Listen up, sports fans, because Elias Pettersson is playing it cool as ice when it comes to contract chit-chat, despite absolutely tearing it up on the rink this season. Yeah, he threw down the gauntlet way back in the sunny days of August, saying “talk to the hand” to any contract yammer until the offseason. Flash forward to now, and even after Jim Rutherford has inked his own fancy extension with the Vancouver Canucks, Pettersson is like a broken record: “Chill ’til the end of the year, folks.”
I mean, the man has a point. He’s set to become a restricted free agent once his current deal skates off into the sunset – that tidy little three-year, $22.05-million setup he bagged back in 2021. And, trust me, he’s not going to be scrounging for pocket change; the guy’s sitting pretty at sixth in the whole NHL scoring racket with a sweet fifty-nine points from just forty-five games. Cha-ching!
Old man Rutherford? He’s not sweating it. He’s got this zen attitude about the whole deal, like he’s waiting for a bus that he knows will eventually show up. “We can wait,” he says with this sage twinkle in his eye, per the word on the Sportsnet street. “We really want him to stay – the dude’s magic on ice. He loves Vancouver, Vancouver loves him, and guess what? He’s not just going to vanish when the season’s up!”
Sure, the Canucks will have over a mountain of cash – think $30 million-plus in cap space over the summer, according to the nerds over at CapFriendly, but it’s not like they can throw a rager with only twelve players locked down for the 2024-25 family photo.
Now let’s talk JT Miller for a second, currently the Canucks’ Mr. Moneybags earning a cool $8 million a year. But hey, Pettersson’s putting in the work, boasting an impressive 382 points from his 370-game stint with the Canucks since being snatched up fifth overall in the 2017 draft circus.
Remember, all of this is straight from the horse’s mouth – nothing’s made up or pulled from a hat. I’m just serving up the facts with a side of sass. Keep it locked here for the real deal on the NHL drama. 🏒💰✨