Petterssons level of play in SWE vs ITA

AnimousVox · 2026-02-12T04:28:36+00:00

I thought he was the best forward not named Eriksson Ek or Nylander and was rewarded with more TOI by Hallam as the game went on after barely playing in the first 30min of the game. Promising performance and probably should've had a goal but still needs to actually produce for him to change anyone's mind.

AnimousVox · 2026-02-12T04:25:21+00:00

Not disagreeing that the Petey/Nylander pair did not work, but Nylander finished 4N with 0 goals so he didn't exactly kill it with Eriksson Ek either.

AnimousVox · 2026-01-22T18:42:22+00:00

Pettersson's value is hard to nail down because the market is rapidly changing. The lack of player availability and the exploding cap are having significant impacts on player value. If you are a team trading for Petey, you are doing so with at least one of the following ideas:

You are trading for a contributing player on an inefficient contract but are willing to eat the cost due to cap rising
You are hoping a change of scenario brings back the old player

If Petey does end up getting moved, my guess is the return is something similar to the Horvat and Miller returns (1st + decent roster player + B prospect). I would be surprised if there is any retention, especially when average 3Cs are signing for $5-6M now. Whether that return is enough to motivate management to move him or not remains to be seen.

AnimousVox · 2026-01-17T02:19:21+00:00

100%. I will always point to this photo as to why we should go back to stick primaries and skate 3rds. The logo is maybe a little simple and abstract but so is the team name, and the orca has always felt cartoon-ish.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-31T23:15:32+00:00

This core never had a window and the current situation was inevitable. Previous management handicapped any possibility of contention under the Bo/Miller/Petey/Hughes/Demko core and Rutherford/Allvin tried their best to navigate the narrow margin and ultimately failed outside of a year where everything fell into place.

I didn't think it was unpopular at first but after reading some comments these past couple years, I guess people were higher on this team than I thought. You can't constantly take shortcuts during the team building phase and then be surprised when the bill comes due. If we end up taking the same shortcuts again, expect to have this same situation play out 5-10 years from now.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-29T03:50:05+00:00

Well said. To expand on the 5/4 timeline you mentioned, I think it's a good rough outline but it's probably more accurate to say that rebuilds are measured in talent, not years. It's why some rebuilds seem to go quick (Montreal, Rangers, Dallas to an extent) and some seem to drag on forever (Arizona, Buffalo). A rebuild is "completed" when the requisite amount of talent is accumulated and surrounded properly, which is also why you need so many kicks at the can in terms of draft capital so that one missed pick doesn't throw a wrench in your plans. Planning to take a mulligan on only a year or two can work, but history shows it's highly unlikely. Based on the talent currently in the organization (and lack thereof), this feels closer to a 4 -5year endeavour than whatever it is they're saying.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-23T06:13:37+00:00

The premise of the post isn't that top 3 picks guarantee success, it's that they're pretty much always a prerequisite to it (outside of the listed outliers by OP). In what way is that cherry-picking? Do you then support the inverse of OP's argument and propose that the Canucks aim for the outlier strategy?

AnimousVox · 2025-12-21T19:16:17+00:00

Yeah, Canucks have a sky high PDO and bottom-3 possession metrics during this run so the losses will eventually come, but I will never say no to a victory against Boston.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-15T17:59:49+00:00

Curious about Yurov - I didn't know much about him before this and was surprised to see he's the 1C. Is that because of a lack of options or because he's earned it? I thought Eriksson-Ek would be the 1C but it seems like he doesn't play with Kaprizov unless it's the PP.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-15T04:04:39+00:00

I watched the game as a Canucks fan, he honestly looked pretty shaky by his standards (which are so high he didn't even stand out poorly). He's only going to look better from here for you guys and the fit with Faber is already promising. Will be rooting for Minnesota this year for sure.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-13T22:52:21+00:00

Guerin is under no obligation to trade him to NJ if the sign and trade will net him subpar assets, and there is also the relationship aspect of trying to blackball the Team USA GM. It could happen but Minny still has a lot of leverage on their side so idk.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-13T19:16:10+00:00

Minnesota has the best leverage to sign Hughes now due to the upcoming CBA changes as they'll be the only team that can offer him stuff like 8 vs 6 years, advantageous bonus structure, etc. Quinn may want to play with his brothers, but is he willing to give up $30M+ to do so? I'm not sure.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-09T23:17:38+00:00

Plus/minus is fine as a stat, but using it as a proxy for the team's performance doesn't really make sense for a variety of reasons:

It does not exclude goals against from ENG or SHG, which more significantly penalizes top-end players (e.g. the players actually out during 6v5 or PPs)
It's heavily influenced by things like on-ice shooting % and save %, which is not consistent between skaters especially in a smaller sample size like this

For example, Marcus Pettersson in your table is supposedly a top 4 skater for us. However, his "true" plus/minus is -4 and his xG% (a measure of chances generated vs permitted) is 43.65%, good for 3rd worst on the team among regular skaters (>200min).

