If Quinn Hughes can mediate the divide between Miller and Pettersson to put the team first, it would be his greatest assist of the season
However, the gambling mecca serves as a perfect metaphor for everything that’s at play with expectations and an underperforming roster.
Management pushed all its chips in to bet that this roster, bolstered by off-season free-agent acquisitions, could mirror and even surpass what was accomplished in a remarkable run last NHL season.
Amassing 109 points for a Pacific Division title and coming within a Game 7 victory of advancing to the Western Conference final left a happy feeling that the best was yet to come.
However, the Canucks are stumbling and trying to regain their game amid injuries and constant noise that so much is amiss in the room and on the ice.
That’s where the poker face comes into play.
Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin recently suggested a lack of maturity on Pettersson’s part is playing into the tough stuff of living up to a mammoth eight-year, $92.80 million extension.
It carries an $11.6 million salary cap hit and is fifth highest this season behind Auston Matthews ($13.25 million), Nathan MacKinnon ($12.60 million), Connor McDavid ($12.50 million) and Artemi Panarin ($11.64 million).
Matthews has been beset by injury, but MacKinnon leads the league in scoring, McDavid ranks sixth and Panarin is 30th. Pettersson is 95th with just 28 points (10-18) in 34 games and is expected to return this week from an upper-body injury that has sidelined him for five games. He was 19th overall last season with 89 points (34-55).
Allvin has even played the we-could-trade-you card as leverage and motivation, even though he knows Pettersson has had a 100-point season and should eventually evolve into a No. 1 centre. But his no-movement clause doesn’t kick in until after this season.
And if this is really the window to win, the GM needs Pettersson and Miller to be all in and operating at peak performance. Any team hoping for success needs a strong one-two punch down the middle.
However, Miller’s prolonged production funk added to the angst that Allvin is feeling. He’s ranked 88th with eight goals and 29 points. He was ninth last season with 103 points (37-66).
Allvin could trade Pettersson or Miller, or both, but that would be a really hard sell to ownership. And Miller would have to waive his NMC.
First, you’d have to convince ownership that despite augmenting the roster that this is not the Canucks’ time and a re-tool or even rebuild is the best way to map out the future. Good luck with that. Or, you could sell them on replacement parts in a trade(s) to keep the win-now mantra in play.
If that’s the case then the overtime loss in Montreal was actually a win.
Not everything is easy in any workplace. You might disagree with a colleague and have testy exchanges, but there has to be a middle ground to get the job done. If Hughes can broker that, it would be his biggest assist of the season.
“I think noise is something that every team deals with in whatever market,” the Canucks head coach said Monday. “You’ve got to be part of the solution and you rely on the organization blocking out, your leadership group and the coach.
“When you do the right things on the ice and play well, the noise goes away.”
And what if it doesn’t? What if it still becomes that thing that just won’t go away when Pettersson returns from injury? That’s when Allvin might have to play his trump card and turn a trade threat into reality.