline top-pairing defender with the Hurricanes, and credit largely goes to one of the strongest team systems in all of hockey.

Of course, personal credit here probably goes to coach Rod Brind’Amour. And if there is one thing that defines Brind’Amour hockey, it’s work ethic. If things like conditioning and mental preparedness are truly part of the issue for Pettersson, it’s hard to imagine a better role model than the guy they still call “Rod the Bod.” If Brind’Amour can’t get Pettersson back on the right track, who can? Then again, Brind’Amour’s history says that he can.

Combine this with the Hurricanes’ general inability to break through in the ultra-competitive East, and their ridiculous abundance of cap space, and we can see them talking about how they can be a difference-maker for Pettersson, and how he can be a difference-maker for them.

The Red Wings have to be thinking about draft lotteries. Not future ones, but past ones. Detroit has had a really bad run of luck at the lottery, and despite being out of the playoffs for most of the last decade, the highest they’ve drafted is fourth overall.

To be clear, the Wings have nailed most of their picks since Steve Yzerman took over, anyway. They got Lucas Raymond with that fourth overall selection, Moritz Seider at sixth overall, and Simon Edvinsson at sixth, too. But Detroit has to be wondering how much further ahead they’d be if they had just won one or two of those lotteries.

The Canucks could have been said to have won a draft lottery of their own by picking Elias Pettersson at fifth overall in the 2017 Entry Draft. Pettersson remains the top scorer in the draft, though Cale Makar will pass him soon enough, and before his fall-off, he looked like a real draft coup. If the Red Wings could just steal Pettersson away, and then re-ignite his game, it’d be a sort of workaround to getting the sort of talent they should have rightly acquired through the draft lottery in the first place. Kind of.

This one we’re calling “bridging the gap.” The Kings were once thought to have the most well-stocked prospect cupboard in the entire NHL. That is no longer the case. The youth movement hasn’t turned out nearly as well as it was expected to, and the Kings are kind of stuck between their glory generation of Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar and a stunted new core of names like Brandt Clarke and Quinton Byfield.

Age-wise, Pettersson fits nicely in between, which might allow Los Angeles to skate that narrow gap known as the retool. Replacing the retiring Anze Kopitar with Pettersson is a downgrade for now, but it might allow the Kings to stay somewhat competitive as they attempt to re-restock their future assets and take another swing at building something sustainable.

Well, for one, we suspect that Lou Lamoriello is still not-so-secretly pulling the strings for the Islanders, and that implies some short-term thinking. The Islanders should make the playoffs this year, somewhat against expectations, and despite a forward corps that seems lacking in skill. With Matthew Schaefer now in place, there’s really not much reason to look back, anyway, and so the impetus seems to be to build up as strong a roster around him as quickly as possible.

If a pseudo-1C were to become available for somewhat cheaply, the Islanders would have to at least talk about the potential of pilfering the Canucks, which is something they reportedly did around the 2026 Trade Deadline. When they talk about it again this summer, they might reasonably point out that the last pseudo-1C they acquired from Vancouver turned out very well and is pretty much a de facto 1C these days.

Speaking of which, any internal discussion about bringing in Pettersson almost certainly involves asking Bo Horvat his opinion, and probably weighing it heavily.

This is our hardest one to imagine because we just don’t know who will be involved in these discussions. If Rick Tocchet is still the head coach of the Flyers this summer, we have to imagine that any internal chats start with a recognition that Pettersson and Tocchet did not find much success together, and that Pettersson’s fall-off coincides fairly neatly with Tocchet’s arrival as his coach.

If Tocchet is still the head coach, we imagine the Flyers internally talk themselves out of trading for Pettersson as a result.

If Horvat were involved in the Islanders’ discussions, we imagine Sidney Crosby might get called for an opinion here. The ask would be whether or not he believes he can mentor Pettersson out of his current extended slump, and we reckon that Crosby might be the hockey leader most equipped for the job.

Beyond that, GM Kyle Dubas has to be aware that he’s laying a foundation for what comes after Crosby. Planning for an outright teardown may not be realistic, as the Penguins have done a nice job developing younger talent already, and that talent will still be in place when the next stage comes. Finding someone in that middle generation to take as much of the load as possible from the retiring Crosby and Evgeni Malkin might be seen as important, and there are only ever going to be so many centres available for trade in this league.

Plus, wouldn’t the Penguins want to help out their former GM, Jim Rutherford?

Here’s our bonus team, and the word is “arrogance.” Only the Maple Leafs could think that they could move on from one cantankerous 1C with diminishing returns in Auston Matthews and then find success with another in Elias Pettersson. But doesn’t that sound almost exactly like something that the Maple Leafs would do?

Most could look at this situation and rightly predict that Pettersson would have an even worse time with the Toronto market than he has in Vancouver. But the Maple Leafs have bet against that reality time and time again, and it’s gotten them nowhere fast. To convince themselves that they are the destined destination that can turn Pettersson around is exactly the kind of thinking we’ve got out of Toronto of late.

Toronto’s internal discussions around Pettersson might sound something like Tobias Funke considering an open marriage on Arrested Development. Will it work out? “No, it never does. I mean, these people somehow delude themselves into thinking it might, but … But it might work for us.”