Pettersson would have definitely been worth that contract before this year, but health has proven to be a concern for him. I think that brings down the likelihood of a long term deal and also the value of a long term deal if they do that. It's not like he got a couple of bruises, he missed the majority of this year.

i can see both Hughes and Pettersson signing short term deals, saves VAN money during Pandemic strains, saves the boys money by back loading contracts to avoid high escrow and both expire RFA's with high QO's ideally their AAV's would be around 5-6 mil and their QO's would be 7-9 mil. also if Benning has half a brain he will have them expire in different years too.

Hughes comparable - Mcavoy/Werenski (like above) however i suspect eyes will be on Makar too to see what kind of deal he gets and vice versa
Pettersson comparable - Boeser, Tkachuk, Meier, Barzal

A 2nd to take one year at 3m for a cap dump is the running cost, saw that accepted this past season. Ottawa accepts.

I think because of the health concerns and pandemic money issue is the exact reason why Pettersson would be smart to only accept a long term deal. & despite what the team wants, he has all the leverage. If they don't offer him that then I'm sure another team would and Vancouver is either stuck with matching it or walking away.

As for Hughes, I don't think him and Makar are going to affect each other's deals at all. Hughes is a group 2(10.2) RFA. I think Makar might be as well, but I haven't checked. Regardless, Hughes has literally no leverage at all. He can't file for arbitration and he can't sign an offersheet. McAvoy was in the exact same situation when he signed his deal for a $4.9M AAV and I gave him slightly more than that. Makar could sign for $10M and Vancouver isn't going to care because Hughes can't do anything but sit out next season, which come next off-season he still doesn't have leverage. That brings the AAV down and really throws comparables out the door. It's more whatever the team feels like paying him