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donlever wrote: ↑Wed Jan 07, 2026 6:01 pm Or Frankie's incompetence.....

This could also be a factor.

Was listening to Halford and Brough yesterday, and when they went to the "phones" one contributor took a pretty blunt take on Marcus Pettersson.

Called out his decision making, his many trips to the box, the lack of a shot, and the worst puck skills in the league (for a top-6 I presume).

The guys went on to discuss it and Halford brought up Serevalli's take back at the time of the trade to acquire M-Petey.....Serevalli said that Pettersson is simply not a top-4 guy on a good team. They went on to discuss his contract and NMC briefly.

I don't disagree with some of the take. I haven't seen a top-4 guy in him this season, and last season there were stretches of WTF as well.

Certainly he has been more of a disaster since Hughes was traded.

Curious what others think here.....

What I think is they should have signed Zadorov with that money.

But I also think I have made that pretty clear previously.

I also think the fact they "just had to have" MP, as it turns out in lieu of Nikita, that the presumption that they are out of their fucking minds is relevant and rational.

I was sitting there today, contemplating things, and had a thought.

The last time I cared this little for anything about the Canucks was just before the Ronning, Courtnall, Momesso, Dirk trade. That trade was when I first started to give a fuck and that fuck giving has endured more than one brutal season or 3 over what....35 years or so?

But now, I really could give a fuck what happens to them anymore. This group of players have so little heart or potential that I really hope they all leave and something interesting takes their place because I'm tuning this shit out bigtime

Cornuck wrote: ↑Wed Jan 07, 2026 6:19 pm

Elias Pettersson has returned from an injury that kept him out for eight games, but he says he’s still feeling the effects of it. In conversation with Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre, the Vancouver Canucks’ top centre said that his latest ailment is a nagging injury that he’ll have to deal with “probably for the rest of the season.”

<eyeroll>

Oh. heavens no. Poor Peter

Mëds wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 4:25 pm Was listening to Halford and Brough yesterday, and when they went to the "phones" one contributor took a pretty blunt take on Marcus Pettersson.

Called out his decision making, his many trips to the box, the lack of a shot, and the worst puck skills in the league (for a top-6 I presume).

The guys went on to discuss it and Halford brought up Serevalli's take back at the time of the trade to acquire M-Petey.....Serevalli said that Pettersson is simply not a top-4 guy on a good team. They went on to discuss his contract and NMC briefly.

I don't disagree with some of the take. I haven't seen a top-4 guy in him this season, and last season there were stretches of WTF as well.

Certainly he has been more of a disaster since Hughes was traded.

Curious what others think here.....

I agree, he's a 4/5 on a middling team with some serious limitations. And the guys in charge of the team right now are bums.

Of course, with Mr Aquilini around, can the situation ever be fixed? Probably not.

Cousin Strawberry wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:26 pm I was sitting there today, contemplating things, and had a thought.

The last time I cared this little for anything about the Canucks was just before the Ronning, Courtnall, Momesso, Dirk trade. That trade was when I first started to give a fuck and that fuck giving has endured more than one brutal season or 3 over what....35 years or so?

But now, I really could give a fuck what happens to them anymore. This group of players have so little heart or potential that I really hope they all leave and something interesting takes their place because I'm tuning this shit out bigtime

I hear you Cuz. I've watched, like, two games since the Hughes trade. I just can't be bothered. Most days I don't even know there's a game on until I see a GDT. The way management has disassembled this team is so disheartening and the Hughes trade was the final straw. Just took the wind out of my sails. It's very freeing though, so much else to do with that time. I'll read this board and watch the draft but that's about all the time I'll give to this team till next camp.

5thhorseman wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 10:03 pm The way management has disassembled this team is so disheartening and the Hughes trade was the final straw. Just took the wind out of my sails. It's very freeing though, so much else to do with that time. I'll read this board and watch the draft but that's about all the time I'll give to this team till next camp.

donlever wrote: ↑Wed Jan 07, 2026 11:00 am I'm actually cautiously optimistic.

I'm halfway between. I can see the potential for a quick turnaround rebuild (the only kind I can imagine the Little Eagles might approve), but the potential frustration of watching them botch the process -- most likely from half-assing it -- keeps me from getting too invested in it.

Carl Yagro wrote: ↑Wed Jan 07, 2026 6:50 pm Nagging injury, eh? I'm sure it's the same one that required no surgery during the offseason?

