[Report/Rumour] Elias Pettersson Contract Talks

[Gawdzukes]

1 hour ago, AnthonyG said:

Buddy his record prior to injury vs top teams was trash. His record after returning was nowhere near trash.
 

HOW DO YOU STILL NOT COMPREHEND COLIN DELIA AND SPENCER MARTIN WERE ABSOLUTELY TRASH.

Demko against top teams had a rough stretch in the first few weeks. After that his record IS A WINNING RECORD. Like god damn man. 
one f**ing game below .500 and outscoring playoff teams. We had a handful of losses early while Demko was likely battling through something hence the f***ing injury.

 

Good god man the PK was also one of the biggest crippling issues all season long. Tocchet came in, Demko got healthy and the systems changed, we had some call ups who played great and our PK got way better. We just added one of best PKers and built a better PK unit overall. We dont need Demko to play 70 games and stand on his head. We need special teams to do their god damn job and make life easier on whoever is in net. 

Some of it was bad goaltending but a lot of it was horrible team defence as well. They were absolutely atrocious at times, a complete sh!t show and even Hasek would have struggled. It's too easy to just let the rest of the team off the hook, blame goaltending and a bad pk, snap your fingers and voila, say it's all fixed. The team in front of the goalie still needs to own some responsibility after that season and actually fix the team defence if we want them to improve and make the playoffs. I think that's why you're getting pushback here.

 

It's a fair position to take and I feel the players and the goalies both have lots to prove that they can be better at defending. I seriously wonder at the top 6, and bottom 6's ability to be tough on defence and be hard to play against. They even look weak on paper. After the last two years I think it's a very fair comment on @wai_lai416's part. Even with Vezina level goaltending we're not going to win many games giving away 40 shots a game and being dangerously out chanced two or three to 1.

[kloubek]

It was indeed a bad d, poor structure (including back when Travis was coach), and Demko playing poorly for a solid portion. 

 

Assuming this team doesn't just fall apart as we've seen in years prior, it will be relying on a good amount of scoring and therefore hopefully more play in the other end. The D when called upon should be notably better - although I'm still craving a proper partner for Hughes...

 

Reliance on Demko *should* be far lessened. But if this is expected to be a playoff team, he's gonna have to be clutch at times. Besides in the bubble when he was otherworldly, he hasn't seemed that consistent. Injuries don't help. He needs to be.

 

As for Petey, which the thread is about, he will be key, and needs to be the offensive beacon the others can follow. I have a feeling that being a contract year and just his own drive that he's going to have a monster season.

[TFerguson]

9 hours ago, Dr. Crossbar said:

The media in this city will not stop on this issue until Pettersson actually wants to leave. 

 

D&D are back only hours from their summer break and they're back on the drumbeat of making this more of an issue than it is.

I don’t think Pettersson realizes what he’s in for this season as far as the scrutiny over his contract situation. When D&D had his agent on it sounded like both agent and team are just following the player’s wishes in this. 
 

I don’t think the kid realizes what he’s doing to himself with this. 

[IBatch]

5 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Buddy his record prior to injury vs top teams was trash. His record after returning was nowhere near trash.
 

HOW DO YOU STILL NOT COMPREHEND COLIN DELIA AND SPENCER MARTIN WERE ABSOLUTELY TRASH.

Demko against top teams had a rough stretch in the first few weeks. After that his record IS A WINNING RECORD. Like god damn man. 
one f**ing game below .500 and outscoring playoff teams. We had a handful of losses early while Demko was likely battling through something hence the f***ing injury.

 

Good god man the PK was also one of the biggest crippling issues all season long. Tocchet came in, Demko got healthy and the systems changed, we had some call ups who played great and our PK got way better. We just added one of best PKers and built a better PK unit overall. We dont need Demko to play 70 games and stand on his head. We need special teams to do their god damn job and make life easier on whoever is in net. 

Miller called the last couple seasons before Tochett came in a 'shitshow'.   Believe it or not, these players prefer and need systems, and especially a teaching coach.   One thing that is curious, was playing an AHL D aside from Myers and Hughes, both not top guys defensively, although QHs work on that part of his game is evident...we lowered shots allowed, PK went to  almost respectable levels (78.4?) while also scoring a lot of shorties.     It's not all on Demko, but sure if  he goes down we are toast.    Good teams, their goalie goes down, the next man up doesn't hurt them much.    Maybe Silvos can be our Hill (Vegas) but that's also a stretch.   It's a lot easier to get good stats if you're not allowing 12-14 grade a scoring chances a game.    Tochett recently talked about that.    Getting uncomfortable, includes doing those things.   EP is going to do that.   Sure hope the team follows his lead.   More than anything, the teams next decade will be impacted one way or another by him.   Personally won't be on the side that gets on Allvins case if he has to trade him.    And for sure hope we don't either.  

