NHL GMs: "No One Would Feel Good About Trading for Elias Pettersson"

The downfall of Elias Pettersson this season has been alarming, to say the least, for the Vancouver Canucks and their fans. Did they trade the wrong guy when they dealt JT Miller to break up the feuding centers?

On DFO Live, insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff relayed to us a quote this morning from NHL GMs that it might not be so easy for the Canucks to move on from Pettersson now even if they wanted to.

This is not my opinion, this is coming from general managers around the league, who say, quote, 'No one would feel good about trading for Elias Pettersson right now.' Even the biggest believer would have some kind of (wariness) or fear that the way that he's playing might be locked in.

Iain McIntyre of Sportsnet reported that after Sunday night's 2-1 loss to Utah, Pettersson was asked about whether his confidence level is a problem right now and he replied “It's more annoying dealing with the media.”

That has really set off Seravalli:

That quote from last night is highly alarming. (First,) it was the knee tendinitis.. Then it was JT Miller.. Now it's the media. It's always someone else's fault but Elias Pettersson... When you continue a run of poor play, when your coach comments publicly about you repeatedly throwing the puck away and not shooting, that's on you, it's not anyone else.
So this whole thought process of 'it's always someone else's fault' adds another layer to the conversation... I'm not certain that teams wanna take that on.

After 191 points in the previous two seasons, Pettersson has just 11 goals and 35 points in 51 games in the current campaign, and just 3 goals and 9 points in the last 24 games, essentially since the controversy came to light.

Seravalli sums it all up with a final scathing thought:

"If you're from Vancouver's standpoint, the only thing worse than getting little return for Elias Pettersson, is being stuck with Elias Patterson at $11.6 million a year for the next seven years."