The Vancouver Canucks and newly acquired defenseman Marcus Pettersson reached agreement on a six-year contract extension worth $33 million, the team announced Wednesday night.
The deal comes just days after Pettersson was shipped to Vancouver along with forward Drew O’Connor in a trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins over the weekend. Pettersson was set to become an unrestricted free agent after the season.
The Canucks have split their two games since Pettersson’s arrival. He played a season-high 25:57 in his Vancouver debut in a 3-2 overtime loss to Detroit on Sunday. He followed it up with 23:03 of ice time in Vancouver’s 3-0 win over Colorado on Tuesday.
“In just a couple of games, Marcus has already shown us the type of leadership, poise and character that we want in a top four defenseman,” general manager Patrik Allvin said in announcing the extension. “He has a calming influence on the ice, uses his long reach and hockey smarts to break up plays and has a good first pass to help us create more offensively. We are extremely happy to get this deal done and look forward to working with him in both the short term and long term.”
Pettersson, 28, had been widely expected to be moved out of Pittsburgh after seven years with the team due to his expiring contract and the Penguins’ retooling. A strong two-way defenseman, he has 18 points in 49 games this season and is a strong two-way defenseman.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.