Edited September 6, 2023 by IBatch

[wai_lai416]

7 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Buddy his record prior to injury vs top teams was trash. His record after returning was nowhere near trash.
 

HOW DO YOU STILL NOT COMPREHEND COLIN DELIA AND SPENCER MARTIN WERE ABSOLUTELY TRASH.

Demko against top teams had a rough stretch in the first few weeks. After that his record IS A WINNING RECORD. Like god damn man. 
one f**ing game below .500 and outscoring playoff teams. We had a handful of losses early while Demko was likely battling through something hence the f***ing injury.

 

Good god man the PK was also one of the biggest crippling issues all season long. Tocchet came in, Demko got healthy and the systems changed, we had some call ups who played great and our PK got way better. We just added one of best PKers and built a better PK unit overall. We dont need Demko to play 70 games and stand on his head. We need special teams to do their god damn job and make life easier on whoever is in net. 

Lol we kinda do need Demko to stand on his head and be overplayed. Again since coming back from his injury Demko have been better than he was before the injury and he did have to stand on his head against those good teams, but at the same time his overall play was pretty average. He was either really good with god like sv% or really mediocre with sub .900 sv % in half the games he played since coming back. Which Demko will we get? Who knows… he was average in his first year as a backup good the next year great the year after but started falling apart towards the end. Then bad last year and improved towards the end. It’s not like Demko is a proven goalie year in year out with a history of consistency. Which Demko we get your guess is as good as mine and he does have a history of injuries the last 3 on top so who knows if he can even get thru a season healthy. 

[HorvatToBaertschi]

9 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

lol 3.56 GF and still have a losing record is not what i call we can compete with any top teams.. if you are scoring at 3.56+ goals per game?? you are expected to win 70% of those games.. we out scored a grand total of 3 teams you listed 5v5.. and demko's have a sub .900 sv % in 60% of the games which is not even acceptable for a backup. again if the only way we make the playoff is demko playing 60-70 games and have to stand on his head most nights? we are in trouble. 

Are you just a stat watcher? Because the goaltending storyline last season was pretty clear; Demko played injured and when he went to get healthy, we threw 2 mediocre goalies to the wolves. 

[Alflives]

32 minutes ago, HorvatToBaertschi said:

Are you just a stat watcher? Because the goaltending storyline last season was pretty clear; Demko played injured and when he went to get healthy, we threw 2 mediocre goalies to the wolves. 

True. And coach BB played no defensive systems so high danger (off the rush) cross-ice chances were given up a lot. We had our captain cheating to the offensive side of the puck and not able to track pucks back because of it. Horfat Wallet is gone. Tocchet is here. Better D are here now too. Forwards will track back. Demko is going to have a tremendous year and win his first Vesina.

[HorvatToBaertschi]

1 minute ago, Alflives said:

True. And coach BB played no defensive systems so high danger (off the rush) cross-ice chances were given up a lot. We had our captain cheating to the offensive side of the puck and not able to track pucks back because of it. Horfat Wallet is gone. Tocchet is here. Better D are here now too. Forwards will track back. Demko is going to have a tremendous year and win his first Vesina.

Also, OEL having to play through a fractured foot all year didn't help our transition defense because he would get smoked on the outside constantly. Good player, but horrible situation for him last year. 

[AnthonyG]

45 minutes ago, HorvatToBaertschi said:

Are you just a stat watcher? Because the goaltending storyline last season was pretty clear; Demko played injured and when he went to get healthy, we threw 2 mediocre goalies to the wolves. 

