Quote:
Originally Posted by D as in David
Since the rumoured offer, if true, from Carolina wasn't all that "hard to say No to", was it a bluff by management to get him to sign now?
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Doubt it.
The issue wasn't just "What if Petey walks?" The ability to plan for the off-season at all hinged on him signing or saying he wanted out. Hronek, 8 UFAs and getting the media to #### off were all at stake here. That's close to half the roster that they would need to build or re-fill. I think teams started asking what the deal was, and some teams started calling with offers. Canucks got a framework to a deal that they actually liked and had to sit down and say "What do we want?" Instead of pushing the trade talk further, they decided "We'd prefer to keep Pettersson." So they paused the trade talks, knowing that they could likely restart if need be, went to Pettersson and said "We don't need to sign a deal tomorrow but we need clarity."
Pettersson likely realized that if he did want to be a Canuck next year, or long term, he couldn't sit back and wait so he gave this representation permission to open discussions. It doesn't mean a contract is signed before the end of the season, but it does indicate a contract will likely get signed.