Patrick Allvin is being publicly critical of his star player Elias Pettersson. What’s he doing?
Allvin highlighted the team’s overall mentality and preparation to Postmedia about two weeks ago, but then in conversation with Sportsnet on New Year’s Eve, he went after Pettersson.
But to get there, Pettersson needs to mature, Allvin said.
“He needs to mature and understand that there are certain expectations and it does not get easier. And you need to face the music when things don’t go well,” Allvin said.
That’s as honest as it gets: You are good, but you’re not great. To become great, you need to listen to what people are saying.
“I think, again, it comes back to expectations and preparation, how you prepare yourself. I don’t believe that he was aware of just how hard it was going to be. Just because you achieve one thing to get a long-term extension,” he said.
“Life just gets harder. You haven’t really accomplished anything. You’re not even halfway there (to winning a Stanley Cup). And then obviously the mental part comes in there, too, and suddenly you feel the pressure.”
One thought is that Allvin is moving forward, being open and honest about how they’re feeling about their star player, only in the first year of an eight-year deal. And just maybe, the player who has tended to shut down, to shy away from criticism will recognize there’s only one way to make the criticism go away — that’s by taking it in, learning from it and emerging a better, more dominant player.
Every day is an effort to be better than the day before. That’s a simple idea, but it’s hard to execute.
Another thing that Allvin could be doing? Broadcasting to his own team. Making it clear to them that the organization is pushing all its players. Each player does need to be handled in their own way. A benching might work for one player but not another.
The idea is to get people thinking about an idea that at the moment seems ridiculous, something they may not have considered before, and if you talk about it enough, in reasonable terms, it will shift what people come to see as acceptable.
So, other GMs may look at Pettersson, say they’ve heard he’s having a hard time getting along with teammates and thus maybe isn’t worth the bother, and Allvin is here saying, “Listen, he just needs a bit of encouragement. He’ll be a helluva player when he gets right.”
And if you’re looking to trade him … this is one way of resetting the market.
Right now the market looks at his contract, sees his struggles this season, and probably says “nah.” What Allvin is conceivably trying to do is re-set the perception of the player, push it back toward what it was like even two seasons ago, when he scored 102 points and was a dominant defensive player to boot.
That player, the Canucks never wanted to trade. They obviously would prefer he return to be that player.
But when Allvin refuses to rule out the idea of a trade … well that tells you enough on it’s own.
If he’s willing to trade the player, he’s got to find a way to make the player an attractive property. In the end Pettersson was once so good they’d never have considered trading him. But we’re in a new reality.
Will they trade him? Almost certainly not. But that doesn’t mean they won’t.