It’s been a whirlwind weekend for four new members of the Vancouver Canucks.
Marcus Pettersson, Filip Chytil, Drew O’Connor, and Victor Mancini found out on Friday that they were traded to the Canucks. About 36 hours later they were on the ice in Rogers Arena for their first morning skate with their new team.
Each of the players found out about the trade a little bit differently, though three of them had something in common: parents who were about to watch them play for their former teams.
Marcus Pettersson: "Hey, maybe turn the Uber around"
“My parents actually landed about ten minutes after I got the call,” said Marcus Pettersson. “So, I called them right away, saying, ‘Hey, maybe turn the Uber around.’”
Pettersson’s parents flew in from Sweden as the Penguins were about to have a dads trip before the break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. When he got the call from Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas late in the night after the Canucks’ game against the Dallas Stars and let him know he was being moved, he had to quickly change plans with his parents, though there was a benefit.
“It’s great, they can help out with the family back home,” said Pettersson, who got married this past summer and has a young son. “We’ve got the break coming up so I can see them.”
Drew O'Connor: "My dad was fired up, he lives for dads trips"
Pettersson’s teammate, Drew O’Connor, also had to break the news to his dad that he wouldn’t get to go on the Penguins’ dads trip.
“My dad was fired up, he lives for dads trips, he was super excited for it,” said O’Connor. “He was getting ready to come out to Pittsburgh for that but I’ll make it up to him. I’ll get the family out here at some point and I think that’ll make up for it.”
The trade caught O’Connor off-guard, not necessarily that it happened but when it happened.
“I didn’t expect it to happen now,” he said. “I knew it was a possibility but I was thinking probably closer to the deadline, maybe, if it were to happen. So, I saw the call from Kyle two nights ago around 11 o’clock and that was when I found out. He just told me, you’re going to Vancouver with Petey, so once I found out he was coming as well, I was pretty excited because Petey’s a great friend.”
That’s right: Marcus Pettersson’s nickname is also “Petey.”
“It is, unfortunately. Sorry, guys,” said Pettersson with a laugh. “We’ve gotta come up with a new one. They have D-Petey now too, you can’t even call me D-Petey.”
Pettersson does have another nickname, however.
“I actually don’t know if he likes it, but they call him ‘Dragon,’” said O’Connor. “I don’t know where it came from but you can go with that.”
Victor Mancini: "My dad traveled to Laval to watch me play"
While he was with the New York Rangers organization and not the Penguins, Victor Mancini was also getting ready to play a game in front of his dad.
“I was in Laval getting ready to play a game and, after warm-ups, knew that I was not going to play, so obviously some thoughts start running through your mind,” said Mancini. “It’s kind of funny: my dad traveled to Laval to watch me play this weekend. I get off the ice and you hear the rumours and next thing you know, I’m texting him, ‘Hey, where are you in the building? Let’s meet up and talk about this.’
“That was really nice. I didn’t have to call him, we could just talk face-to-face. I was really happy that it worked out like that and I could have his support.”
Mancini said he was "a little surprised" to get traded, which is understandable. He made the Rangers out of training camp even if he later got sent down to the AHL and he was playing big minutes for the Hartford Wolf Pack in hopes of earning another call-up. Having his dad on hand helped him process the situation.
"Kind of weird emotions, right?" said Mancini about talking with his dad. "You're like, 'I'm sorry you couldn't watch me play,' but I'm just excited for this and being back up at the NHL level."
Filip Chytil: "I was just watching Czech TV and it was Harry Potter"
It was a bit of a different experience for Filip Chytil, who first heard the news from his wife.
“We were in Boston that day and I was watching a movie,” said Chytil. “I was calling with my wife and one of the other wives from one of my teammates texted to my wife that it’s happening. I had no idea. I was just sitting there and in the moment, I was very happy. Sometimes it’s a shock — of course, it’s a first for me that I’m moving to a different team — but honestly, I was very excited about it.”
What was the movie, you ask?
“I was just watching Czech TV and it was Harry Potter in that moment, you know?” said Chytil. “So, I was watching Harry Potter and getting ready for the game the next day in Boston. I just had to turn off my TV and then I was focusing on other things.”
In fact, Chytil switched over to watching his new teammates on the ice.
“I looked at the game, how we played in Dallas,” he said, “and then Filip [Hronek] texted me right after, so I already felt like part of the team.”
Hronek and Chytil have played together at two World Championships with Czechia, so the two Filips are already familiar with each other, with Hronek good-naturedly chirping Chytil in Czech as he walked past his media scrum, making Chytil smile.
"Sid says they're great locker room guys"
Getting traded can be stressful but all four new Canucks seemed in good spirits on Sunday, happy to get started in Vancouver.
“They're excited, which is nice,” said Tocchet. “As a staff, you don't overload them, you know, you want them to have some fun tonight, and just don't overload them with system stuff. I've been in this business a long time: that's the best thing, especially making trades, is don't overload the guys. Let those guys go have some fun and play and then, obviously, hopefully, you can give them more structure as the season goes on.”
Tocchet said that Sidney Crosby texted him on Saturday with high praise for Pettersson and O’Connor.
“When Sid says they're great locker room guys and really good people and players, it means a lot,” said Tocchet. “That's why we got those two guys. There's obviously potential; I think Chytil is the guy that's got a lot of potential for us. Mancini is a big defenseman that can skate, you know, I think that's the sort of stuff you're looking for.”
Tocchet, of course, has plenty of personal experience with getting traded from his playing career.
“There’s different ways to get traded,” said Tocchet. “Sometimes, players want to get traded, some guys don’t want to get traded, some guys are just traded because they’re getting traded. I got traded from Philly, which was going to go through a rebuild, to Pittsburgh and we won the Cup, so I was so excited.
“You get some guys who don’t want to get traded because they like the situation; that’s hard on them and hard on the family.”
Tocchet stressed the importance of having the players already on the team welcoming in the new players.
“When I went to Pittsburgh, I was a rival,” said Tocchet. “I fought those guys and they didn’t like me. But when I became a Penguin, I went to Kevin Stevens and Mario Lemieux’s house for dinner, they treated me like one of their own. That helps the trade.
“We have a bunch of good guys here that will take care of those guys. Already this morning, Hronek is going to his countryman and talking about, ‘Hey, I’ve got you,’ and he’ll probably have him over for dinner. It’s a family.”
"I'm still trying to track down my suits"
For some players, getting traded can be a relief, as it ends the speculation and uncertainty when your name is in the rumour mill.
“I’ve never felt the pressure of being traded,” said Chytil. “When you hear the rumours and you know something’s going on, it was a little — not hard to play when I was out there, I was enjoying my game but off the ice, it was a little different: waiting if somebody calls me in that moment. When it happened, it was very nice.”
Not everything has gone smoothly, however.
“I’m still trying to track down my suits,” said O’Connor with a laugh. “I think they’re stuck in Denver right now, so I don’t know what I’m going to be wearing tonight, we’ll see! But my hockey bag made it — bag and sticks, that’s the most important thing.”
At 6’4” and 209 lbs, he might have a tough time borrowing a suit and he joked that trying to fit into the skinnier Pettersson’s suits wouldn’t work: “I don’t think I could squeeze into those pants.”
“If he plays well, he can wear a sweatsuit,” said Tocchet. “I don’t care what he wears.”