Megaterio Llamas wrote: ↑Fri Jan 09, 2026 9:38 pm

Cornuck wrote: ↑Wed Jan 07, 2026 6:19 pm

Elias Pettersson has returned from an injury that kept him out for eight games, but he says he’s still feeling the effects of it. In conversation with Sportsnet’s Iain MacIntyre, the Vancouver Canucks’ top centre said that his latest ailment is a nagging injury that he’ll have to deal with “probably for the rest of the season.”

<eyeroll>

Oh. heavens no. Poor Peter

I infer you guys suspect malingering.

It's not any better (except, perhaps, morally) but I believe he's really injured. When you draft a player listed at 6'2", 165 lbs., you have to suspect that he might not be very physically durable. In particular, not durable enough for a team that doesn't have a composition or culture suitable to protecting fragile young players. (It has been said that if he had weighed 200 lbs. in his draft year, he'd have gone first overall).

I think we have categorize Pettersson as one of the Benning draft gambles that did not pay off. There were better players taken after him.
(To be as fair as possible to this drafting approach,
1) Hughes was also undersized, and there were reasons to doubt Demko's durability. Both of those were clear home runs.
2) There are very few players in any draft who are not gambles of one sort or another.)

I don’t think anyone is really upset that we picked him at 5.

It is discontent with the player for not maturing, and irate with management for giving him that contract when the writing was on the wall.

I think we're looking at the MP trade all wrong. He was the throw in. DoC is the guy they had to have.

The 12th overall is one thing. The absolute topper would be if Fernstrom becomes something of a thing for Pitt down the road.

Kind of ironic how one of the early big moves by this management group was to try and erase a big mistake from the previous regime by buying out OEL, yet a few years later they make a trade that's eerily similar. Not quite the same circumstances and player profiles but the parallels are there. Almost deja vu all over again.

Mëds wrote: ↑Sat Jan 10, 2026 12:26 am I don’t think anyone is really upset that we picked him at 5.

Hmmm.... "upset".

No, I don't think I qualify as upset. As stated above, I don't dare get that emotionally invested in the fortunes of the Canucks.

But certainly dissatisfied. For years I read on this very GDHMB about how Benning was a drafting genius. There were at least 4 centres taken after Pettersson whom I would be delighted to trade straight up for him, and at least two of whom would be earning that cap hit. I think that does a lot of damage to the drafting genius thesis.

Ronning's Ghost wrote: ↑Sat Jan 10, 2026 1:06 am I think that does a lot of damage to the drafting genius thesis.

Virtanen, Joulevi, Pods. Pure genius.

At the very least we got a couple good years out of 40 before the pumpkin years. Same for Brock I suppose.

Recall the league wide hype on Scooter's first two - three seasons was no different than the current excitement on Celibrini. The kid won hardest shot at the all-star game for fuck sakes. League wide, he was considered the steal of the draft those first few years of his career. His demeanor on ice at that time was completely different. He never gave up on a play, he was visibly upset with himself when he made a rookie mistake.

Virtannen fit the team need, physical forward, body matured, head never did. JuJu was a star in the WJC, need was D not forward, the cupboard was full of young hopefulls, he never did figure it out. Pod is doing fine.

Was the push to get 1st rounders into the lineup, Bo, Jake, Jared the wrong decision? It helped put some hope and excitement in the fan base, butts in seats, during a rebuild (sorry, semantics - retool) but did it stunt growth. McCann was flailing when he was traded. Jake's head never made it to 16, JuJu's heart was removed on a trans Atlantic flight.

You have to look at decisions at the time they were made with the information that was available at the time.

Look where hindsight skull fucking and adjustments gets you.

Topper wrote: ↑Sat Jan 10, 2026 7:04 am Recall the league wide hype on Scooter's first two - three seasons was no different than the current excitement on Celibrini. The kid won hardest shot at the all-star game for fuck sakes. League wide, he was considered the steal of the draft those first few years of his career. His demeanor on ice at that time was completely different. He never gave up on a play, he was visibly upset with himself when he made a rookie mistake.

^This right here^

This is the heart of it. It's not physical ability that has deteriorated (although the longer it goes the harder it'll ever be to reclaim) but it's between the ears on his giant, self inflated melon.

He gained unearned arrogance from all the hype and forgot who or what he was and what it took to succeed. He has followed another self inflated egotist in Pat Laine into the abyss unfortunately.

Trading him is the only course of action moving forward for either party