He’s not a very good stat watcher either

[AnthonyG]

5 hours ago, IBatch said:

Miller called the last couple seasons before Tochett came in a 'shitshow'.   Believe it or not, these players prefer and need systems, and especially a teaching coach.   One thing that is curious, was playing an AHL D aside from Myers and Hughes, both not top guys defensively, although QHs work on that part of his game is evident...we lowered shots allowed, PK went to  almost respectable levels (78.4?) while also scoring a lot of shorties.     It's not all on Demko, but sure if  he goes down we are toast.    Good teams, their goalie goes down, the next man up doesn't hurt them much.    Maybe Silvos can be our Hill (Vegas) but that's also a stretch.   It's a lot easier to get good stats if you're not allowing 12-14 grade a scoring chances a game.    Tochett recently talked about that.    Getting uncomfortable, includes doing those things.   EP is going to do that.   Sure hope the team follows his lead.   More than anything, the teams next decade will be impacted one way or another by him.   Personally won't be on the side that gets on Allvins case if he has to trade him.    And for sure hope we don't either.  

Hard not to call the last few seasons a sh*t show. COVID putting our season on hold, started with 18 games in 30 days and then had to finish the season with 19 games in 30 days,  Front office changes, bench boss changes, star players having poor starts, Miller going from C to W, Petey from W to C, injury plague, captain gets moved, lots of new faces, buyout etc…. Its been hard to gain any real traction and 2021-22 was the first time we saw the whole team come together and play at the same level for a lengthy period of time. It took 44 games for Petey to get going but that last 38 was unbelievable.

Looking at the numbers I posted about scores vs top teams, 5v5 goals and then taking into account how bad our PK and goaltending was, I feel even if Demko *fingers crossed it doesnt happen* were to go down, the PK unit we built will help play a role in getting points out of teams across the league by reducing the amount of goals. We lost sooo many games by 1-2 goals but we scored 3-4 goals at the same time, but they would happen to score 2-4 PP goals…. If we cut that in half, we are getting extra points and that was with dogshit goaltending which I believe Martin if hes the back up, will want to redeem himself or Silovs wants to show what hes capable of, they will step up and deliver better results than last year. Personally I feel Silovs performed quite well in his stint, so its not like he needs to redeem himself. I’m also excited to see Boeser’s game, he became a much more involved winger and was looking a bit like Mark Stone, getting defensively invovled and constantly tying guys up and trying to steal pucks or holding them there until someone else came and picked up the puck. If Boeser becomes half the winger that Stone is defensively, thats a massive W to go with his 20-25 goals and possibly 60pts. I’d be happy as hell with that, but perhaps Boeser gets back to a 30g pace and possibly 70pts. I wont get my expectations up too high so long as his defensive efforts in our zone remain high.

[AnthonyG]

2 hours ago, wai_lai416 said:

Lol we kinda do need Demko to stand on his head and be overplayed. Again since coming back from his injury Demko have been better than he was before the injury and he did have to stand on his head against those good teams, but at the same time his overall play was pretty average. He was either really good with god like sv% or really mediocre with sub .900 sv % in half the games he played since coming back. Which Demko will we get? Who knows… he was average in his first year as a backup good the next year great the year after but started falling apart towards the end. Then bad last year and improved towards the end. It’s not like Demko is a proven goalie year in year out with a history of consistency. Which Demko we get your guess is as good as mine and he does have a history of injuries the last 3 on top so who knows if he can even get thru a season healthy. 

So Ullmark, Swayman, Sorokin, Shesterkin, Georgiev, Vasilevskiy, Bobrovsky, Andersen Thompson…. Their jobs were all easy, right? The team never relied on them at all to make big saves? They were never left hung out to dry? Never stood on their head all season? Theres a reason their teams were good, it was because their goalies were standing on their heads quite a bit. The +48GSAA Ullmark had ON HIS OWN, is a MASSIVE indicator that he stood on his head all season long and Boston overachieved as a team, because that guy was robbing teams all god damn season. Then Swayman who added another 15+GSAA combines for a total of SIXTY-THREE GOALS SAVED ABOVE. 3/4 of the entire effing season those guys were taking goals away. Every other top goalie was saving 20-30 goals. Meanwhile our goalie was on the opposite end of the spectrum with -27GSAA. If you took just Ullmarks GSAA and compared it to our whole f***ing goalie squad which added up to -55GSAA at the peak. Thats a 103 goal differential. I’d say Demko’s entire 2021-22 season and when he returned from injury is the real Demko. That slow start was not the real Demko, he was clearly battling something and it eventually took him out for quite some time.

