Vancouver Canucks team president Jim Rutherford appears to be quite excited about acquiring Marcus Pettersson.
The Canucks were busy last night, making two separate trades in rather short time. The first move was a blockbuster with the New York Rangers that saw J.T. Miller shipped out of town.
The second was with the Penguins, where Vincent Desharnais, Danton Heinen, prospect Melvin Fenstrom, and a conditional first-round pick headed out in exchange for Pettersson and Drew O’Connor.
Rutherford has always been a big fan of Pettersson. While serving as the GM of the Pittsburgh Penguins, he made a trade to acquire him from the Anaheim Ducks during the 2018-19 season. It was with the Pens that the now 28-year-old blossomed into a top-four defenceman.
“I traded Daniel Sprong for him, and I can still remember people saying, ‘How on earth can you trade Daniel Sprong for this guy?’ Well, I’m pretty darn happy with how that worked out,” Rutherford said in an exclusive interview with Josh Yohe of The Athletic. “How good did that trade work out? And here we are again. We need an upgrade, and he’s going to give us that. I know that he will.”
Pettersson, a highly-coveted blueliner heading into the trade deadline, is in the final year of a contract that carries a cap hit of roughly $4.025 million. He’s averaging north of 22 minutes for the second-straight season, and was leading the Penguins in blocked shots with 83. He’s also averaging 2:44 minutes per game on the penalty kill.
Rutherford explained that Pettersson’s steady, top-four presence is something that the Canucks were in search of on the back end. He raved about the Swedish defenceman’s character, describing him as “One of my favorites.”
The Canucks are hoping that this move, along with the Miller trade, can help get their season turned around. They’ve been an inconsistent bunch to this point, amassing a 23-18-10 record through 51 games.
Despite the down year, the Canucks are by no means out of the playoff race, sitting one point shy of the Calgary Flames for a wild-card position.
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