After just one game, it looks like the Vancouver Canucks have seen enough from recently acquired Marcus Pettersson, as the two sides are both expecting a long-term extension.
Donnie & Dhali’s Rick Dhaliwal confirmed the mutual feelings between the two sides on Monday morning:
“The new guys look good. Pettersson [played] 25 minutes last night. They’re going to try and re-sign him Donnie. Keep an eye on that. Let me get this in quickly: I talked to [Marcus] Pettersson’s agent; both sides know this is going to be a long-term deal. I expect something to get done, and I expect something to get done soon. Let’s see if it happens, but I think both sides want to get it done.”
With Canucks captain Quinn Hughes out of the lineup on Sunday after suffering an injury in Vancouver’s game against the Dallas Stars on Friday, bumped up everybody’s minutes, including Pettersson’s.
In his Canucks debut, Pettersson played a season-high 25:57 minutes of ice time – a season-high for him – finishing with one shot on goal, one hit and two blocked shots with a minus-1 rating. He also logged the most penalty kill time of all Canucks, playing 1:18 of the club’s sole two-minute penalty.
Pettersson – along with forward Drew O’Connor – was acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday evening in a deal that sent forward Danton Heinen, defenceman Vincent Desharnais, prospect Melvin Fernström and the New York Rangers 2025 top-13 protected first round pick – which was acquired for JT Miller just a few hours prior – out of Vancouver.
This marks the second time in Jim Rutherford’s career that he’s acquired Pettersson’s services, as he acquired him from the Anaheim Ducks in 2018 in exchange for Daniel Sprong.
The 6’5″ defenceman is in the final year of his contract, which pays him $4.085 million per season. Allvin and Rutherford will have until July 1 to re-sign the defenceman before he becomes an unrestricted free agent. But given the latest reports, that seems to be at the forefront of the Canucks plans as they approach the March 7 trade deadline.
