Pokecheque wrote: Fri Feb 27, 2026 11:40 am
Geez Greg, ya didn't have to triple-post that.
I am fascinated by this trade deadline already because it's absolutely a staring contest right now. It's clearly a buyers market but the sellers are desperately trying to squeeze the buyers as much as they can. Someone is going for dirt cheap at the last possible minute. And there might be others who just plain walk because the team selling didn't want to lose face.
Zero idea how I accomplished that.
It seems like the new rules, playoff cap and salary retention are slowing the trade market even further. Player movement is at an all time low it seems. Not good for the league.
Even more speculation on Pettersson going, and of course it's in a season when there are an inexplicably large amount of centers available.
In the end EP40 never, ever should've let Rutherford bully him into signing. Call his bluff, get traded to Carolina (or not) and then say "I'm testing the market no matter what." Somewhat akin to what Mikko Rantanen did, though he did of course sign long-term in Dallas after getting dealt there.
Pettersson clearly didn’t want to go to Carolina and probably wanted to test the market anyway. In hindsight he should’ve just told them he was going to wait and let the chips fall where they may. But once they backed up the Brinks truck it gets much harder to hold that line. When that kind of money is on the table, agents and family are going to weigh in and push you to take the deal. That’s just how the business works. Unfortunately it feels like we now have a pretty broken player on our hands. Sad situation all around.
Dhaliwal was quoted as saying the current regime in Vancouver is way meaner than it ever was under Benning. Says you can't say anything negative about the team without a PR guy screaming at you about it later.
Apparently someone from the press got his credential revoked after publishing a story about Aquilini's bad labor practices at his vineyard.