[IBatch]

2 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

Hard not to call the last few seasons a sh*t show. COVID putting our season on hold, started with 18 games in 30 days and then had to finish the season with 19 games in 30 days,  Front office changes, bench boss changes, star players having poor starts, Miller going from C to W, Petey from W to C, injury plague, captain gets moved, lots of new faces, buyout etc…. Its been hard to gain any real traction and 2021-22 was the first time we saw the whole team come together and play at the same level for a lengthy period of time. It took 44 games for Petey to get going but that last 38 was unbelievable.

Looking at the numbers I posted about scores vs top teams, 5v5 goals and then taking into account how bad our PK and goaltending was, I feel even if Demko *fingers crossed it doesnt happen* were to go down, the PK unit we built will help play a role in getting points out of teams across the league by reducing the amount of goals. We lost sooo many games by 1-2 goals but we scored 3-4 goals at the same time, but they would happen to score 2-4 PP goals…. If we cut that in half, we are getting extra points and that was with dogshit goaltending which I believe Martin if hes the back up, will want to redeem himself or Silovs wants to show what hes capable of, they will step up and deliver better results than last year. Personally I feel Silovs performed quite well in his stint, so its not like he needs to redeem himself. I’m also excited to see Boeser’s game, he became a much more involved winger and was looking a bit like Mark Stone, getting defensively invovled and constantly tying guys up and trying to steal pucks or holding them there until someone else came and picked up the puck. If Boeser becomes half the winger that Stone is defensively, thats a massive W to go with his 20-25 goals and possibly 60pts. I’d be happy as hell with that, but perhaps Boeser gets back to a 30g pace and possibly 70pts. I wont get my expectations up too high so long as his defensive efforts in our zone remain high.

Nice thing about the PK, it's a simple

math problem.   If we go from 70% to 80%,   how many less goals does that allow?     We allowed 69

last year.   You have to also consider how many times we get penalized.  MTL allowed the most.   We were 5th in the league.   Then you also need to factor in SH goals we were second best in the league with 15.    Pretty sure that stat is going to drop reducing EP and Millers PP time.    So that's a net of 54 GA.   What's the midline?  7-8 seems to be the average SH goals and 54 the average goals

allowed on a PP.   So 54-7 equals 44.    Last year we had 69-15 equals 54.   It's reasonable to say with an average PK, we should reduce our GA by 10.  On average.   MTL led the league in goals against on the PK 81, and short handed goals 18.   Go figure. 

 

An improved PK will help us gain some points.   We just added guys who also take more penalties.   Won't even get into that.   PKers that's get penalized in Cole and Soucy.    A simpler way to do this, is just say our PK improved 1/8.   13ish % (70-80%) or so.   That means we go from

69 goals allowed, to around 61?   So we allow 8 less goals on the year. 

 

Get it?   The PK is part of the problem, but far from the only one.    How many extra points will that get us.   Maybe 4 games.   But 8 points is for sure a big step in the right direction. 

[AnthonyG]

6 minutes ago, IBatch said:

Nice thing about the PK, it's a simple

math problem.   If we go from 70% to 80%,   how many less goals does that allow?     We allowed 69

last year.   You have to also consider how many times we get penalized.  MTL allowed the most.   We were 5th in the league.   Then you also need to factor in SH goals we were second best in the league with 15.    Pretty sure that stat is going to drop reducing EP and Millers PP time.    So that's a net of 54 GA.   What's the midline?  7-8 seems to be the average SH goals and 54 the average goals

allowed on a PP.   So 54-7 equals 44.    Last year we had 69-15 equals 54.   It's reasonable to say with an average PK, we should reduce our GA by 10.  On average.   MTL led the league in goals against on the PK 81, and short handed goals 18.   Go figure. 

 

An improved PK will help us gain some points.   We just added guys who also take more penalties.   Won't even get into that.   PKers that's get penalized in Cole and Soucy.    A simpler way to do this, is just say our PK improved 1/8.   13ish % (70-80%) or so.   That means we go from

69 goals allowed, to around 61?   So we allow 8 less goals on the year. 

 

Get it?   The PK is part of the problem, but far from the only one.    How many extra points will that get us.   Maybe 4 games.   But 8 points is for sure a big step in the right direction. 

