Canucks have time to re-sign Pettersson to contract, GM says

The Vancouver Canucks will look to sign Elias Pettersson to a new contract, general manager Patrik Allvin said Wednesday

The 24-year-old forward, who has one-season remaining on a three-year, $22 million contract ($7.35 million average annual value) he signed with the Canucks on Oct. 3, 2021, can become a restricted free agent after next season. He set NHL career highs in goals (39), assists (63) and points (102) in 80 games this season.

"Regarding Elias, we're going to sit down here when the time is right, but we've had an ongoing conversation since I got [hired as GM on Jan. 26, 2022] and that's my job with the players and their camps," Allvin said. "I think Elias is a top player for this team, and his performance over the last season put him in the top 10 or 15 players in the League.

"He has a great future. I want to have him part of this organization moving forward and I'm looking forward to continuing that conversation with him. The good thing is there is no rush. We still have his rights for another two years, so we'll see where it goes from here."

The No. 5 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, Pettersson has 323 points (136 goals, 187 assists) in 325 regular-season games and 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 17 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

In the more immediate future, Allvin will look to improve the roster through the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft, which takes place in Nashville from June 28-29, and free agency, which begins July 1. Vancouver currently has seven picks in the draft.

Ahead of that, the Canucks bought out the final four years of Video: VAN@ANA: Pettersson records his 100th point of season's contract last Friday. The 31-year-old defenseman, who had 22 points (two goals, 20 assists) and was minus-24 in 54 games this season, was acquired by Vancouver on July 23, 2021, three years after he signed an eight-year, $66 million contract ($8.25 million AAV) with the Arizona Coyotes.

"Definitely it was a difficult decision," Allvin said. "I'm not a big fan of buyouts, but in this particular case, we felt there was an opportunity too good to pass up on. Yeah, I think the discussion between [president of hockey operations] Jim Rutherford, ownership and myself, I think this just shows how committed ownership and the Aquilini family is to bring a championship team to the city of Vancouver."

The $29 million remaining on Ekman-Larsson's contract will be paid out over the span over eight years at the cost of $19,333,333 and a savings of $9,666,667. Had the Canucks retained his contract, he would have been paid $18.5 million over the next two years alone.

Vancouver (38-37-7) finished sixth in the Pacific Division this season and failed to qualify for the playoffs for the third straight season.

"My goal is not just to create cap space, our goal is to improve our hockey team," Allvin said. "This definitely gives us a chance to improve our team by creating this cap flexibility here. We have a process in place here where were had meetings with our pro staff and our analytics staff looking at what areas of our team and how we can improve our team. We have constant conversations with the coaching staff as well how we want to play and what players might fit into how we want to improve our team for next year. That being said, we're going to be wise with how we spend our money moving forward."