The Canucks' new front office never moved Elias Pettersson, and three games into the season, that decision is looking like their best one.
He's up to five points in three games, with two power-play goals and a +2. Saturday's 4-1 win over Calgary added a shorthanded assist.
That helper came off the heavy hit on Zayne Parekh that set Drew O'Connor loose the other way. Skill and edge, on the same shift.
Jim Biringer saw it too. "Old EP40 this is why management said what they said when they came in. They knew it was there."
He added the line that matters most: "Early into the season but he looks different."
Different is the right word. The last couple of seasons were hard on Pettersson, and the noise around his future never really stopped.
Keeping Pettersson is the best call the Canucks front office has made
Trading him would have been the easy headline, and plenty of people expected it. Instead, management kept him and focused on getting him right.
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He carries an $11,600,000 cap hit, the kind of number that makes a slow start feel like a crisis. This start feels like the opposite.
Keeping Pettersson is the best decision this front office has made. A rebuild needs a star to build around, and Vancouver already had one hiding in plain sight.
It's like holding onto the stock everyone told you to dump. Now it's climbing again, and nobody remembers the advice.
Leevi Merilainen made 23 saves on 24 shots in the win, and Vancouver sits at 2-1-0. Vegas visits Sunday on the back end of a back-to-back.
Manny Malhotra blended his lines after the 9-7 loss to Edmonton. Whatever he's doing with his top center, he should keep doing it.
It's early, and Biringer said so himself. But if this is the real Pettersson again, the Canucks' rebuild just got a lot shorter.
Was keeping Elias Pettersson the Canucks front office's best decision?
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