The Sedin twins' plan for Elias Pettersson has been revealed publicly
Photo credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
David Pagnotta says the Sedins will get Elias Pettersson back on track.
The people who did that on-ice work just moved to the front office.
Pagnotta reiterated on Inside Sports that Vancouver would consider moving Pettersson but has no interest in dumping him, and that the plan if he stays is to rebuild his value.
The reassuring part is the name attached to it.
Daniel and Henrik Sedin, now co-presidents of hockey operations, are cast as the men who will personally get Pettersson going again.
Re Elias Pettersson/Canucks: "They would look at [moving him]; and they haven't taken the opposite...of just trying to...give him away; they still have a plan...if he stays...the Sedins and company plan to...try and get him back on track."
- David Pagnotta
- David Pagnotta
That framing is doing a lot of work, because the Sedins spent last season as the club's most hands-on on-ice development staff, running one-on-one sessions before and after practice.
The develop-him plan lost its developers
When Ryan Johnson took over as general manager and hired Manny Malhotra on June 2, the twins traded their tracksuits for the executive suite.
Skills coach Jason Krog moved onto Malhotra's bench, and as of mid-July the Canucks still had not replaced the skills-coach and development roles the reshuffle emptied.
So the people credited with fixing Pettersson are now the ones furthest from the ice.
Whatever daily rehabilitation happens runs through Malhotra's NHL staff and Pettersson himself, not the twins in their new offices.
Why this matters to every suitor
Detroit, Montreal, Toronto and Philadelphia have all been tied to Pettersson, and each is really buying a bet that his 51-point, minus-30 season was a floor, not a new baseline.
Vancouver's leverage depends on proving it can lift him before a trade, because a rebound shrinks the retention they need to eat.
If the club cannot even fill the coaching chairs that do that work, the honest read is that "get him back on track" is a hope, not a system.
That gap, not the retention chatter, is the real story in Pagnotta's update.
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