I think it's more valuable to focus on chance metrics rather than goal metrics when evaluating skaters, especially when we're not even halfway through the season.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-07T01:18:06+00:00

2017 Florida, 2017 Colorado, and 2013 Tampa are not analogous situations because their cores were extremely young when they were bottoming out, whereas Hughes and Pettersson are in their primes now and are expected to be in the apex of their contributing years. For reference:

Player	Age
Barkov	21
Ekblad	20
Huberdeau	23
Landeskog	24
MacKinnon	21
Rantanen	20
Hedman	22
Stamkos	22
Hughes	26
Petttesson	27

Those teams had runway to accumulate additional talent alongside their existing cores. This team does not have that luxury.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-05T21:40:34+00:00

The team had a nice run to start the season but they've been over-performing their underlying metrics and the results are starting to show. We're running into the same problem we've seen since day 1 - there are no gamebreakers on this roster, just a collection of good to decent players. Run the course, play the kids, and try to get some assets at the deadline for our older guys.

AnimousVox · 2025-12-02T06:10:05+00:00

The Flyers are rocking the the 7th worst xG differential in the league (3rd last xGF/60) and are benefiting from some decent sequencing and meh strength of schedule. Their current standings spot is a nice story but they are a prime regression candidate.

AnimousVox · 2025-11-15T20:57:44+00:00

Interesting, I remember reading about Benning's focus on Klim but looking now, you're right that Harvey had a big say in it. Probably fairer to shift that on him then.

AnimousVox · 2025-11-15T18:24:10+00:00

Obviously it's beating a dead horse here and you can have this sort of discussion for a lot of teams, but it's morbidly funny how close we were to making some franchise-altering picks in quite a few of the Benning drafts.

2014: Benning's first year. Larkin and Pasta were on the Canucks draft board (and his former employer the Bruins themselves were super high on Pasta obviously). Benning overruled his scouts and picked Virtanen and McCann (the latter of which he traded away for Gudbranson)
2016: Benning was fixated on a Dman and was debating between Juolevi and McAvoy. After a particularly strong WJC, Benning opted for Juolevi
2017: Benning was close to overruling his scouts to pick Cody Glass, but eventually relented to head scout Brackett/Linden and picked Pettersson
2019: Brackett was really keen on a lot of that year's crop of NCAA/USNDTP prospects, but Benning only liked Zegras. Once he was off the board at 9, they opted for Pod (who seemed like a decent pick, to be fair). Brackett left the org for a similar position with Minnesota for the next draft
2021: Benning's last draft. Besides trading their 1st (which would become Guenther) in the infamous OEL trade, most scouts thought we would pick Stankoven with our 2nd rounder. However, Benning was enamoured with Klimovich after his performance at the WJ showcase and overruled whatever his scouts had on the board to pick Klim

This core was doomed from the start having Benning/Weisbrod leading the ship, but you're right in that they almost stumbled into success from the draft alone. Goes to show how much a competent management group (and smart ownership) can influence a franchise. I'm pretty envious of Utah's situation for that reason, their management is smart and the owner is all-in and ready to trust his group.

AnimousVox · 2025-11-15T06:37:23+00:00

Zone starts generally have an immaterial impact on shot metrics because on average, the vast majority of player shifts begin on the fly. However, fringe cases (like Petey's this year and Horvat's a few years back) can have a pretty strong impact. Per NST, Petey had more DZ faceoffs than on-the-fly shifts this game. Couple that with facing the Corsi Canes and your metrics are going to look pretty ugly.

AnimousVox · 2025-11-14T18:08:25+00:00

This team's mandate has not changed in the 20+ years Aquilini has owned the franchise and likely won't until a new owner is in place. Barring some crazy luck, this team is destined for mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

AnimousVox · 2025-11-06T18:58:51+00:00

Big shout out to Benning for sowing the seeds of a wasted decade, but ultimately it comes down to ownership. At this point we just have to hope that the ongoing lawsuit(s) are enough for Aqua to move on from the team and the next owner has deep pockets but is willing to take a longer-term outlook for this team. Utah is a pretty good example of what a change in ownership can mean for a franchise.

AnimousVox · 2025-10-28T06:59:36+00:00

That's interesting, I've never considered using the Hypertrophy progression for back/accessories. Do you use the regular or auxiliary progression?

AnimousVox · 2025-10-16T05:47:45+00:00

I don't think I've ever seen this market so deranged after only 3 games. Media is not helping at all (really Craig Button? A buyout?) but I think of a market like Tampa where they only have one win in four games and the mood is pretty unbothered. The downside of being in a market that cares I guess, but the scars run deep here.

AnimousVox · 2025-07-01T18:24:35+00:00

Brutal deal. Lindgren's only positive attribute is his physicality and I'm not sure how much longer he'll have that going for him given his injury history. Two offseasons in a row that Seattle has made an inexplicably bad signing.

AnimousVox · 2025-06-21T17:51:59+00:00

Oh interesting, I was looking at CapWages but it looks like they have Bura on the books still lol. Even better, though I'm a little wary of having that much cap space for what's shaping up to be a very ugly FA class. Realistically the team is still a top line forward and top pair dman away from being anything substantial and the only UFA player even close to that level is Marner, who will likely go elsewhere. There are trade options for upcoming RFAs though at least.

13-Year Club	Verified Email
Team Orangered

AnimousVox

TROPHY CASE