Rutherford sees the way Pettersson has progressed through his career, and he believes that the 25-year-old is just beginning to enter his prime. Getting the extension done at this point in the season will provide relief to all parties involved and give Pettersson some peace of mind and the ability to play without outside distractions.
“They're hard to find,” said Rutherford with a chuckle before getting serious. “To me, he's a generational player in our organization, and when you have a guy that's going to get you 100 points every year unless he has a bit of an off-year or gets hurt. You just can't replace that kind of player. He's coming into his prime now. And it was just a big relief for the organization and I'm sure a relief for him. Regardless of how much you say you don't want to think about it until the offseason, it still sits somewhere there in your mind.”
Now, Rutherford and his management staff are focused on the trade market and are making evaluations of players through the three pillars of pro scouting that the organization leans on.
Cammi Granato, Ryan Johnson and the analytics team are the three paramount pieces that have prepared the Canucks for the upcoming trade deadline week.
Granato is focused on pro scouting and getting their reports on potential trade targets around the league.
“I couldn't be more comfortable with the group we have,” said Rutherford. “Yeah, I really like the way they work. Because they communicate. If reports aren't being filled out properly, Cammi is on those people all the time. We like our group, but we make everybody accountable, very accountable. Because of that, we’re in a very strong position to be confident in the decisions we're going to make.”
Ryan Johnson is the leader in scouting the AHL as well as keeping pace on the prospects in the Canucks organization and around the league if a trade is to require prospects included.
Granato and Johnson lead the way on pro scouting but Rutherford sees the analytics teams as a vital source when a trade comes across the table to them in the coming days.
“The pro scouts have done their reports, and Cammi reviews our reports on a regular basis. We have all that information on players that have been identified. And then we have our analytics department, and they identify players, we marry those things together and we'll constantly have questions for the pro staff and the analytics department. Then, we see if those players that have been identified are actually available at a fair price.”
Rutherford isn’t just hanging out on the sidelines either. He, on average watches three games a night and is watching for a player who has a skill set that could work in the Canucks’ organization. He will watch games every night and then bring suggestions to the analytics team to see if his eye test scouting matches what the analytics team can do with their player evaluations.
The Canucks are sure to be busy on their phones as Friday’s deadline approaches and there is one specific player type that is on their radar.
“We can sit here and talk about many things because you can improve in all areas, but I believe one area that would be a priority for us is if we can add a top-six forward,” said Rutherford. “In an ideal world, we add two, but I think that might be in a fantasy if we’re thinking about that. So, it’s going to depend on what the price is.”
“We've already paid a sizable price to bring [Elias] Lindholm in, and that’s what we'll be juggling this week. As to, do you go real hard again, [and target] one of the big names or do you go with somebody that's had some success in the league and is maybe not quite having the same success at this point where the price may be a little bit lower.”
There’s one thing that Rutherford has been stressing ahead of the deadline and that has been preparation. He’s aware that his staff’s minds are probably going at twice the speed that they normally would, but he's seen over the years that the work they are putting in now will do nothing but benefit them on deadline day.
The preparation brings confidence to the management group and that’s where Rutherford feels confident in his general manager to make a tough decision. There’s been so much work done by the management group that they feel there is no situation that can fluster them on deadline day.
“I'm real confident in Patrik [Allvin] and the group,” said Rutherford. “We can make a decision very quickly. Because we talk all the time. We're communicating every day of the year, even in the offseason.”
The quote had to be cut in half because Patrik Allvin called in the middle of Rutherford sitting down to chat with us.
It was a timely call as Rutherford was speaking about the communication between him and Allvin. The President of Hockey Operations told Allvin that he’d call him right back, then hopped back in without skipping a beat.
“We're talking about players all the time, all the time. We've talked about every situation. I’m confident in that. The preparation is already done. And that's why we’re confident. With one phone call to Patrik and then to me, a decision can be made in five minutes. And if we're not quite sure of it, we go to the analytics.”
Conversations are flowing in the hockey operations department and the group is all in on giving this team the best chance to win now as well as in the coming years. The risk versus rewards of a trade deadline can be hectic but Rutherford enjoys the heck out of it. Though he’s not the one making all the calls, he’s overseeing from his role as president and helping keep the staff pulling on the rope in the same direction.
Rutherford likes watching everyone work and fight to try and get a player they think can help the team. He mentioned that his current management staff reminds him of what he had in Carolina. Some young staff members really impress the Hockey Hall of Famer with the work they are doing.
The trade deadline is noon Pacific time on Friday and the Canucks will continue to be active on the phones and in the offices as the big day approaches.
I should have mentioned it earlier, but it looked weird in the title, so I’m doing it now. This will be a two-part article series as my conversation with Rutherford was a long one that featured a lot of topics.
In tomorrow’s article, we will talk about what Rutherford is seeing with Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm, the pre-deadline slump, and memories of past trade deadlines.
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