How interested teams are going to internally convince themselves to trade for Canucks\u2019 Elias Pettersson this summer<\/p>\n
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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Below, we\u2019re going to attempt to get inside the heads of these various franchises and see if we can\u2019t imagine how those internal debates are going to go. Obviously, we\u2019re leaving the realm of even rational rumour-analyzing here and entering into Pure Speculation Territory. We haven\u2019t talked to any of these teams, we don\u2019t know what they\u2019re saying in their private meeting rooms, and we have no hard evidence for anything we\u2019re saying here.<\/p>\n We\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n Anyway, here\u2019s how each of those teams we mentioned in the last article \u2013 plus one bonus team \u2013 are going to internally convince themselves to trade for Elias Pettersson this summer.<\/p>\n Carolina Hurricanes<\/p>\n For the Hurricanes, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Of course, personal credit here probably goes to coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour. And if there is one thing that defines Brind\u2019Amour hockey, it\u2019s work ethic. If things like conditioning and mental preparedness are truly part of the issue for Pettersson, it\u2019s hard to imagine a better role model than the guy they still call \u201cRod the Bod.\u201d If Brind\u2019Amour can\u2019t get Pettersson back on the right track<\/a>, who can? Then again, Brind\u2019Amour\u2019s history says that he can.<\/p>\n Combine this with the Hurricanes\u2019 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.<\/p>\n Detroit Red Wings<\/p>\n 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\u2019ve drafted is fourth overall.<\/p>\n 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\u2019d be if they had just won one or two of those lotteries.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, and then re-ignite his game, it\u2019d 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.Los Angeles Kings<\/p>\n This one we\u2019re calling \u201cbridging the gap.\u201d 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n New York Islanders<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n