Report: Canucks Have Definitive Plans for Pending UFAs Marcus Pettersson & Drew O’Connor

The Vancouver Canucks' "other trade" this past Friday, the one that netted them top-four defenseman Marcus Pettersson, and forward Drew O'Connor from the Pittsburgh Penguins, still has some ramifications for the team. Both are pending unrestricted free agents and both are in need of a new contract.

Per insider Elliotte Friedman on Hockey Night in Canada, both players are likely to be in Vancouver well past the end of this season.

Don't forget, (Canucks president Jim) Rutherford and (GM Patrik) Allvin had a big impact in them getting to Pittsburgh in the first place, and they will be eager to sign both of them.

Rutherford was the GM for the Penguins, and Allvin the assistant GM, when they brought Pettersson over to the Pens in a trade from the Anaheim Ducks in December of 2018. The d-man was still on his entry-level contract at the time, only in his second NHL season. They obviously liked what they saw in him then as a 22-year-old, and signed him to his current five-year, $4.025 million AAV contract just over a year after acquiring him.

Now that he's established himself firmly as a 22-minute-per-game top-four blueliner, they're surely interested in signing him once again to another extension.

As for O'Connor, he was also brought into Pittsburgh as an undrafted free agent by Rutherford and Allvin. Word is, there's a very real possibility he could step right into a spot in the Canucks' top-six, alongside another newcomer Filip Chytil, and Conor Garland. O'Connor broke through last season in his first full year in the NHL, with 16 goals and 17 assists for 35 points in 79 games. That's decent secondary-scoring production.

His numbers are off a bit this year, with just six goals and 16 points in 53 games, but the Vancouver front office likes him, and will likely want to retain him.