And ultimately the PK ties into goaltending, which was atrocious for us for 3/4 of the season. We were also hover around the 65% mark for the first 1/3 of the season iirc. There were games we lost due to 3-4PPGA. Some of those games were 1 goal losses or an empty netter was added. My biggest beef has been that goaltending was the biggest issue, the PK had its own issues outside of goaltending, which was personnel, but nonetheless goaltending and PK go hand in hand.  Bad goaltending = bad PK. Not necessarily systems, but the FWDs were close to tits on a bull. The amount of unblocked shots or high slot area shots/goals on the PK were the FWDs responsibility, yet they struggled to tie guys up or get in the shooting lanes.

 

If

1) our goaltending returns to form

and 

2) PK personnel do their job

we will be a very strong team imo. Its no secret we can score, Demko CAN play at an elite level as seen in the bubble series vs VGK, all of 2021-22 and then when he returned from injury. Our PP is nearing 25% and with a little better PK, we are a threat to anyone. Im only asking for our goalie to play to his level and the new PK personnel to do the job they have been doing prior to coming here. Really not asking much.  The PK has the potential to gain us some points, 7-8 like you say… and then Demko on the other hand in tight games when our offence is struggling will also give us the chance to get points, which I believe is somewhere around the ball park of 12-17pts. I can see a 20pt increase in the standing totals for us based off of better PKing and goaltending.

VAN ranked

16th in xGA with 258.93. Actual goals against 296……………… goaltending was the achilles and it showed even moreso on the PK.

 

 

 

 

[wai_lai416]

7 hours ago, AnthonyG said:

So Ullmark, Swayman, Sorokin, Shesterkin, Georgiev, Vasilevskiy, Bobrovsky, Andersen Thompson…. Their jobs were all easy, right? The team never relied on them at all to make big saves? They were never left hung out to dry? Never stood on their head all season? Theres a reason their teams were good, it was because their goalies were standing on their heads quite a bit. The +48GSAA Ullmark had ON HIS OWN, is a MASSIVE indicator that he stood on his head all season long and Boston overachieved as a team, because that guy was robbing teams all god damn season. Then Swayman who added another 15+GSAA combines for a total of SIXTY-THREE GOALS SAVED ABOVE. 3/4 of the entire effing season those guys were taking goals away. Every other top goalie was saving 20-30 goals. Meanwhile our goalie was on the opposite end of the spectrum with -27GSAA. If you took just Ullmarks GSAA and compared it to our whole f***ing goalie squad which added up to -55GSAA at the peak. Thats a 103 goal differential. I’d say Demko’s entire 2021-22 season and when he returned from injury is the real Demko. That slow start was not the real Demko, he was clearly battling something and it eventually took him out for quite some time.

lol even though ullmark won the vezina.. most people would agreed they were the beneficiary of a great team.. all the goalies you have listed are all on teams that have low scoring chance against or low high danger chance against.. so ya i would say their job is relatively easy compared to their peers. goals saved above average is based on how many goals you are expected to give up based on how many shots taking against you.. boston keeps everything to perimeter.. their 63 goals saved above average doesn't necessary = they were taking goals away.. all it means is they saved an extra shot.. it could be just a shot from the point or something. bobrovsky was not good in the regular season.. anderssen was not good either so i don't even know why you bother including them in the conversation.. fact is boston can probably plug in any goalie and they would be fine. Florida made the playoff with poor goaltending.. LA made the playoff with a rotation of bad goalies. vegas won the pacific and made the playoff with 4 or 5 different goalie in the regular season.. goalie shouldn't be the only reason you miss the playoffs which is what you are implying.. we only missed the playoff coz our goalies were bad the pk was bad and it starts with the goalie etc. take a chill pill lol it's a forum.. i feel like you are going to have a stroke soon with all ur caps and swearing lol.. and 2021-22 demko was pretty broken and bad after 50 games. if he can not stay healthy for 60-65 games then the canucks again are in trouble.. since our backup is most likely martin.. 

[Trebreh]

On 9/4/2023 at 10:50 AM, N4ZZY said:

i'm hearing about the Vegas rumors. man, if it's true, we just can't seem to hold on to our best players. If Petey's gone, I'm assuming Hughes will be next to want out. Aquilini not being able to be patient has forced him to be even more f**king patient. Karma's a bitch. He wants to be competitive and took shortcuts, and now probably is forced to have to do a proper rebuild anyways. f**k THAT MAN. 

 

Quinn seems like an honest and loyal guy to me and he did sign a pretty long deal to stay with us recently. give him the C and quality partners and I could see him being a Canuck lifer. 

