Marcus Pettersson will be part of Canucks’ future after signing massive extension

The Canucks wasted little time getting pen to paper on a deal with one of their new acquisitions.  The team announced that they’ve signed defenseman Marcus Pettersson to a six-year extension that will carry a cap charge of $5.5M.  GM Patrik Allvin released the following statement:

“In just a couple of games, Marcus has already shown us the type of leadership, poise and character that we want in a top four defenceman,” said Allvin. “He has a calming influence on the ice, uses his long reach and hockey smarts to break up plays and has a good first pass to help us create more offensively. We are extremely happy to get this deal done and look forward to working with him in both the short term and long term.”

Of course, Allvin’s familiarity with the 28-year-old is much more than just a couple of games.  He was with Pittsburgh at the time that then-GM Jim Rutherford (who now is in Vancouver’s front office) acquired him so they are quite familiar with what Pettersson brings to the table.  That familiarity undoubtedly played a role in the Canucks flipping the first-round pick they acquired in the J.T. Miller trade last week (along with Danton Heinen, Vincent Desharnais, and Melvin Fernstrom) to Pittsburgh for Pettersson and Drew O’Connor.

Pettersson has played in 49 games this season between Pittsburgh and Vancouver, potting three goals and 15 assists along with 86 blocks and 60 hits while logging more than 22 minutes a night of ice time.  That has him at a 30-point pace which would match his career-high offensively from last season; that uptick in production certainly didn’t hurt his value as he was heading toward his first run at unrestricted free agency this summer which is now on hold for a long time.

For his career, Pettersson has played in 493 NHL games over parts of eight seasons between Anaheim, Pittsburgh, and now Vancouver.  After struggling early in his tenure with the Penguins, he has since established himself as a legitimate top-four blueliner for the last three years.  That track record was good enough for Vancouver to target him and waste little time locking him up through the 2030-31 season.

The deal represents a nice raise for Pettersson.  He’s in the final year of a five-year contract signed back in 2020, one that carries a cap hit of just over $4M.  He’ll add nearly $1.5M per season to that number now while also landing some extra security.  David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period reports (X link) that Pettersson will have a full no-move clause in the first three seasons of the contract.  In the final three years, his trade protection will come in the form of a 15-team no-trade clause.

With this signing, Vancouver now has a little under $76M in commitments for next season, per PuckPedia.  Included in that is nearly $27M in spending on their top five blueliners with Quinn Hughes, Filip Hronek, Tyler Myers, and Carson Soucy all signed through at least 2025-26 as well, with the latter now in trade speculation.  That should only intensify with Pettersson now guaranteed to be sticking around for the long haul.