why Matthews????

Because Canuck fans love to dream

Canucks fans will be taking huge L's for the next decade

Not trading Pettersson for a guy who will leave Vancouver in 2 years

As a Canucks fan, I would not want to make this move. EP40 has become a 200ft centre and has the kind of temperament I want as a 1C.
Liljegren is far more valuable than Pearson.. since he could be a top-4 some day.

It wasn't even made by a Canucks fan? Vancouver wouldn't even accept this. There is a roughly 0% chance Matthews would stay and we aren't going to be pushing for the cup between now and then

Matthews is a 200ft centre who is better defensively than EP40. This would be a slam dunk win for you guys. As much as I love Petterson, he's not as good as Matthews.

Pettersson isn’t as good as Matthews, but he is also an elite 200 ft centre. He also has more team control, while Matthews would be very unlikely to sign an extension with us. The only way the Canucks give up Pettersson for Matthews is if there’s an extension involved, otherwise it doesn’t make any sense

And Matthews is going to sign in TO anyways

I'd rather keep Pettersson. Liljegren is cool, though. Maybe a deal could be worked out there.

Genuinely curious how you are measuring that Mathews is better defensively than EP.
I disagree with that take, but it’s not an easy thing to debate, (same goes for me saying EP40 is better defensively) b/c a lot of it is subjective and nuanced.

Whatever the case, it’s an interesting proposal and your valuation is very fair. I just personally think EP40 has a more well rounded game and seems like he’s still improving.

On the other hand, Mathews could score 70 goals next year. Ha.

Matthews had more defensive touches by a forward than literally every other player in the league last season. He should be a selke finalist every year but that trophy is entirely a reputation award. Marner is a finalist this year and is not as good as Matthews defensively.

Agreed it’s often a reputation award. Yet, you can’t argue how defensively dominant guys like datsyuk, mark stone, Bergeron, Barkov are. It jumps off the page.
But you didn’t answer my Q. How do you rank defensive abilities of forwards? Exclusively defensive touches? Genuinely curious, not trying to argue w/ your opinion on matthews.