 

Bedard signing with us when he's 25/26 wouldn't hurt either. 

 

[IBatch]

6 hours ago, Trebreh said:

Quinn seems like an honest and loyal guy to me and he did sign a pretty long deal to stay with us recently. give him the C and quality partners and I could see him being a Canuck lifer. 

 

Bedard signing with us when he's 25/26 wouldn't hurt either. 

 

Bedard was just drafted.   Think early 2030's as a maybe.  

[Provost]

11 hours ago, Trebreh said:

Quinn seems like an honest and loyal guy to me and he did sign a pretty long deal to stay with us recently. give him the C and quality partners and I could see him being a Canuck lifer. 

 

Bedard signing with us when he's 25/26 wouldn't hurt either. 

 

A guy who is a UFA and been on a losing team his entire career won’t have much motivation to re-sign for the rest of his playing days just to continue to lose.

 

If you add in that his two brothers who he is super close with will have been playing together and almost certainly on at least some deep playoff runs by then… it isn’t hard to connect the dots on what is likely to happen.

 

Make no mistake, if we can’t sign Petey and to a reasonable contract that gives us a chance to sign players around him… the Canucks will not be a winner by the last year of Quinn’s contact when a decision has to be made.

 

If unsigned, Petey is traded in the summer or 2024, or walks as a UFA in 2025 with no return.  The very next summer is when you have to decide on what to do with Quinn as you can’t let him play his pending UFA season without an extension and risk losing a second star player for nothing.

 

It is the Canucks management and ownership though, so we know how it will almost certainly play out.  They will sign Petey to a huge deal if they can bribe him to even do it, then remain capped and not have a way to improve for another decade.

 

The other alternative is that Petey refuses to extend at any price and signals his intent to test free agency.  Instead of trading him and triggering a full rebuild in that case, which would make sense to every other owner, they will try to make a “hockey trade” to stay competitive which results in taking 2-3 much lesser NHL players as the return for Petey instead of a boatload of futures.  

[steviewonder20]

5 hours ago, IBatch said:

Bedard was just drafted.   Think early 2030's as a maybe.  

He’ll be 26 in the early 2030’s.

[AnthonyG]

All I’m going to say on the Pettersson contract concerns are this….

 

When everyone thought this guy was going to walk straight into free agency and sign in either ARZ or some  big american city possibly a no tax state and pile on the dough and give the Canadian market a big F U like a typical american with a huge ego and all about money…. He remained in Toronto. Quit crying, Pettersson is an RFA at the end of next summer and we have plenty of time to work out an extension. Also if EP wants to talk about competing and going for a cup, he’d better be leaving some money on the table or he’s going against his own narrative. I firmly believe time with the twins and what their mindset was in 2011 to take a pay cut which triced down along pretty much that whole 2010-11 roster who left money on the table for the next guy and the next guy and so on… They will talk to EP will sign a deal that will benefit the team and leave cap space for the next guy….. i hope lmao… but seriously quit with the EP trade talks and all this other crap.

[qwijibo]

7 minutes ago, AnthonyG said:

All I’m going to say on the Pettersson contract concerns are this….

 

When everyone thought this guy was going to walk straight into free agency and sign in either ARZ or some  big american city possibly a no tax state and pile on the dough and give the Canadian market a big F U like a typical american with a huge ego and all about money…. He remained in Toronto. Quit crying, Pettersson is an RFA at the end of next summer and we have plenty of time to work out an extension. Also if EP wants to talk about competing and going for a cup, he’d better be leaving some money on the table or he’s going against his own narrative. I firmly believe time with the twins and what their mindset was in 2011 to take a pay cut which triced down along pretty much that whole 2010-11 roster who left money on the table for the next guy and the next guy and so on… They will talk to EP will sign a deal that will benefit the team and leave cap space for the next guy….. i hope lmao… but seriously quit with the EP trade talks and all this other crap.

I'm not sure using Matthews as an example helps your argument. Matthews was/is on a very good team that has cup aspirations.  The team he was rumored to be going to is crap and an absolute tire fire.  And he certainly didn't leave any money on the table. 

 

By comparison Pettersson has been on a team with little to no success during his tenure with the team.  If wanting to be on a team with a chance to win is really his goal (and I'm not saying that's the case)  then forcing his way out of town like PLD and Tkachuk seems like a possible tactic.